Gstaad Festival Orchestra Launch 30 October 2009

Maxim was in London today for the launch of the 2010 Menuhin Festival Gstaad and, in particular, the official confirmation of his involvement as the very first principal conductor and director of the innovative Gstaad Festival Orchestra.

The Festival is sponsored by the HSBC Private Bank and, in the splendid setting of their offices on St James’s Street, Maxim was more than happy to discuss this next progression in his musical life.

“It is a big honour, first of all, that I have been asked to be a part of this wonderful project at this fantastic Festival,” he declared.

“I think this Festival has one very important and priceless value – and that is the name and personality of Yehudi Menuhin who, for me, is the guiding light and for whom I have enormous admiration. He is my idol: as a violinist, as a musician and as a personality. His humanity has brought so many wonderful things and Gstaad has been blessed.”

Lord Menuhin’s desire for music to be made ‘in a relaxed atmosphere’ was initiated in the breathtakingly beautiful setting that Gstaad provides.

“Music is part of nature,” continued Maxim. “That’s why, when we go to Gstaad, we connect with nature – and why it is different from when we go to other places. There we can really relax and focus on the music. It is a sort of spiritual escape.”

It is also where the first seeds of Maxim’s involvement in this project were sown in 2006.

“We had two remarkable concerts there with maestro Gergiev – we played Mozart violin concerto and Shostakovich. I still remember those concerts, they were the highlight of 2006 – always to play with maestro Gergiev is a true joy. Conducting was becoming more of a serious project for me and we discussed some possibilities for Gstaad and I was very much in favour of that.”

And perhaps maestro Gergiev had played a small part in that decision?

“Always he asked me, every time we met or spoke on the telephone, he’d say ‘so max – when are you going to conduct?’ He knew that I was taking lessons. At that time I was taking lessons from a very prominent teacher who was a student of one of the greatest Russian school – Ilya Mussin – and maestro Gergiev was also a student of Mussin; so he knew that sooner or later I was going to start conducting.”

“First of all I was, of course, influenced by the greatest mentor in my life, my musical father, maestro Rostropovich – who did fantastically well as both a soloist and a conductor. He brought wonderful traditions into the 21st century of performing the greatest music by Soviet performers, like Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and he also enjoyed collaborations with so many contemporary performers like Britten and Walton – he knew them and had a wonderfully friendly relationship with them. How many people can you say who knew Beethoven and Mozart? I was very lucky to know him for 17 years. He opened new doors for me in music and taught me the great traditions from the past. He told me ‘it is your mission, to conduct’.”

“Every musician goes through a very interesting path and a very individual road. I started to be a musician probably even before I was born. I can’t remember that, of course,” chuckled Maxim, “But my mother said that when she was pregnant with me David Oistrakh came to Novosibirsk and she was sitting in the front row watching him play and I was so excited inside her! I wanted to get out and play – Bach double probably!” he added, with a laugh.

So what will Maxim’s approach be when he starts work with his orchestra?

“The challenge of every conductor, I think, is first of all to get to know the potential of all the musicians and what they are capable of,” he explained. “Of course technique is necessary just to bring everything together, but one has to compare this to like a football team: even if they are individual players, to play together they have to get to know each other. My role is to be there, first of all to make it happen and secondly to inspire them – but the most important thing is to bring my own expectation of the sound. I think this is the task of every good director, good conductor – to bring the sound. And that has to happen from within, to play almost telepathically.”

Maxim expounded: “The sound is the mark of a musician, is the mark of an orchestra – the London Symphony has its own different sound, as does the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Concertgebouw – all the other orchestras – that is what defines them. And then a conductor comes and brings his vision and the sound colours change – so I am looking forward to creating this wonderful atmosphere of sharing this music and, of course, sharing with the audience.”

And what of the future?

“Conducting is equally as serious an instrument for me as the violin – that’s why I needed some time to concentrate on building a repertoire. But violin is an exciting life of mine: it is my musical language, it is like my mother tongue. Many people ask me if I am going to come back to the violin and it is fair to say this: I speak Russian and to say that I am not coming back to the violin would be equal to saying that I don’t want to speak Russian anymore! The violin is still part of my life – it’s always there.”