Valery Afanasiev. Pianist Valery Afanasiev dedicated a concert to his teacher Emil Gilels Your master class is a rare event

Valery Afanasiev - famous pianist, conductor, writer - was born in Moscow in 1947. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers were J. Zak and E. Gilels. In 1968, Valery Afanasiev became the winner International Competition them. J.S. Bach in Leipzig, and in 1972 - won the competition. Belgian Queen Elisabeth in Brussels. Two years later, the musician moved to Belgium, currently lives in Versailles (France).

Valery Afanasiev performs in Europe, USA and Japan, Lately regularly gives concerts in his homeland. Among his constant stage partners famous musicians- G.Kremer, Y.Milkis, G.Nunez, A.Knyazev, A.Ogrinchuk and others. The musician is a member of famous Russian and foreign festivals: "December Evenings" (Moscow), "Stars of the White Nights" (St. Petersburg), "Flowering rosemary" (Chita), International Festival arts them. A.D. Sakharova ( Nizhny Novgorod), International music festival in Colmar (France) and others.

The pianist's repertoire includes works by composers of various eras: from W. A. ​​Mozart, L. van Beethoven and F. Schubert to J. Krum, S. Reich and F. Glass.

The musician has recorded about twenty CDs for Denon, Deutsche Grammophon and others. Valery Afanasiev's latest recordings include J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Schubert's last three sonatas, all concertos, the last three sonatas and Beethoven's Variations on a Theme of Diabelli. The musician also writes the texts of the booklets for his discs on his own. Its purpose is to let the listener understand how the performer penetrates the soul and creative process composer.

For several years, the musician has been performing as a conductor with various orchestras world (in Russia he went to the podium of the P.I. Tchaikovsky BSO), striving to get closer to the models of his favorite conductors - Furtwängler, Toscanini, Mengelberg, Knappertsbusch, Walter and Klemperer.

Valery Afanasiev is also known as a writer. He created 10 novels - eight per English language, two in French published in France, Russia and Germany, as well as novels, short stories, poetry cycles written in English, French and Russian, Essays on Music and two theater plays inspired by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Kreisleriana" by Schumann, in which the author acts both as a pianist and as an actor. Solo performance "Kreisleriana" with Valery Afanasiev in leading role was staged at the Moscow theater "School dramatic art" in 2005.

Valery Afanasiev is one of the most unusual contemporary artists. He is a man of exceptional erudition and is also well known as an antique collector and wine connoisseur. In his house in Versailles, where the pianist, poet and philosopher Valery Afanasiev lives and writes his books, more than three thousand bottles of the rarest wines are kept. Jokingly, Valery Afanasiev calls himself "a man of the Renaissance."

Valery Afanasiev. Photo - Elena Mulina / ITAR-TASS

Valery Afanasiev - about why the winners of the Tchaikovsky Competition are bad and why Coelho's books are "Buddhism for the poor."

The famous Russian pianist Valery Afanasiev, who now lives in Versailles, will give a concert in Berlin on November 19.

On the eve of the performance in the German capital, the artist gave a master class and a concert as part of the Debussy and His Time festival in Moscow, where an Izvestia correspondent met him.

- Your master class is a rare event.

I gave them only four times in my life. The first thing I say is, “If you want to make a career, then go home. And if you want to learn something about music, stay.” Now it's pointless to talk about music, to convince that there are nuances, that you don't have to tear up a phrase, make an emotion out of every bar.

For example, the pianist Lang Lang is the devil knows what. In one phrase, he feels the whole world and beyond space. The audience is happy, squeals with delight, but the music is forgotten. Nobody thinks about it now, with rare exceptions. And if a musician is thinking, then they don't want him. The public wants something else.

- What?

Energy. The public must see the emotions, the ears are already atrophied. We were starved with endless stretch marks, advertising. Recently, one of the biggest concert managers in the world, when asked why he has one bad pianist playing everywhere, replied: “Who is thinking about music now? If only the artist was sexy.

If the same question had been asked to a manager 30 years ago, he would have answered: “Why bad? I like it", and 15 years ago - "Yes, bad, but charisma is important." At the same time, it’s scary not only that mediocrity is now becoming famous, but also that really talented people they can't get anywhere.

How do you know if a musician is talented?

Professionals tend to agree. There are critics whom no one listens to under the pretext that they are failed pianists and do not know how to play themselves. And you need to listen to the critics, they are professional musicians.

The second problem is that people are afraid to speak. Even Horowitz was afraid and praised everyone, although in private conversation he could say that Benedetti Michelangeli was a crazy idiot.

- Are you afraid to speak?

No. It is necessary to serve the music, and in art - the ubiquitous images of the "good guy". For example, I cannot possibly agree with one phrase that Rostropovich said. He was asked which of the orchestras is best to play with, and he replied that each orchestra has its own strong point. All the orchestras immediately felt good: “Ah, we have something, here we played Lyadov’s Baba Yaga the day before yesterday, so in general.”

And I'm not interested in the achievements of mediocrities, even if they suddenly succeeded. But you can really learn from the failures of great artists. Music must be taken seriously. If a blind pianist is playing, and they are in fashion now, don't think that he is blind, listen to the music.

I understand that this is a feat on their part. Invite them to cocktails and tell them how manly and beautiful they are. But you can't go to their concerts just because they're blind. You don't have to use music.

It's a crime that the Tchaikovsky competition was shown on TV with rehearsals. People listen to this poison and think - here it is, the music of the future. It's a stereotype that winners of the Tchaikovsky Competition can't be bad. They can, and for the most part they are bad. Because of corruption, because of sponsors who determine which country should be given an award. If a banner hangs, this does not mean that the concert will be good. This means that there is a sponsor who pays for it.

Are things better in literature now?

Also a nightmare. Everything that is popular now is horror. Coelho is Buddhism for the poor. Murakami - surrealism for the poor: one a parallel world from somewhere jumped out and further 40 pages of mediocre prose. The Da Vinci Code is just a bad book, just like 50 Shades of Grey.

I think that the crime against humanity chapter should be expanded and people who say that music is not important should be tried in The Hague. Many people say that December 21 will be the end of the world. Let's hope that this will be a turning point and people will still return to normal, because we are talking O human dignity. Man, that sounds proud. And when you listen to bad concerts and read bad books, it doesn't sound at all.

- A couple of years ago you said that you would write less.

And I started writing more. Now I have finished a collection of Russian poems - I have decided to publish them every two years. He also wrote a book about Marie Antoinette, a book about Greek philosophy and my trip to Cambodia. In total this year - 4-5 books, in the past - too. I think I'll slow down a bit now. I would like to start writing a book about my withering, gradually someday I will begin to die. It is interesting to record this state.

- Do you believe in fate?

Not really. I have a sober self-esteem, and I can not do what I'm not good at. I wanted to be a mathematician - it didn't work out, I wanted to be a chess champion - a village boy beat me.

But when I heard “Tristan and Isolde” performed by Furtwängler, the music won me over. I even abandoned literature and almost stopped reading, began to play operas from scores - I wanted to be a conductor. Without creativity, my life would be just ridiculous. I probably would not even want to go to restaurants and drink wine.

Do you continue collecting wine?

Now it is more difficult to do this, there are not many old wines left before 1961. Of the new ones, I sometimes buy something, but mostly I drink. Old wines are now insane prices. What I bought for €50 now costs €500-600. My wines will last me another 20 years.

- You do not use a mobile phone. Why?

I don't want to make a commitment. Mobile phone you need to carry it with you, you can’t just answer it like that. And if they call me at home, you can say that I'm not there. Then I call back in a month and say: I was in Egypt, the pyramids are wonderful. And in general, Prokhorov, for example, does not have a mobile phone.

Back in Moscow Valery Afanasiev is a Russian musician living in France, but last years often (and invariably sold out) speaking at home. Yesterday in Great Hall The Moscow Conservatory hosted a concert symphony orchestra conducted by its chief conductor Antonio di Almeida with a program of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven. The overture "The ruins of Athens" and " Pastoral symphony". The main event of the evening was the performance of the Fifth Piano Concerto by Valery Afanasiev.

The fifth concerto is written in the key of E-flat major. The victorious, majestic sound of this key was first found by Beethoven in the "Heroic" Third Symphony. But if at the time of writing Beethoven's symphony was inspired by the pathos of the revolution and the figure of Bonaparte, then the Fifth Concerto was composed in a completely different era and with different feelings - between the dates of the creation of these works are the conquest of Europe by Napoleon and the defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz.

In 1809, the recalcitrant Spaniards made Napoleon nervous, and the Austrians were also determined to take revenge. On the first sketches of the concerto, Beethoven inscribed the words: "Attack! Victory!" At the same time, it cannot be said that patriotism was in the first place with the great composer. He seriously considered an offer to take over the direction of the orchestra, made by King Jerome Bonaparte of Westphalia, brother of Napoleon, and three patriotic Austrian princes had to urgently give him a considerable salary - provided that he did not leave Austria and did not dishonor the national honor. Soon Napoleon again defeated the Austrian troops, and one hundred and twenty thousand French soldiers entered Vienna. Beethoven hid from shelling in the basement of his brother's house. On one of his rare walks, the composer was mistaken by his own police for a spy when he began to enter notes in a music notebook. Beethoven stopped all composition; wild and unsociable, beginning to go deaf, he, however, received a very friendly French officer, a lover of music, and was glad to discuss with him the Greek and Latin authors, as well as Shakespeare, whom he was reading at that time.

When the humiliating Vienna truce was signed, Beethoven returned to the Fifth Concerto and created a work that combined power and tenderness, grace and regal tread in extraordinary harmony. In Leipzig, the composition went off with a bang, in Vienna it failed: on the other hand, according to legend, at the sounds of the militant first theme, a French general jumped up from his seat and enthusiastically shouted: "C" est l "empereur!". In many publications, the concert was called "Imperial" - perhaps due to this occasion.

An unpatriotic concerto has too many performance traditions, including extravagant, experimental ones - let's remember Glenn Gould, the founder of modernism in piano performance. Unlike Gould, Valery Afanasiev is also a complete modernist in the totality of his aesthetic guidelines, both in music and in art in general (Afanasiev is a professional writer, poet and polyglot). In addition, remembering his uncompromising attitude to the routine of modern performance of classical music and deliberately unconventional performance interpretations, the listener of the last concert had the right to be afraid for Beethoven, as well as for any other classic, which Valery Afanasiev is embarking on. But with his interpretation of the "Imperial Concerto" Afanasiev revealed an absolutely adequate, congenial understanding of Beethoven's ideas. In his reading everything corresponded to the Olympian spirit of the classic - both magnificent sensuality, and open paradox, and modern esotericism, which our era can only compare with the philosophical emblematicism of Beethoven's themes, and even a small percentage of inspired daub. Beethoven was a kind of modernist within classicism. Rethinking and sharpening classical poetics in an unprecedented way, he nevertheless did not go beyond its limits. During the life of Beethoven, the art of romanticism already flourished, which could not have appeared without nationalist isolation and post-war decadent moods. But these trends remained alien to the singer of universal unity, the poet of spiritual, and not national freedom. Perhaps in the work of Valery Afanasyev we can find a similar situation of opposition to the prevailing values. In a time of neo-conservatism and apathy, he remains an old-fashioned biting apologist for modernism, a rebellious explorer of the mysteries of the past and an arrogant possessor of their answers.

With all that said, it should be noted that the pianist and the orchestra (or the orchestra with him) did not have a genuine ensemble that evening. All the more disturbing intrigue is promised by Afanasiev's forthcoming experience with the same Moscow Symphony on March 22 in the Great Hall: Afanasiev decided to add the conductor's profession to the list of his interests. intends to discuss this topic the day after the concert.

Now it seems to Russian culture it is impossible for a person to professionally combine literature and classical music. Our compatriot, pianist and writer Valery AFANASIEV is also a refined intellectual, wine connoisseur and collector of old interiors. Afanasiev has been living in Versailles for many years, but from time to time he comes to his homeland, to Moscow. During his last visit he gave an interview to Novye Izvestia.

- What is happening in your life now?

– You see, a certain period of my life is ending for me, I am already 60 years old. And I've actually written a lot - novels, plays, poems, essays - and now I'm polishing them. Now I'm going to write much less. Everything has its time. Thomas Hardy wrote novels, I think, until the age of fifty, then only poetry. Tolstoy finished Anna Karenina around the age of 50.

What about Resurrection?

- This is a slightly different case. And so, in principle, he began to move away from literature at about 50-55 years old. I get pretty much the same. I wrote the last, tenth novel in English for almost ten years and finished the year before last. Now I won't write in English at all. I will pay more attention to music - to play, to expand the repertoire.

- What about your personal life?

- Now it starts. I have never paid due attention to this side of life, and now I have matured for this, because being in some kind of fourth dimension is, of course, good, but when you start just living it is very pleasant. As Montaigne said, do not think about what you have done today, you have lived - and that is enough. Now I understand what life is. I don’t ask myself what I managed today, why I was messing around. The presence of my beloved is quite enough for me so that the day does not go in vain, so that I feel happy.

- If we talk about your performing activities, today's Moscow audience is different from the audience 33 years ago, the time when you left the USSR. And is it different from European and American?

– I will say very simple things, but they make us musicians very upset when we are on stage. No musically civilized city in the world will applaud after parts. Maybe I should be more pompous, but I just can't help but express my surprise.

Has the educational level of the public gone down?

- Yes. I recently played in Odessa, which I love very much in general, and I went there with trepidation. It would seem that one of the musical capitals of the world. In the past, unfortunately. I played the Schubert sonata. After the first part - applause. There was no applause after the second part. After the third, they applauded again. I have never experienced this abroad. Before leaving the USSR, I still traveled quite a lot around the country. I assure you that in the 1960s and 1970s this was not the case anywhere - even in the most remote province.

- And in the 19th century it was a tradition - to applaud between parts.

– I know, even arias were sung between movements. But today is a different tradition. In Russia today there is another bad tradition. These are the hosts of the concerts who announce the program. This is not the case in any country - neither in Japan, nor in the States, nor in Europe. In the 60s, this was not the case in Moscow either, but began in the late 70s. It breaks the mood. I like to create my space on the stage - it is very important to me, and then someone invades it. I'm taking a break. Only I myself can speak on the stage, although I do it very rarely and on special occasions.

The trouble is that the level of the public is completely different now - there is no comparison. I was at one of Sofronitsky's last concerts. The start of the concert was delayed. So the listeners did not talk to each other. There was silence in the hall for 15-20 minutes. It was a completely different hearing. Then they even listened to the silence before the concert. Now this is impossible. In Japan, you never know if they are listening or just sitting politely. But at least silence in the hall is very important. The American public, on the contrary, is afraid of silence.

– Do you continue to collect wines?

- Yes, sure. In Paris, near where I live, the best wine auctions are in the La Vigna store - I feel very good there. And I have about three thousand bottles in my collection at home.

Are French wines the best?

– Yes, although there are good ones in Italy and even in Australia.

- You have so many things to do. Why more wine?

“Just because it makes me happy. Like a hedonist. And what does not deliver - I just do not do it.

- Do you collect antique furniture for the same purpose?

Yes, but I don't have room for her. Because the furniture that I collect in my Versailles apartment - and Louis XV, and Louis XVI, and Charles-Louis too - requires more and more space.

Perhaps it is impossible to find such an extraordinary figure among the pianists of the Russian piano school as Valery Afanasiev.
Today he occupies place of honor among the older generation of musicians who received Soviet Russia unique musical education. The circle of interests and occupations of this person, who received in his youth top honors in Leipzig (the Bach competitions) and in Brussels (the Elisabeth competition) is extremely wide and varied.

Pianist Valery Afanasiev
Valery Pavlovich Afanasiev was born on September 8, 1947 in Moscow. Musical education he received at the Moscow State Conservatory from Emil Gilels. Like another famous pianist Nikolai Petrov, musical and creative director Valeria was Yakova Zak.
In 1968, Afanasiev became the winner of the International Competition, known as the Bach Competition for Young Performers. And after 4 years he became the winner of the Brussels competition of Queen Elizabeth. It should be borne in mind that the value of victory in those days when there were few competitions had much greater value. Shortly after these victories, during a tour of Belgium, Afanasiev decided not to return to the USSR and asked for political asylum. Belgian citizenship was granted to him and the pianist currently resides in Versailles. Valery Afanasiev gives concerts all over the world, both in Europe and in the USA and Japan. The pianist recorded twenty CDs at the Denon company, independently compiling texts for booklets for them in order to provide the listener with the maximum complete picture relationship between the performer and the piece of music.

In these annotations, the analysis piece of music merges with philosophical reflections, poetry, painting and even the sensations of fine wines. Such a fusion provides an understanding of the author's perception of the composer's intentions. Valery Afanasiev's latest recordings include the Well-Tempered Clavier, 5 concertos and Beethoven's Variations on a Theme by Diabelli, 3 last sonatas by Schubert. The works of Schubert and Beethoven in Afanasiev's repertoire are of the greatest interest, since it is them that he performs with extraordinary expression. His interpretations make an extraordinary impression with their freshness and depth.
Pianist Valery Afanasiev performs with the most famous orchestras in Europe, not excluding the Berlin and London Royal philharmonic orchestras, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Writer Valery Afanasiev

Valery Pavlovich Afanasiev devotes a lot of time to literary creativity. He has eighteen novels to his credit, ten of which are written in English and eight in French.
Afanasiev's novels have been published in France, Russia and Germany. In addition, Afanasiev created fourteen cycles of poems in English and six poetic cycles in Russian.
He is the author of a book of short stories, a book of short stories, a collection of comments on " Divine Comedy» Dante, nine lectures on music in French and several theatrical plays in which the author appears at the same time as an actor and as a pianist.
Recently, another play was published and staged, written by Afanasiev and based on Kafka's work "In the Correctional Colony". During the performance, the author himself performs Morton Feldman's piece for piano "Palace Marie".

Conductor Valery Afanasiev

For several years Afanasiev has been successfully conducting various international orchestras.
His main desire is to get as close as possible in sound quality and polyphony to the standards of his favorite conductors - Toscanini, Mengelberg, Knappertsbusch, Furtwängler and Klemperer.
Afanasiev, in a rather jocular tone, spoke about his current lifestyle in one of the many interviews he gave:
“I study the piano, I write a lot in two languages, but not in Russian - in Russian I write only poetry; I publish books, drink wine, go to restaurants, walk in the woods and play with my wonderful cat.”
It is worth mentioning that Afanasiev is also known as a collector of wines, and his collection includes two and a half thousand items.
Another of his hobbies as a collector is antique furniture from Régence to Napoleon III. The size of Valery Afanasyev's personal library is, according to him, about thirty thousand volumes.
Valery Afanasiev not only propagates contestable romantic ideals in his essays, he lives them. His versatile personality is not enough successful career virtuoso pianist and tours around the world. He came up with original genre musical theater publishes books.
The generosity with which Valery Afanasiev squanders his vital and creative powers is difficult to limit within the framework of everyday logic, as well as to fit the talents of this person into the genre framework.
Valery Pavlovich Afanasiev is an extraordinary pianist, heir to the traditions of the Russian piano school, and absolutely outstanding personality, poet writer, actor, conductor and philosopher. The intellectual component always dominates in his game. His performance is deeply individual, sometimes even extravagant.