The Contemporary Piano Faces Festival 2012 has come to a resounding close, with two Beethoven concertos (Nos 1 and 4) performed by Valery Afanassiev, a Russian pianist and polymath (he’s written several novels) who famously defected to the West in the early 1970s. My complete interview with this fascinating Renaissance man will be online in the next few days.
But let’s rewind to Friday night in St Petersburg, and a program that must have seemed a complete oddity to the Mariinsky concertgoers… Nonetheless, they braved a blizzard and gridlocked traffic to hear Mira Yevtich and tenor Andrew Goodwin perform The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a setting of the Oscar Wilde poem by Australian composer Grant Foster. After a very satisfying first half of Frank and Beethoven courtesy of Yevtich, the art of accompaniment came on display (an astute idea for a piano festival), and one of Australia’s finest voices stood centre stage. Yevtich and Goodwin have pioneered Foster’s Ballad, and the pair interacted with an ease of understanding that speaks to their long history together. Yevtich was Goodwin’s piano teacher when he was a teenager in Sydney, and it was she who had the inspired notion that he might do well to study singing in Russia.
I must admit to feeling a flush of pride when the Ballad garnered several curtain calls, eliciting the slow-clap that is the mark of sated Russian music-lovers. Limelight was the first Australian publication to give significant column inches to Foster’s music, and it was moving to see his work received so enthusiastically in another country – especially when performed so superbly by an Aussie tenor.
After the concert I caught up with Mira Yevtich for a chat about the music of Grant Foster and the festival as a whole.
How would you situate Foster’s music in contemporary music today?
In the 19th century in Russia there was a whole bouquet of Romantic composers, but nothing at all comparable in Australia. So Foster is not repeating the past, as people often think, he is actually bringing a style of music that Australia has not really known before.
Is there anyone you would compare him to?
Well, Grant is a composer who produces a lot of beautiful melodies. And anything that has a beautiful melody you can say is reminiscent of Schumann, Schubert, Rachmaninov or anyone else. But I would not say his work reminds me of these composers. Foster has his own voice, and his music is very inspired, particularly in the case of the Ballad of Reading Gaol, which is such a tragic story.
Do you do much accompanist work with singers?
No, not really. You have to be a very special singer to inspire me, and Andrew Goodwin is that kind of singer.
Tell me about the Contemporary Piano Faces Festival. Is there an idea behind it other than simply showcasing outstanding artists?
Yes, definitely. I think pianists fall into two categories: virtuosos who exploit the mechanical capabilities of the instrument – and many young performers of today are in this category; and pianists who are attempting to connect their audience with the ideas of the composer, with the transcendent, and for whom technique is merely a means to an end. The festival is devoted to the second category of pianist, those who have surpassed mere technical concerns and can show the music as it is, or a compelling interpretation of it, something alive and full of personality.
How did you come to be involved in musical life in Russia?
Well, I was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and a very famous Russian professor, Evgeny Timakhin, came to visit. He chose two young pianists he wanted to work with. I was one and the other was Ivo Pogorelich. So I ended up studying with him at the Central School of Music in Moscow and then at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory with Stanislav Neuhaus.
Who would you name as your influences?
A huge influence has been Boris Berlin, with whom I studied at the Gnessin institute in Moscow. Then there are people such as Glenn Gould, Claudio Arrau and Emil Gilels, who were significant artistic influences, although I didn’t study with them. And, to be honest, I am still studying: the process never ends. At the moment I am learning a great deal about piano playing from a fantastic professor, Marina Wolf, from the St Petersburg Conservatory. The life of an artist is constant development and I try to learn something new about the piano every day.
