'Bashkiria is not only honey and quray, but also serious symphonic music'
National Symphony Orchestra of Bashkiria has performed in Kazan for the first time
On April 16, the Bashkiria National Symphony Orchestra performed for the first time in Tatarstan at the Saydashev State Great Concert Hall in Kazan. The musicians from the neighbouring republic have brought classical “rarities”. Realnoe Vremya attended not only the concert of the orchestra, but also looked into the dressing rooms and the dress rehearsal.
Classic “rarities” prepared for Kazan
The orchestra came to Tatarstan from Udmurtia — there began its small tour, which is held with the support of the head of Bashkiria. Before the visit to the republic, the musicians had done a great job — they monitored all the classical works that have been performed in Kazan in recent years. The result was the unique programme — masterpieces of classical music, which Kazan residents rarely hear live. But the musicians themselves have come there for several times. As the chief conductor of the orchestra, Honoured Artist of Bashkortostan Dmitry Kryukov, admitted, he performed three times on the stage of the Great Concert Hall with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan:
“I've always been in awe of your city. As for culture — here is the standard of how it should be treated. I admit that this tour is more of a sensation even for us. In many ways, we reach for your level and are not shy to do so. The programme we are presenting is real classical music, which requires serious preparation. With it, we are entering a real big music arena as a symphony orchestra.”
Departing from gala concert format
Indeed, there are only four works. But how tastefully they are selected! In the first part — the classic smash hit, choreographic poem 'La valse' by Maurice Ravel. Then — the musical classic and premiere for Kazan — Second Concerto for Clarinet and Symphony Orchestra by Oscar Navarro, the contemporary Spanish composer, director and screenwriter. The musical language of this work is distinguished by its national identity, the brightness of harmonic and timbre colours. The rhythmic group set the tone and beat of the concert pattern — castanets and handclaps, as if on the hot streets of Seville, colourful and bright...
According to the guests, this piece was chosen to represent the soloist of the orchestra — it was the director of the collective, Honoured Artist of Bashkortostan, clarinetist Artur Naziullin. By the way, he studied for several years at the special music school at the Kazan Conservatory. After graduating from a university in Moscow, he completed an internship in Germany. He performed with the Moscow Virtuosi and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra 'Evgeny Svetlanov', and in November 2018, he headed the National Symphony Orchestra of Bashkortostan.
“Tatarstan and Kazan are places close to my heart. The principle of selecting a repertoire today is to avoid the format of a gala concert as much as possible. We did not play hits and frequently performed classics, and we also decided not to please politics, that is, the performance of ethnic works — whether Tatar or Bashkir compositions. But I promise you that we will definitely come with them next time. One part of the concert will consist of works by Bashkir composers, and the other — Tatar composers. Music is out of politics, it is designed to unite, and in this regard, the openness of Tatarstan to new friendly and creative ties is especially pleasing," said Artur Naziullin.
Quray is good, but a whole orchestra is better
The director of the orchestra considers his main goal to bring the collective to the international level, “so that Bashkortostan is associated not only with honey and quray, but also with serious symphonic music”. To do this, individual work is carried out with each musician — here you can not hide behind someone else's bow:
“It is possible, of course, as is often practiced in different bands, to replace half of the orchestra with guest stars before foreign tours, but we prefer to grow our own. We invite everyone, listen to them, and recommend how and how much to do in order to improve weaknesses. Not everyone can withstand such a rhythm of work, the most hardworking and talented remain. Besides, we select talented musicians in different regions and invite them to join us — this is also a generally accepted world practice. In this tour, we, for example, are “running in” two musicians from Tatarstan — this is flutist Ksenia Moroz and bassoonist Ilnaz Farrukhshin. It is quite possible that we will take them to Ufa," Artur Naziullin shared his plans with Realnoe Vremya a few minutes before the performance.
In Tatarstan, the orchestra performs on April 17 in the organ hall of Naberezhnye Chelny and on April 18 in Nizhnekamsk. The orchestra plans to perform at the Berlin Philharmonic in September. The concert was supposed to take place last year, and a programme of works by Tchaikovsky and Dvorak had been prepared. This time it will have to be changed — the anniversary year of the famous Russian composer has passed. Perhaps, some of the songs performed in Tatarstan will be heard in the German capital in the autumn.
