DMITRY YABLONSKY

KEY RELEASES
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January 2011
DMITRY
YABLONSKY
CONDUCTS
LYAPUNOV
LYAPUNOV: Violin Concerto • Symphony No. 1
Maxim Fedotov, Violin, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra,
Dmitry Yablonsky
Sergey Mikhaylovich Lyapunov belonged to the second generation of Russian
nationalist composers who were professionally trained and strongly influenced by
Balakirev and his associates. His Violin Concerto has ‘a gorgeous solo part, big tunes,
high energy, emotional Russian-romantic sweep, and a simply terrific cadenza …
Maxim Fedotov sounds like he is having the time of his life’ (MusicWeb International).
The first of Lyapunov’s two symphonies is a grand essay in the late Russian Romantic
mould, a youthful yet masterful work of great charm and power.
Booklet notes in English
Catalogue No: 8.570462
Total Playing Time: 64:26
Listen on www.naxos.com
“Sergei Lyapunov’s Violin Concerto is a real gem…. Fans of the Russian romantics,
and lovers of great violin music, should not hesitate.” – MusicWeb International
LYAPUNOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
Shorena Tsintsabadze, Piano, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra,
Dmitry Yablonsky
Russian Nationalist Sergey Mikhaylovich Lyapunov was strongly influenced by
Mily Balakirev, leader of the ‘Mighty Handful’ of composers, to whom he dedicated
his Glinka Prize-winning Piano Concerto No. 1. Lyapunov’s Piano Concerto No. 2
deserves a place among the great Romantic piano concertos, while the Rhapsody
on Ukrainian Themes bears the imprint of Liszt’s virtuosic pianistic style. The
young Georgian pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze, a graduate of Moscow’s Tchaikovsky
Conservatory, joins the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry
Yablonsky, whose Naxos discography includes many acclaimed albums of Russian
and Romantic repertoire.
Booklet notes in English
Catalogue No: 8.570783
Total Playing Time: 58:32
Listen on www.naxos.com
© Copyright 2010 Naxos Rights International
Key Releases | 1
KEY RELEASES
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January 2011
DMITRY
YABLONSKY
talks to Jeremy Siepmann
D
mitry Yablonsky was born in Moscow into a musical family. His
mother is the distinguished pianist Oxana Yablonsklaya, and his
father Albert Zaionz has for 30 years been principal oboist in the Moscow
Radio and Television Orchestra. Dmitry began playing the cello when he
was five and at nine made his début with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C
major. He grew up listening to Richter, Oistrakh, Kogan, Rostropovich
and others of similar ilk, and enrolled in Rostropovich’s class at the
Moscow Conservatory. ‘Rostropovich, of course, was a genius, a great
virtuoso, but, you know, there was a certain theatrical element in his
character which I never felt altogether comfortable about. I prefer the
more noble approach, if I can put it that way, of Knushevitzky, Feuermann
or Piatigorsky. Knushevitzky was actually a far more important and lasting
influence in my life than Rostropovich. Knushevitzky would go on stage
and start playing the G minor cello Sonata of Beethoven and people would
start crying. It was that kind of playing. He never made faces or jumped
around on the seat. And then when I got to the States I met Zara Nelsova,
with whom I studied at Juilliard. All of these people I worshipped.’
Getting to the States, however, was easier said than done. In 1977 the
Cold War was still very much on, and Brezhnev still firmly in power.
‘We first applied for a visa when I was 12. We were what was then called
Refuseniks, and it was a terrible, terrible time. Today it’s buried so deep
in me that I try never to remember it. This was a fascist regime that kept
us waiting for two years. My mother was deprived of all her concerts,
we didn’t have enough money to eat, she had to sell her piano, and we
lived in a building along with a bunch of famous writers who were in
a similar position. And all the time there was a KGB car parked right
outside. When we finally arrived in the West, of course it was a huge relief,
even though all we had was one suitcase between us and $50. My mother
had to start again from scratch, she hadn’t touched a note for two or three
years, and I remember auditioning for Juilliard right away. Happily, I got
accepted, and immediately things looked up.
And what were his feelings on finally seeing the West? ‘For a long time
I was passionately anti-Soviet - not anti-Russian, not at all; anti-Soviet
- but the advent of perestroika helped me to understand and overcome
my bitterness. And you know, it actually helped that I was from Moscow,
which in many ways is quite like New York. It’s a huge city, there’s a lot
of competition, if you will - you know, with lots of different musicians,
lots of different people, struggling to survive, to win a piece of bread –
and in some ways New York felt very similar. And in any nation, any
© Copyright 2010 Naxos Rights International Limited
city, there’s the musical community, whether English, Russian, Jewish,
Spanish, whatever. We’re all in the same boat. In many important ways, I
think, musicians don’t have nationalities.’
In 1979, now aged 16, Yablonsky attended the world-famous Marlboro
Summer School and Festival of Music in Vermont. He was the youngest
player there. ‘I was. An obnoxious kid, who thought the rest of the world
came to somewhere below my knee! But I had lots of fun. It was there
that I met Madeline Foley, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Marcel Moyse … all
those great people. It was really an incredible experience – one that gave
me energy for life, even though I was only there for that one summer.’
Following his stint at Marlboro, Yablonsky entered the Curtis Institute
of Music in Philadelphia, but it was a later encounter that was to prove
life-changing. He applied to enter Yale University to study with the great
Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot: ‘I was feeling rather at a loose end after
leaving Curtis at 17. I auditioned for Parisot, and he obviously felt great
sympathy for me. He actually invited me to live in his house, which I
didn’t do. But it was really rather like a father-son relationship, on top
of which he was, and still, is a great teacher. And being at Yale, in New
Haven, Connecticut, was so different from being in New York with all
its seething ambitions, its sense of competition etc. At Yale we were all
students together, there were no great rivalries between us. The emphasis
was never on ambition, only aspiration – nothing at all like Juilliard. I
loved it there. And it was so stimulating being surrounded by all these
different subjects and pursuits - you know, law school, med school,
anthropology, drama, etc. Marvellous!’
And what of Parisot’s teaching in particular? ‘One thing was his
understanding of the fragility of performing musicians, even at a high
level of success, experience and reputation. He didn’t just give me cellistic
help, he helped me to discover real confidence, and to believe in myself,
which is something very different from worldly ambition. And he did this
with all his pupils, no matter what their level or talent. He made us all
stronger. And every pupil had his complete attention.’
Improbably, some might think, Yablonsky made his conducting debut –
in Italy, at the relatively late age of 26 - with what’s technically a chamber
work: the Stravinsky Octet. Since when does an octet need a conductor?
‘Ah, but this no ordinary octet! It’s as difficult to conduct as The Rite of
Spring. In practically every bar you have a different time signature. It
Dmitry Yablonsky Talks to Jeremy Siepman | 2
KEY RELEASES
was really very difficult for me, because apart from anything else I had
absolutely no background in conducting! Of course I’d watched many
conductors, and at Yale I’d taken some conducting classes, but this was an
opportunity that came about quite by chance - at a festival with Martha
Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Dora Schwarzburg and others, all of whom
encouraged me to have a go. To my surprise it went so well that they were
all clamouring for me to give up the cello and take up conducting! And
that’s how it all began.’
A springboard to international celebrity, however, it was not. As
Yablonsky is the first to admit, he had a lot to learn. ‘At the very start of
my conducting career, I was … not really obnoxious, but a little bit too
ambitious, thinking I could do things in one or two attempts and then be
a conductor. Well, I soon discovered otherwise. Conducting an orchestra
– especially if you don’t have a chance to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic
right away – is extremely demanding. You have to control everything, and
to be tremendously self-critical. I still don’t think of myself as a conductor
conductor – not like some, who seem to think they have exclusive rights
to the Brahms symphonies! I think that’s just silly.’
Yablonsky’s progress was essentially slow but steady. He reckons it took
him about 15 years to really feel at ease in his conductor’s shoes, as it were.
And he attributes much of his development directly to Klaus Heymann
and Naxos. How did that relationship come about? ‘Klaus has had a huge
influence on my career. Back in the early 90s, he was extraordinarily bold
in entrusting someone in my position with so many recordings. I was
basically a cellist, without all that much experience as a conductor, yet the
first contract I signed with him was for sixty CDs! Twenty a year for three
years! After the first three, I have to say, many conductors thought, basically,
that I should be thrown away! Then I moved back - well Klaus effectively
moved me back - to Moscow, where I made the remainder of those CDs.
And it was that experience that led to my feeling so comfortable today
with orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom I’ve
just been working. We’ve all become very close, and I’ve been invited to
conduct three concerts in London with them in 2011. One reason we got
on so well, I think, is that I’m not one of those dictatorial conductors who
demand absolute obedience. I think it’s important for conductors to learn
not to get in the way of orchestras. In some ways you have to let them
find their own way. You have to remember that in any orchestra there are
going to be some fantastic musicians, and that all the musicians deserve
your respect. Of course there are the odd exceptions. If somebody keeps
repeating the same mistake etc, well then you do have to be a little bit
mean. But that’s the way it is. You always have to find a balance. You know
that orchestral joke about the two rules about conductors? Rule No. 1:
the conductor is always right. Rule No. 2: if you’re sure the conductor is
wrong, go back to Rule No. 1!’
Much of Yablonsky’s discography is focussed on Russian and Eastern
European repertoire. What is it, I asked him, that makes Russian
composers so identifiably Russian? In style, orchestration, approach to
form, etc. ‘You know, it’s a very good question, because Russian music
from the 19th century and Russian music from the 20th century are
really two different things. In the 19th century Russians travelled a lot,
mostly in Europe. Tchaikovsky, after all, composed his Violin Concerto
in Geneva. Russian writers, too, spent a lot of time living abroad, not only
through the 19th century but in the beginning of the 20th too. When
I’m conducting, say, Arensky or Lyapunov, I feel so many influences from
the music of Chopin, Schumann, Brahms and so on that I don’t even
recognise it as Russian, or at least not predominantly so. The fact is, I
just make the music that’s in front of me. I really don’t even know what
is Russian orchestration, Russian approach to form etc. I never think in
these terms.’
© Copyright 2010 Naxos Rights International Limited
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January 2011
Lyapunov is commonly thought of as a miniaturist. Yablonsky, however,
prefers to refine that definition. ‘I think of Lyapunov more as a melodist.
When it comes to form, to structure, there may be weak parts here and
there, and it’s up to the interpreter to make sure that in performance there
are no holes. But I’m not given to blaming composers - whether this is
strong, whether this is weak, whether the sonata form is incomplete etc. I
really don’t like that. Our job is to make the most of what’s there, not to
complain about what isn’t. And frankly, I think that if something sounds
weak in performance, which is where music lives, then it’s my fault.’
Lyapunov was perhaps most famous as a piano virtuoso, in the Lisztian
mould. How does he rate as an orchestrator? ‘I find no problems with
Lyapunov’s orchestration. In fact I’d say that he was a particularly gifted
orchestrator. But you know, I think this is a particular strength amongst
Russian composers. Composers great and small have shown a particular
flair for orchestral colour. In Moscow alone, I’d guess, right now, there are
probably 30 or 40 musicians who are almost genius orchestrators. One of
the most brilliant orchestrators among modern composers, of course, was
Shostakovich, and he learnt much of his skill in that field from Lyapunov.
Not directly, but from his example.’
Two years shy of 50, Yablonsky has a whopping 80 CDs under his
figurative belt. I concluded that he must be either an enthusiast of the
recording studio or a masochist. And I wondered what he’d learned, as a
musician, from the experience of recording. ‘It’s been an enormous help to
me. In fact I really became a conductor in the studio. There you are, faced
with something about 500 pages long, which nobody has heard before,
certainly no one living, and this is very challenging. Your brain is working
away at 500 miles an hour, trying to feel and understand this music within
the limited time that you’re given to record. As a musician you grow a
lot in the process. You become far more aware of details, because with
recording you can see music right away through a magnifying glass, and
you have to attend to all kinds of little details which in a concert might
well slip through the net.’
One of the chancier aspects of a conductor’s life is working with soloists,
as Yablonsky does twice over in his forthcoming Lyapunov disc. For him,
I was unsurprised to learn, it’s a basically positive experience. ‘In terms
of piano concertos, I was lucky enough to have my mother as a pianist,
even though we didn’t do very many CDs. But we did a lot of concerts
together. And with Boris Berezovsky I’ve done maybe 20 or 30 different
concertos. Actually, one of the main reasons I wanted to conduct was to
accompany well. Because many conductors don’t pay too much attention
to it. And when they have four rehearsals, or less, for a concert, they’ll
often give the soloists just half an hour or 40 minutes to run through
something, often just treating it as a nuisance. So I really wanted to do
them justice, to put the soloists on a velvet pillow, so that he or she feels
very comfortable, and can be truly creative. But sometimes, it has to be
admitted, it doesn’t work. Not that we have physical fights or anything,
but if there’s a problem…’
If there’s a problem, few if any are better equipped to solve it than Dmitry
Yablonsky. Like most of the best conductors, and all of the best chamber
players, he is a master of creative compromise.
Jeremy Siepmann is an internationally acclaimed writer, musician, teacher,
broadcaster and editor
Dmitry Yablonsky Talks to Jeremy Siepmann | 3
KEY RELEASES
More Russian piano and violin concertos
conducted by Yablonsky:
8.570526
UPC: 747313052677
8.570396
UPC: 747313039678
8.553928
UPC: 730099492829
8.557683
UPC: 747313268320
8.557794
UPC: 747313279425
8.550799
UPC: 730099579926
|
January 2011
Yablonsky’s cello performances:
8.557352
UPC: 747313235223
8.557423
UPC: 747313242320
8.570463
UPC: 747313046379
8.557718-19
UPC: 747313271825
8.557208
UPC: 747313220823
8.557722
UPC: 747313272228
Recordings by Oxana Yablonskaya
8.557194
UPC: 747313219421
6.110013
UPC: 747313101320
8.557824
UPC: 747313282425
8.570333
UPC: 747313033379
8.553063
UPC: 730099406321
8.553330
UPC: 730099433020
About Dmitry Yablonsky
D
mitry Yablonsky was born in Moscow into a musical family. His mother is the distinguished pianist Oxana Yablonskaya, and his father Albert
Zaionz has for thirty years been principal oboist in the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra. Dmitry began playing the cello when he was five
and was immediately accepted by the Central Music School for gifted children. When he was nine he made his orchestral début as cellist and conductor
with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major. In Russia he studied with Stefan Kalianov, Rostropovich’s assistant, and Isaak Buravsky, for many years solo
cello of Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra. Before immigrating to the United States he performed on many occasions in Moscow and many cities of the former
Soviet Union. He was finally able, in 1977, to obtain a visa that allowed him and his mother to move to New York, where he became a pupil of Lorne
Munroe at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1979, at the age of sixteen, he participated in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, the youngest to do so
that summer. In 1980 he met Aldo Parisot, distinguished cellist and professor at Yale University, where he spent four years, at the same time furthering his
interest in conducting. After graduating from Yale, he spent two years in the artist diploma programme at the Juillard School with Zara Nelsova. Dmitry
Yablonsky made his début as a conductor in Italy at the age of 26, when he stepped in to replace another conductor at the last minute. As a cellist he has
played in major concert halls throughout the world, and in chamber music has collaborated with distinguished colleagues. For four years he has been
Principal Guest Conductor of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted many other orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
collaborating with leading soloists. Dmitry Yablonsky has made more than seventy recordings, many of them prize-winning, as conductor and cellist
for Naxos, Erato-Warner, Chandos, Belair Music, Sonora, and Connoisseur Society. He has organized international festivals, including the Wandering
Stars Festival, which takes place in different countries each year. He is Co-Artistic Director of Qabala Music Festival in Azebaijan. In 2009 he became an
academician of the Independent Academy of Aesthetics and Liberal Arts in Moscow, and also professor of cello at the Baku Academy of Music.
About Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
T
he Russian Philharmonic Orchestra is firmly rooted in Russia’s rich musical traditions, and has achieved an impressive and outstanding musical
quality by drawing its musicians from the highest ranks of Russia’s most famous orchestras such as the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the
Russian National Orchestra and the State Symphony Orchestra. The Russian Philharmonic Orchestra was originally formed as a recording ensemble and
has gone on to receive high acclaim for its concert performances. In addition to regular recordings for leading international companies, the orchestra has
undertaken tours to Turkey, Austria, Germany, China, Taiwan, Finland and elsewhere. Dmitry Yablonsky was appointed Music Advisor to the orchestra
in 2003. In 2006 the orchestra won a Gramophone Award for their recording of Shostakovich on Deutsche Grammophon.
© Copyright 2010 Naxos Rights International Limited
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