Dec 22nd 2015

Interview: How Yeritsyan merges her three musical cultures

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

French-Armenian pianist Varduhi Yeritsyan has attracted international accolades from major critics for her vigorous interpretations of the ten Scriabin piano sonatas, a corpus that continues to intrigue pianophiles a hundred years after his death. She has studied and mastered the full range of styles encompassed in the sonatas, from Chopinesque derivatives to his atonal experiments.

Varduhi Yeritsyan as seen by Michael Johnson, the author.

Launching her new CD  “Scriabin Piano Sonatas” (Paraty), she enters a world of established virtuosos with some or all of the sonatas already in the market --  Ashkenazy, Hamelin, Laredo, Ogdon, Sofronitzky and others. She holds her own and more with this esteemed company.

A French import to Paris since the age of 20, Ms. Yeritsyan says she has adopted France as her home while remaining true to her tortured Armenian roots and her “Russian School” training. Her family suffered in the Armenian genocide 100 years ago and her career today pays homage to her country’s and her family’s loss.

She gained her credentials at the Paris Conservatory, completing post-graduate cycles in piano and chamber performance. Her new CD is reviewed here.

In a candid email conversation with me over the past two weeks, she reveals her attraction to Scriabin’s mystic journey and discusses her Russian-Armenian musical origins.

This year marks the centennial of Scriabin’s untimely death at 41.  What aspects of his music or his person drew you to him?

Scriabin’s development was surprising. He was both heir to a long Russian tradition that assimilated Chopin’s piano style and an adventurer who pushed musical language beyond the boundaries of tonality. He never settled down in a comfort zone or in a set of habits. He was a discoverer, a musician of the new, whether in harmonics or form. For all these reasons, Scriabin is present in my musical Pantheon.

Music lovers sometimes find Scriabin’s piano and orchestral writing, including parts of his sonatas, to be elusive. Do you find it so?

Scriabin’s music evolved constantly. Listen to his Sonata No. 1. It is somehow quite traditional. But the « real » Scriabin is one of obsessions, one who is able to merge harmonies, whose conceptualization is magical. In fact this is my way of seeing music in general, taking harmonic development as the most important aspect. Of course modernity can sometimes throw you off – but the mission of a composer is partly to disturb, to break habits.

How did you go about gaining your depth of understanding of Scriabin? He was such a mystical personage, controversial in his day.

Knowledge of a composer’s creative context is essential.  But I come from a Russian musical culture and I understand how the arts there alternated between periods of great conservatism and experimentalism. For me, the rapid changes are a natural part of how I see musical history. There is nothing shocking about this. Imagine the music of the 16th century or the Mozart pastiches of the 19th. And then along came Scriabin or Stravinsky who defined modernism. We have to accept the fact that Russian artistic evolution was not as linear as in was in Germany or France.

How has your personal culture been influenced by your Russian training?

Armenians live in a dual culture, and so for me Russian literature (Pushkin, Dostoevsky) and obviously music are like a second mother-tongue. The passion, the excesses, the expressiveness, the contrasts – all the Russian values have made me what I am today, both as a pianist and as a person.

In what ways can your playing be described as Russian School?


I was trained in very Russian principles, notably in matters of tone and posture. But the Armenian School adds a little exotic touch, perhaps more whimsical and fantasist than one finds in the Russian School. And then in France I have added to this base by devoting special attention to detail, to form and to rationality.  I suppose this makes me a synthetic pianist!

One of your interests is Prokofiev. Did you research him just as deeply before producing your CD of his piano works?

Prokofiev was part of my musical life before Scriabin. I grew up with him. I learned from him. His pedagogical output is especially rich, in the manner of Bartok or Bach. He composed great masterpieces for children without ever making esthetic concessions.  Later on, I played his mature works, notably the first sonatas, for which I have a very special and tender attraction.

Many young pianists are capable technically but superficial in their knowledge of a composer’s intentions.  Is heavy research part of your preparation for performing cycles of composers?

I am perhaps not best-placed to judge the pianists of my generation. However I think we are pulled in two dangerous directions: hyper-specialization which leads to poverty of repertoire, and extreme variety, which means superficiality.  We all have to find ways to avoid these two obstacles.  As for myself, I study a lot of repertoire constantly, and then decide to undertake a certain corpus so that I can extract the maximum from it.

Some Scriabinists see the Sonata No. 4 as male and female forces seeking union.  Opinion differs as to whether it is about love or about sex? How do you see it?

Scriabin’s music is so rich that it lends itself to a range of interpretations, to very different projections, depending on the person. I prefer to concentrate instead on the nature of the music itself, to base my views on the harmonies and rhythms, and to let the poetry and emotion flow directly from the writing. And then each listener can match the music with his or her individual sensibilities or fantasies.

Sonata No. 9, the so-called Black Mass, is said to evoke feelings of terror. How do you handle these powerful implications at the keyboard?

The art of interpretation is knowing how to create emotions from the score without getting submerged by it. It’s a sort of control.  Working on scores can sometimes put me into a different state of mind. And then, when playing at a concert, one must retain mastery of the material while letting oneself go. For me, this balance is what makes my profession totally magic.

What do you think of the Promethean or mystic chord and Scriabin’s concept underlying it?

Harmonics is the musical element to which I am most sensitive. It’s clear that the special character of Scriabin and the complexity of his chords puts me in a very particular state. What’s important is that Scriabin’s harmonic sensations are unlike any other composer’s. It’s a world entirely apart, a unique style.
Have you ever played Prometheus? Would you welcome a chance to perform it?

I have never played it but would love to have such an opportunity. In fact one of my objectives in life is to play all of Scriabin’s piano music!

This is your third CD after Prokofiev and Letters from Armenia. Are more in the pipeline?

Following my first CD, my Prokofiev, I decided to concentrate either on recording complete works, such as the Scriabin sonatas, or on recitals of originality, such as Letters from Armenia. . My two following CDs were recorded at about the same time and were released together. This was a particularly dense and busy period for me. And now, among other programs, I regularly play pieces from the two discs.

How are you balancing your recording life with your live performances in recitals and concerts ? Which mode gets your priority?

It’s important for me to avoid becoming a “professional recording artist” and to lose contact with live audiences.  So after those recordings, I needed concerts and moments of reflection to rebuild my resources. I have a number of future CDs in mind but for the moment my priority is concertizing and personal study.

You have commemorated the Armenian genocide tragedy on your CD titled Letters from Armenia. How personally do you feel that tragedy? Did your family lose relatives in the events of 1915?

Indeed, my family was brutally affected by the genocide. Part of my mother’s family disappeared during this tragedy, which in fact spared no Armenians. Obviously the scars are still there just a painfully a hundred years later. My country is still awaiting recognition of the genocide by the descendants of those who perpetrated it.

You have performed Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto. Do you have other Armenian music in your repertoire?

Khachaturian is obviously the most popular Armenian composer but the real father of Armenian music is Komitas. Much like Bartok in Hungary, he borrowed popular music of his country and transcribed a number of religious pieces. I play his music as well as that of a Khachaturian contemporary, Anro Babadjanian.  There are several other Armenian composers I intend to play in the future.

You have lived many years in France. How important is your Armenian culture to you today?

I have lived in France for fourteen years and France has become my country although Armenia is always present in my thinking and feelings. My family lives in Yerevan and I visit there regularly. But in my younger years when I lived there I was already passionate about French culture – the great authors, the great painters. And now there is a logical equilibrium in me that allows me to live in the two cultures.

You entered the Paris Conservatory and did very well. Was this an artistic turning point for you? Which of your teachers qualifies as your true mentor, and why?

I left Armenia to study at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris and I joined the class of Brigitte Engerer, a former student of Stanislav Neuhaus in Moscow. There was something natural about studying with such a fantastic pianist who also acquired a dual culture. While at the Conservatoire I won piano and chamber music prizes and pursued advanced studies in both disciplines. Today I am very happy to be teaching at this prestigious institution.

Do you believe Scriabin was mad, a genius, or perhaps a mad genius?

Madness is an illness that prevents one from exercising control. The scientific music of Scriabin could never have been written if he was mad. He was obviously a genius whose originality continues to surprise us even a hundred years after his death. He was an artist who never was afraid to destabilize us, to impose upon us totally different and innovative musical ideas. He was a courageous creator of music, powerful and universal, without concessions.

 


This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Music Reviews

Oct 7th 2024
EXTRACT: "Oppens stands apart from today’s keyboard virtuosos by her four decades of discovering and commissioning new works. These contributions to the repertory ensure her a permanent place in pantheon of modern music. But she is also recognized as a powerful performer who tackles the thorniest of new pieces. As she said in our interview, she remembers hearing the difficult works of Julian Hemphill for the first time and thinking 'This is for me!'  Composers who have been commissioned by her or who have written works for her include such leading lights as Frederic Rzewski, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Peter Lieberson, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Christian Wolff  and Charles Wuorinen.”
Jul 5th 2024
EXTRACTS: "The Conservative Party, which was finally pronounced dead from multiple unnatural causes on July 5 2024, was born in 1832." ---- " Strange as it might now appear, the party was once very popular and respected, even by its opponents. Educated at Eton and Oxford, it established a reputation for governing competence which allowed it to bounce back from serious setbacks, notably the landslide Labour victory of 1945." ---- "The end of the cold war debunked the notion that the Conservatives had restored Britain’s former global status. Unwilling to acknowledge their country’s subservience to the United States, the party’s dominant nationalist faction could now only rage against reality by identifying the European Union, and post-war immigration, as the twin culprits for the depletion of British political influence and cultural uniformity." ---- "The Conservative party has presented a sorry spectacle to sympathetic observers in its undignified post-Brexit dying days. It became prone to hallucinations, first believing that Boris Johnson could be a successful prime minister then replacing him with Liz Truss."
Jun 17th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t piano study a big problem in the USA, with all the electronic games and distractions from music lessons? ---- Answer: The problem is also in Europe. We have lost a lot of quality, in terms of knowledge behind the music. The schools do not make the transmission from the composers to us. We owe that to the composers. And it’s very sad because now we focus on goals and competition, and competition does not go well with art.
Jun 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t it true, as the musicologist Kyle Gann says, that one cannot judge immediately what’s good or bad in contemporary music? We must wait 20 years. Answer: Yes, look at Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. It caused a scandal. It was booed and rejected by everyone. Now it’s standard in the concert hall. In jazz, I think it’s not 20 years, but more like 50 years before we know what has worked or not. One has to step back and reflect on whether we have brought something new."
Mar 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "In a way, every experience you have, every book you read, every movie you watch, every place you visit, every encounter you have, every moment you spend with friends or family, they leave a mark on you and direct you indirectly and therefore leave their mark on your playing.", says Boris Giltburg in Michael Johnson's and Frances Wilson's new book 'Lifting the Lid: Interviews with Concert Pianists', now available on Amazon.
Feb 27th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Some pianophiles say the CD could be useful for meditation, therapy or even healing. ---- Answer: Indeed, that is the kind of feedback I am getting. But this music doesn’t belong to me any more, therefore I cannot label it with any purpose. It has taken on a life of its own. I can’t say how it affects the life of other people. Will it be therapeutic or will it have another effect? Time will tell."
Dec 4th 2023
EXTRACT: "Seated in a quiet corner of a Bordeaux hotel last week, we had an interview – more a casual chat – about her life, her Soviet Russian origins, her career, her future."
Nov 27th 2023
EXTRACT: "Schiff creates an atmosphere that we 'seniors' remember from the old days. No clowning, no bouncing on the bench, no outlandish clothing. He dresses in a black smock, black trousers, black shoes, topped off with a mane of pure white hair. His manners, his grateful bowing, are très Old Europe. ---- Schiff keeps control of his two hours onstage. He believes that dignity goes with the great music on the program and he scarcely moves as he plays."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "  Boston-based guitarist, band leader and composer Phil Sargent is not about churning out endless CDs. In fact his ten-year recording gap, just ended, had his fans wondering where he was. But in New York and Boston, he tells me, he has never stopped working with other groups while composing and actively teaching young and mature talent. Although not always visible, he seems to be a confirmed workaholic, even practicing five hours a day. Yes, virtuosos also need to practice. ---- And now he is back. His new CD, 'Sons'....."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "There is a renewed fascination with the memory-stimulating and healing powers of music. This resurgence can primarily be attributed to recent breakthroughs in neuroscientific research, which have substantiated music’s therapeutic properties such as emotional regulation and brain re-engagement. This has led to a growing integration of music therapy with conventional mental health treatments."
Sep 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "British psychotherapist, Michael Lawson, who has worked with several prodigies and former prodigies, calculates there may be as many as 200,000 piano prodigies active in the world today. “In a sense, they are not that rare,” he says in our interview below. Lawson is author of International Acclaim: The Steinfeld Legacy a new novel of the great pianists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which the prodigy phenomenon is described in some detail."
Sep 17th 2023
EXTRACT: "Like so many stories about relationships told over an extended time, Past Lives uncovers the twists and turns, the “what ifs” and the manifold choices that lead to two people wondering whether they were meant to be together."
Sep 12th 2023
EXTRACT: " OrpheusPDX, a new company founded by Christopher Mattaliano in Portland, Oregon, concluded its second season with a brilliant and thought-provoking production of Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters,” at Lincoln Hall (August 24), exploring and exposing relationships in a polygamous sect and the courage of one sister-wife to leave it. With Stephen Karam’s libretto inspired by memoirs of women who have left the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) and the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch by the FBI, “Dark Sisters” was delivered with spot-on directing by Kristine McIntyre and riveting performances by an exceptional cast."
Aug 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Wagner’s operas are well known to be budget busters, and lack of funds is probably one of the main reasons that Seattle Opera has not mounted the Ring Cycle in since 2013. After Speight Jenkins retired from his post as General Director in 2014, the company delivered The Flying Dutchman (2016) and Tristan und Isolde (2022), the latter under its current General Director, Christina Scheppelmann. Now starting its 60th season, Seattle Opera celebrated with Das Rheingold, but that can be seen as a bittersweet moment since Scheppelmann is moving on to take over La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels at the end of the 2023-2024 season."
Jul 6th 2023
EXTRACT: " More than a hundred recordings have been made of his suite of 14 light pieces he called “The Carnival of the Animals”, and a range of his other works remain in the standard repertoire."
Jun 18th 2023
EXTRACT: "Conservatories and university music departments are filling up with fee-paying Asians as their parents pressure them to succeed in the West. Piano competitions around the world, now numbering about 800, are open to this new wave of Asian players. They are winning top prizes and they are building careers in Europe and the U.S.  Too often, according to some teachers, young Americans prefer computer games, the latest movies, rock bands, sports, or other less-demanding activities. The Asians are happy to fill the vacuum."
May 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Three of Europe’s longtime leaders in contemporary jazz, now in their senior years, have just launched a CD of twelve  pieces that shows what a lifetime of sharing ideas in music can really produce." “New Stories” (Frémeaux et Associés) by the French trio of pianist and composer Hervé Sellin, bassist Jean-Paul Celea and drummer Daniel Humair is remarkable for improvisations so synchronized that the listener can feel the music come together from three angles in real time. The tracks were mostly composed or improvised by Sellin."
Mar 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "The young ex-dancer from Italy first burst upon the piano scene three years ago with 20 of her hand-picked Scarlatti sonatas. Now comes her second CD (Academy Classical Music) even more original and powerful, performing six of Baldassare Galuppi’s 18th century sonatas. Margherita Torretta‘s early training as a dancer gives her playing a swaying, graceful air while she maintains Alberti bass for control of the rhythm, momentum and especially continuity. Her ornamentation is boosted with some of her own improvisations, producing a fresher feel. It’s a magic combination."
Mar 24th 2023
EXTRACT: "Driven by a sense of mission and determination over several years, French pianist Lydia Jardon has completed a rare cycle of nine piano sonatas by Nikolai Miaskovsky. Her new CD  of numbers 6, 7 and 8 completes the task and offers a particularly rich sample of Russian experience in the worst of times. Miaskovsky may be only vaguely remembered today but he was a leader in the Soviet music world until the end of World War II. He left a wide range of engaging sonatas that have been brought back to life by Mme. Jardon on her own label AR Ré-Sé (AR 2022-1)."
Mar 16th 2023
EXTRACTS: "The most ambitious application yet of Steinway’s new digital piano, Spirio r, delivers stunning levels of sound and color in the new CD release of The Richter Scale, an hour-long keyboard drama written by well-known German composer and pianist Boris Bergmann." ----- "For the first time, the Spirio has been configured on a Steinway D grand to enable four-hand pieces to be played by two hands. The secondo score is first recorded in playback mode then combined with the live primo part. Liu is the live player who has to coordinate and fuse the two."---- "I took Bergmann’s advice and listened to the full composition from start to finish to best feel the gathering emotional turbulence. I was gripped by the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and percussive explosions along the way."