“My piano style is based on the Ukrainian piano school”

Even for professionals, the Danish musical culture remained a kind of terra incognita until recently. Understandably, then, Kyiv music fans were keenly interested in the concert dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the founder of the Danish school of composition, violinist, conductor, and music teacher Carl Nielsen, which recently took place at the National Philharmonic Society, sponsored by the Embassy of Denmark in Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Carl Nielsen Foundation, and the Danish-Ukrainian Center. This event brought a night of real artistic discoveries to Kyiv audience.

“If music was able to talk and explain its essence, it would probably say something like that: ‘I am everywhere and nowhere, I flow on the waves and on the treetops of the forest, I am in the savage’s exclamation and the Negro’s dance, I sleep in stone and metal’s echo... no one can catch but everyone can understand me. I love the endless expanses of silence, and most of all I like to break it... I am able to cry, laugh, have fun and be sad. Infinitely and forever,’” – this saying by the maestro seemed to materialize during the performance by young Danish musicians (pianist Elisabeth Nielsen and baritone Jakob Vad) and Ukrainian violinist Olha Chornokondratenko. The Philharmonic Society’s acoustic space created a perfect atmosphere for recreating a bright, fleeting, changing, sometimes romantic, sometimes mystical world of music made by Carl Nielsen.

Famous singer, recognized as the Opera Talent of 2014 at the Copenhagen Opera Festival, Jakob Vad impressed the public with his masterful performance of two song cycles, composed by Carl Nielsen with lyrics from poems by Jens Jacobsen whom Rainer Maria Rilke called “a great, truly great author.” Every song was an exquisite fairy tale, landscape or genre sketch, and all of them were dramatically and emotionally sung by the soloist to delicate piano accompaniment of Elisabeth Nielsen. It was these pieces that offered clearly folk music intonations, which gave them a special charm and distinctive ethnic flavor. Sonata for Violin and Piano sounded thoughtful and inspired when performed by Chornokondratenko and the Danish pianist. Elisabeth Nielsen’s solo performance impressed with high professionalism, unusually warm, “Slavic” manner of playing the piano, noble sound of the instrument, elegant hand movements, and romantic impulsiveness in her interpretation of Carl Nielsen’s Chaconne.

The pianist enjoyed the greatest sympathy of the listening audience from the start: although young, she is already accustomed to warm reception in many prestigious concert halls in Europe, and now she won the hearts of Ukrainian listeners as well. After the concert, The Day had the opportunity to talk to Elisabeth Nielsen.

What was your mood when leaving for Kyiv? It is no secret that embassies of some countries “advise” their artists against visiting Ukraine these days, given the ongoing fighting in the east of the country...

“I and my partner in the program, singer Jakob Vad, enthusiastically embraced the idea of doing a joint concert in Ukraine, and you probably paid attention to his high spirits while performing.”

What is the prevailing opinion among the Danes regarding the dramatic events in our country?

“There has been a great deal of support for Ukraine in my country, especially lately. In addition, Denmark always welcomes Ukrainian artists at our concert venues and properly rewards their talent and skills.”

I wonder, what piano music schools had the most powerful influence on your manner of performing?

“My piano style is based on the Ukrainian piano school because my first teacher was my mother’s friend Milena Zelenetska who received her musical education at Kharkiv Institute of Arts. Later on, after entering the Royal Danish Academy of Music, I strived to be more individualistic in my style as I learned new piano repertoire, for it is a typical requirement at schools of this level in Europe. I attended the Royal Danish Ballet School as well at the time. Thus, the world of theater will forever be especially close and interesting to me.”

Despite your young age, you already have a solid portfolio of international tours. This year, you took part in Scandinavia’s largest festival of classical music, Tivoli Festival 2015. Tell us more about that event, please.

“Denmark has quite a few symphony orchestras. We have excellent concert halls and a luxurious opera theater was built recently, but the highest-rated artists are focusing their attention on the 2,000-seat Tivoli concert hall, which has great acoustics and a large stage on which I had the honor to perform in a concert. This hall is located in the famous amusement park, which was created in 1843 and later inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland along its lines.”

Your words clearly show that you are proud of your country. What is especially close to your heart in Denmark?

“First of all, I find the Danish mentality congenial and understandable: despite our superficial reticence, the Danes are very nice, sincere people, and rural residents especially so. They may seem a bit stern and secretive at first, but on closer encounter, the Danes are able to reveal the generosity of their nature in full. I am proud to belong to this people, love my country and the city of Copenhagen. I understand why my mother, while choosing between Paris and Copenhagen, chose the latter... Even though Denmark is a small country, having slightly over five million residents, it features a very high level of musical culture, cherishes the national cultural traditions, and takes good care of people’s education. For example, we were the first in Europe to pass a law on compulsory secondary education, and recently Denmark became the first nation in the world to pass a music law. Indeed, the entire society pays great attention to music’s development.”

And how popular is classical art, including piano performances?

“Unfortunately, there is no strong tradition of piano music in our country. Perhaps you know about the paradoxical situation that occurred when Sergei Rachmaninoff visited Copenhagen. At the time, the famous composer and pianist gave several concerts in the capital of Denmark, and he so liked the city that he came to the conservatory and admitted that he found Copenhagen surprisingly wonderful and comfortable city, and asked for a salaried position of pianist to be awarded to him. However, Rachmaninoff’s request was denied, and he was forced to go on to America. So, we see that Denmark influenced the fate of the legendary maestro, yet lost the chance to strengthen the tradition of piano performance and squandered the opportunity to establish a national piano school... Meanwhile, vocal and chamber music is highly popular in our country, therefore, I think I will focus on chamber performances in the Danish concert venues in the future.”

Does the Danish audience respond well to modern piano experiments, such as these staged by famous and scandalous Chinese virtuoso Lang Lang, as popular as a rock music star, whose performances involve ballet, various lighting schemes, and jokes too – let us recall his performance of an etude by Frederic Chopin with an orange or Flight of the Bumblebee played on the iPad, etc.?

“Our society is generally inclined to support modern visions which reflect our reality in the arts, architecture, and spatial design. For example, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra seeks to modernize the format of their performances: they recently presented the Concert Tango program, unusually combining an orchestra performance with the artists’ plastique ‘visualizing’ music of the famous Argentine dance in an impressive and stylish manner.”

How do you see your future path on the art scene?

“I will go to Vienna in the near future to immerse myself into preparations for a concert featuring works by Ludwig van Beethoven, my favorite composer. In addition, I have a lot of different projects and ideas to work on, because I do not want to be a traditional, reclusive pianist in our time. Of course, I must keep myself fit for concerts as well, there is a lot to learn and constantly improve, so I probably will take part in piano competitions in the future. However, we musicians learn throughout our lives! The most important thing for me is to have a powerful inspiration in order to make interesting and creative projects. I also prefer verbal communication with the audience from the stage. I think that just going on the stage and starting playing is not enough today for the listeners to better understand the artist and enter their world. Therefore, it is necessary to resort to interactive communication with the audience, to tell them something interesting about the works in question or their composer. Of course, it must be presented in a tasteful manner and balanced with all components of the soloist’s concert performance.

“Currently, there are no signs of the demand for classic works declining in Denmark, and it is especially so because they are offered in non-standard forms and are a significant component of creative art projects. This is characteristic not only for our capital, but also for the entire Scandinavian region.”

Have you ever performed works by Ukrainian composers?

“I have long wanted to add to my programs works by Myroslav Skoryk that greatly impressed me with their melodic nature and ethnic flavor. I see music by Yevhen Stankovych as congenial as well, while totally individual style of Valentyn Sylvestrov is of interest too. I want to create a separate program featuring works by Ukrainian composers. I have extremely warm impressions after my visit to Kyiv, and I hope to offer my new program to the Ukrainian public next year.”