(25-3-2011)

De topviolist Maxim Vengerov, blesseerde zijn rechter arm en/of schouder bij een val in 2007. Vioolspelen bleek niet meer mogelijk en hij heeft alle concerten moeten afzeggen. Nadat hij met dirigeren een muzikale uitlaatklep had gevonden, keert hij nu met zijn viool weer terug op het podium. Het eerste optreden staat op 2 Mei 2011 gepland in het Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussel.

Wat er precies met Vengerov's arm of schouder aan de hand was is niet bekend, maar meer wordt duidelijk in dit interview uit 2008.

Hieronder de transcriptie van het exclusieve RTBF-interview (maart 2011) en bekijk de video.

Maxim: Brussels is a very special place for me. We say that the travelling musician feels at home where he has his friends and here I have wonderful friends, there is Leonid and Hagit Kerbel. For many years we are great friends and I come to the festival Musica Mundi. It’s going to be this year, this July, it’s my 5th time here, and it’s a beautiful city, a wonderful audience and of course magnificent Palais des Beaux-Arts which has most extraordinary traditions and wonderful acoustic.

Interviewer: For the concert of 2nd of May you have chosen to play 3 Brahms sonatas. Why this programme?

M: I like, you know, sort of ‘monogram’ programmes that present one composer that highlights the spirit of one soul, one beautiful compositions of Brahms, and this cycle of 3 sonatas of Johannes Brahms is in itself perfection and I thought this would be a wonderful and also intimate classical music moment for the audience and I believe I have never played the Brahms sonatas here at the Palais de Beaux-Arts so it is going to be very interesting.

Music is a broad subject and you need to make sure that you are concentrating well enough on each one, not to lose the concentration, not to lose the intensity of what you do, and that’s why probably I needed this three years of time to put down the violin, to rest a little bit, to cool down, to concentrate on conducting.
Conducting is a massive profession. It’s a totally different language. That’s why I needed to learn to speak this language without accent, like I’ve learnt music playing violin, playing violin is my mother tongue. So coming to, gradually to, conducting, I realise that this profession is so big, that I finally realised that if I were to combine it with my violin playing, violin playing would be very jealous. So I just needed to take a little bit of distance from the violin, concentrating on conducting and now I am incredibly happy that the time came again that I can rejoice with my beautiful violin and play again and combine it with some conducting and my other activities and knowledge that I have acquired throughout the years.

I: Your conducting activity won’t be jealous of the violin?

M: Now it’s all in harmony, playing and conducting in the same concert. It’s wonderful because basically it’s the common thing you know for instance (gets up to pick up baton) you play the violin like this you know (uses baton as a bow), and then you want to conduct you just turn (turns baton to conducting postion) and conduct. Then you want to play again (back to bow position...laughs).

It’s funny now after having this wonderful 3 year rest from the violin I feel reborn, new reborn. When people ask me “Maxim, what do you think now is the most promising musician, promising violinist, young violinist in the world?”, I say “I think it’s me” (laughs), because I feel I am very young and I play now at home, Tchaikovsky concerto now when I practice it I feel, my God, it doesn’t feel like I have played it 2000 times, it feels like it is new. For me every note that I play now it’s a revelation, it’s a new thing. Brahms, Sibelius, Shostakovich – all these concertos that I would look forward to play – especially that I have already experienced conducting them, accompanying them, now I feel those concertos completely from different dimension. It’s just such phenomenal experience to see from other side - from the orchestra side - to see the complete, to have complete experience. So now I believe when I come back to those pieces it’s going to be a different thing for me.

I: Now you feel you need to play again?

M: Yes! It is a love affair again. (laughs)

I: And so you will give this concert in Brussels for Musica Mundi on 2nd May, is it the start of a series of concerts or not? Do you have plans?

M: I do have firm plans to tour a little bit with the Brahms sonatas – Brahms evening. Then I have big plans for Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade, these are Russian Classics, where I will also combine playing solos and conducting. These plans will be in most countries in Europe, America, Far East, Australia, so we are planning already 2012-13.
 

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