Suddenly Patricia Kopatchinskaya rolls out of the picture and her hotel roomturns upside down: her phone has fallen to the floor. “It was because of thebanana,” explains the Moldovan star violinist, during a video call from herhotel room in Oslo. She shows the structure on which she had installed hertelephone: a round storage can with a ripe banana on top. In Kopatchinskaya(1977), who is one of the most extraordinary musicians of our time because ofher ingenuity, daring and joy of playing, such an incident quickly seems likea metaphor.
This weekend Kopatchinskaja – also known as ‘PatKop’ – can be admired in fullin De Doelen in Rotterdam, where a mini-festival around her person is takingplace. She performs with Camerata Bern, the ensemble with which she has beenworking closely as an ‘artistic partner’ for years. “It’s very special toshare the stage with friends,” says Kopatchinskaja, who speaks asenthusiastically and compellingly as she plays. “They understand me, we speakthe same language. With me they have become wild animals.”
The program includes Schuberts Der Tod und das Mädchen and Schoenbergs_Pierrot Lunaire_ , which Kopatchinskaya himself sings. Her latest projectwill premiere on Sunday evening, a multimedia performance around Haydns_Sieben letzten Worte_. On Saturday, Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern willgive a public masterclass to students from various Dutch conservatories. Also,the film they made of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonata displayed.
Music from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries: that may not bewhat you expect from Kopatchinskaya. She has a reputation as a passionatechampion of contemporary music, with countless premieres to her name. “Imaginea scientist repeating the same experiment every day – that’s boring, isn’t it?It is human nature to want to discover new things”, says Kopatchinskaja. Inher view, new music is not something for once a month – an exception that youthen make very complicated about – but something for every day.
Free spirit
She cites an example from the concerts she plays in Oslo in the dayssurrounding the interview, including with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestraunder conductor Klaus Mäkelä, the future chief of the Concertgebouw Orchestra:„Last night violinist Pekka Kuusisto and I performed duets. I had composed anew duet for us, which we played live for the first time, without anypreparation. That was possible, because Pekka reads music as if he werereading the newspaper. We need musicians like that, with such a free spirit,who are not afraid to try something new every time.”
Specialization therefore kills her: „Nonsense, it is important that wemusicians do everything. Old music and new music.” Preferably side by side, ason her recent CD about the American composer George Antheil, whose work sheeffectively combined with that of the modernists John Cage and Morton Feldmanand with Beethoven.
In Beethoven’s Scherzo Violin Sonata No. 7 makes her violin sound “ugly” inan unorthodox but delightful way.
I had composed a new duet that we played live for the first time, without> preparation
Kopatchinskaya: „’Subito forte’ – it’s just in the score! That is Beethoven’sblack humor, he opens the window, hears the noise outside and slams the windowshut again. Incidentally, it was still a bit of work, because the soundengineer initially chose a neater take. After I heard the first mix, I calledhim up and said: no, you have to use that dirty take!”
Also read the review of the album on which Kopatchinskaja makes Beethovensound ‘ugly’
Do not expect a ‘normal’ performance of Schuberts in Rotterdam Der Tod unddas Mädchen. Not only did Kopatchinskaja arrange the string quartet forstring orchestra, she also interweaves various other pieces of music betweenthe movements, for example by the modern master György Kurtág.
tendonitis
The song on which Schubert based his quartet of the same name is alsofeatured, sung by Kopatchinskaja herself, in the liberal ‘Sprechgesang’ styleshe has mastered for Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire to be able to perform.When she couldn’t play the violin for months because of a tendonitis in herarm, she threw herself into that score, with astonishing results: “It works,precisely because I’m not a trained singer,” she says.
It shows the greedy artistry of Kopatchinskaya, who draws her own plan anddoes not like ingrained habits. The time when she performed the great romanticviolin concertos as a virtuoso soloist is behind her, she says: „I had to playthe concerts of Glazunov and Dvorak to gain access to the big stage. Now I’mold enough to do what really matters. Every second on stage counts. We are nota mausoleum, but a living playground. We now live in a world that is melting.We must continue to spread that message.”
Nowhere is her commitment more clearly, next weekend, than in the projectaround Haydns Sieben letzten Worte. For this, Kopatchinskaja collaboratedwith video artist René Liefert, who made silent videos about the relationshipof different indigenous peoples with the earth. Kopatchinskaya: „We are on thebrink of an abyss and everything depends on our next step. Maybe we’ll find asolution. But if that doesn’t work, we should at least try to perish withdignity. Like the musicians aboard the Titanic: play to the end.”