Maxim Rysanov has recorded Dmitri Shostakovich’s last work, the Viola Sonata, for Hungaroton. In connection with the recording, which will be released at the end of April in collaboration with Marianna Shiniyan, we spoke to the violist, who is also active as a conductor, about Shostakovich, chamber music and the war in Ukraine.
– Why Shostakovich and why the Viola Sonata?
– The Viola Sonata is the composer’s only work for solo viola. It is very personal, written by Shostakovich in the last days of his life. He dedicated it to Fyodor Druzhinin, the violist of the Moscow-based Beethoven Quartet. He remained in close contact with the members of the ensemble throughout his life, dedicating virtually all of his string quartets to them. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, and I would like to pay tribute to his life’s work with this recording.
– Have you played it much?
– I first encountered his Viola Sonata when I was 19 or 20. I have performed it many times since, but I must add that it is a very demanding piece, which takes an emotional toll on the performer. Shostakovich was an atheist. He was afraid of death. The pizzicato at the beginning of the sonata seems to be a ticking clock, as if Shostakovich were marking his own time, which was about to run out. Fear and frustration give way to acceptance and farewell.
– What is the significance of such an album in the world of online music sharing?
– The golden age of recording is clearly over, and it’s absolutely true that nowadays, given the financial means, anyone can record anything, regardless of quality. In this respect, I’m going back to what I used to call the old values, which is to say that I see recorded material as a kind of calling card. This record is also important to me.
– As you said, Shostakovich’s sonata is a piece of summation and passing. Does the war in Ukraine put this piece in a different context for you?
– Shostakovich repeatedly reflected on the horrors of that time, the horrors of the Second World War, and these motifs appear in his chamber works and symphonies. In the case of the Viola Sonata, it’s more personal, and in this respect it doesn’t reflect the images and thoughts I’ve been experiencing during Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two years.
I was born in eastern Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, into an ethnically Russian-Ukrainian family. My father was from Moscow. I studied in Moscow and made a long list of connections and friends there. Many of them have now left Russia because they couldn’t bear the horror and didn’t want to be a part of it. My former school in Kramatorsk was razed to the ground, and I have heard that two of my former schoolmates were killed at the front. I was a regular visitor to Russia before the war, but much has changed since then and I have to say that decades of friendships and good relations have suffered. My half brother who lives in Moscow went to an antiwar meeting and was brutally beaten up by police.
– What can you do as an artist in such a situation?
– It’s a difficult question, because I’ve come to realise that the most effective way is to either take up the fight or to help raise the funds for the defence. I know many people who, because of their physical limitations, although they have applied for service, are not able to take part in the actual fighting, so they try to be useful members of the defence society in their homes, with their engineering and IT skills. However some members of my family have joined the Ukrainian army.
At the beginning of the war, I organised a charity concert at the Academy of Music in Budapest, which was joined by a number of my artist friends, and thanks to this we were able to make the suffering of many refugee families more bearable, if only for a short time, through music. This was very important to me and I will always be grateful to those who stood by me. It remains my job, as a performer and conductor, to represent values that are transnational but unquestionable.
– When did conducting come into your life?
– Over the years I have felt a growing need for a kind of musical care for the whole production. I find that the role of the conductor is still not really clear, even to musicians. I think it’s important to have good technique and to be a good musician first and foremost. The role of a conductor is to drive the production forward, to give precise cues, to inspire and to give meaning to the musical process. For me, these are the most important considerations.
– What challenges are in store for you in the near future?
– I am currently studying Holst’s The Planets and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, which I will conduct with the Budapest based Danubia Orchestra in October. This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of the English composer Gustav Holst. With this piece, a new orchestra will be born – the Blue Danube Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will include musicians from all the countries where the Danube flows, and its first performance will be at the Novi Sad Festival this summer. I am also preparing three programmes with the Canadian chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal. In the near future I will perform the viola concerto by Pēteris Vasks in Poland. This concerto is one of my prides, it was composed for me and it is one of the best viola works. There are more recordings to come. I have also recorded Mozart trios with my wife Dóra Kokas and Nikita Boriso-Glebsky for Hungaroton, which is in the process of being edited. My Schumann disc – all the works for viola – with Dasol Kim and Julian Bliss will be out in September.
