The River of Time
The final concert of the season of the
The generation born in the 1990s is made up of those who will shape the Russian composing and performing music scene in the years and decades to come. Roman Zhaurov and Yegor Savelyanov were first talked about in the spring of 2021, after the Dostoevsky 200 opera lab at the Theatre of Nations. Since then they have been hailed as the most interesting academic composers of the new wave.
While working on Detune, I tried to combine the ideas of a musical composition and installation. The features of the latter being introduced into the space of the musical composition create new strategies for the development of the composition and, importantly, for the appearance of the piece. In Detune, one will see and hear not only traditional instruments like flute and cello, but also their unconventional versions, which I invented especially for this score. Aquacello (water cello) and water flute combine the principles of wind and bowed instruments with the sound of a hydrophone, followed by glass harmonica and a variety of percussion.
These composers intensely listen to the zeitgeist and broadcast it, mixing genres and disciplines. Their new compositions, commissioned by
In our minds past, present and future exist in parallel, mutually influencing one another. When a person gets into new circumstances, gets a new experience, the mechanism of adaptation comes into play: by changing us in the present, it reshapes our past. The forgotten past continues to exist in our minds. Does one realize that while forgetting, one actually remembers everything?
In Slivers, the process of a person’s adaptation to the new conditions of life is important. The piece is written for instruments of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century: I have tried to treat them with care, restoring them so that their authentic structure, appearance and other qualities are not damaged. Along with antique instruments, Slivers uses objects and instruments specially created for the piece.
Slivers is in a sense a game with the psychological state of the performers: depending on this the computer program determines and reassembles the form of the work each time using a neural interface. I found it interesting to bring this project to life at
Roman Zhaurov (b. 1996, Yelizovo) is a composer. He has graduated from the music theory department of the Kamchatka College of Arts in 2018, and is currently a student at the Moscow State Conservatory (class of Leonid Bobylev). Winner of international competitions (2018, 2020), participant in the XIII Winter International Arts Festival (Sochi, 2020). Participant of the VII All-Russian summer school of composers, Tchaikovsky International Academy of Young Composers (2020), Dostoevsky 200 Opera Lab at the Theatre of Nations (2021). Laureate of Aksenov Family Foundation Russian Music 2.0 programme (2022). Laureate of the Arts Theatre Prize (2023).
Yegor Savelyanov (b.1999, Moscow) is a composer and a student of the Moscow State Conservatory (class of Yuri Kasparov). He is a participant of the reMusic.org festival (2020), Composition Readings project (Moscow, 2020), the Dostoevsky 200 Opera Lab at the Theatre of Nations (2021). Intern at the X International Academy of Young Composers in Tchaikovsky (2020). Holder of the scholarship of the Union of Composers of Russia (2020). Winner of several international and all-Russian composition competitions, among others the New Music Generation (Lithuania) and Samal (Kazakhstan). Laureate of the Russian Music 2.0 programme of the Aksenov Family Foundation (2022).
Curator
Dmitry Renansky
Producers
Ekaterina Arkhipova, Marina Badudina, Yana Romashkina
Programme
Roman Zhaurov
Detune (2023, world premiere)
Commissioned and produced by
Yegor Savelyanov
Slivers (2023, world premiere)
Commissioned and produced by
Performed by
CEAM Artists
Maria Koryakina flute
Yulia Popkova harmonium
Natalia Sokolovskaya harmonium
Yevsey Zubkov drums
Alexander Suvorov drums
Alexey Chichilin electric guitar
Julia Migunova cello
Elizaveta Korneeva conductor