Svetlana Kelasieva

Olga Ostrovskaya:
“Once you've heard Earlymusic,
you will definitely become its admirer”

- Olga Isayevna, “ancient music” is a very wide definition.
Which music in particular does
the ‘Altera Musica' ensemble perform?

- Ancient music always existed. Nowadays ancient music is that composed before the middle of the XIX century. However, the concept “ancient music” is defined not only by chronology, at present there is another term used all over the world, that is “early music”. It implies not simply the music written long time ago, but also some special, more appropriate way of performing.

The idea of “early music' was adopted by music sphere in the 60s of the XXth century. It was introduced by hippies, who tended to confront the academic arts. They would sit in Amsterdam streets in torn jeans and with their long hair and would play ancient instruments which were used in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance or the Baroque. It was this very small group of people who revived great interest towards the authentic performing, playing ancient instruments: lutes, spinets, recorders, harps. The well-known music which was performed on the ancient instruments in the way which was much closer to the original turned out to sound freshly and excitingly and be really moving nowadays. Because music is always a message, and any message should be delivered correctly. Today all over the world Earlymusic is one of the most trendy tendencies of performing art and has plenty of fans.

- And how is it going in Russia ?

- During last years there has been the authentic performing in some Russian cities, such as Moscow , Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk , Nizhny Novgorod . But there are really few performers that work with Erlymusic, and the reason is not that musicians aren't interested in this style. It's just nowadays you can hardly find any ancient instruments to play. The copies of ancient instruments are made to order, of course, not here, but in Europe , which is pretty costly, and that's why not every musician can afford that. As not many wealthy people know what a pleasure this early music is, we have so few of these ancient instruments.

And this music sounded in palaces and castles, it pleased kings, dukes, counts who really knew sense in entertainments and amusements. Ekaterina the Great, who as we know would try to lavish herself with all the best, paid much attention to music. Famous for her desire of luxury, she realized that music was not only the way to entertain or to regenerate oneself after hardworking days, but also splendor, prestige. That is why she never saved on music, and thus during that time the best European musicians, orchestras, opera houses were here, in Russia .

Fortunately, nowadays in Samara more and more people can afford to gatherstimate the sound of a unique ensemble.

- Does that mean you do not suffer from the absence of audience?

- We have numerous, permanent and very grateful audience. We love them very much and hope that they love us not less. We are invited to anniversaries, business meetings or just home parties, where all the family gather, the closest friends come and in this warm atmosphere people enjoy beautiful music, taking a short break from rattle, noise and fuss.

- Does one need to have some special training to understand your music or is it available to all people?

- The music we play is very clear to everybody. Our ensemble is a chamber one, we don't perform symphonic music written for big orchestras and large concerts, we don't perform the opera or theatre music. We mainly work in European home concert style which again becomes very popular nowadays.

At these home concerts which we are invited to we play what we are supposed to play according to the chosen genre: dance music, songs, arias, madrigals. That means the music for relaxing and entertainment, which in the past was called “the music for pleasuring your soul”. It was supposed to delight tour heart, give pleasure to your soul, clarify your mind and flatter your ears.

As far as people do not change from century to century, and our contemporaries as well as our ancestors fall in love, enjoy listening to a nightingale singing or a spring babbling, get crazy about their love mates, write verses, this music which touched such delicate strings of human soul many years ago, is still nowadays both powerful and clear. We perform the music of Renaissance, Baroque, courteous style, sentimentalism.

Our concerts are attended both by professional musicians (after all, there is no other place where you can listen to such music) and by people who are pretty far from music. And I really want to state that once you've heard Earlymusic, you will be eager to listen to it more.

- The home concert genre implies performing in front of a relatively small audience, doesn't it?

- The instruments we use do not produce a loud, strong sound, which is why the acoustics is very important for us, only then this music sounds really exquisitely. We can't afford huge halls full of people or performing at the stadiums. Our audience is from 20 people up to 200 ones.

- You play the spinet. Where did you learn it?

- I am a pianist according to my education. However, the spinet, no matter how alike the piano it looks, is totally different from it. That is why I have much to learn. The last 5 years I've regularly visited the Earlymusic festivals which include enduring master classes. And even though I myself have been teaching in a music college for many years, I am never ashamed of studying. I could be ashamed of my ignorance of something, especially since music is such a sphere where you can perfect yourself for ever.

- Would you tell something about other members of your ensemble, please?

- I am lucky to get such partners. All of them are unique, very talented persons. These are guitarist Yury Zyuzin, flutist Ekaterina Matyushenkova, cellist Tatyana Kondratieva, soprano Elena Alyoknina. All the members of our ensemble are wonderful musicians who are fond of Early music. We also collaborate with drama actors. A young gifted actor of the SamART theatre Pavel Marckelov has participated in the latest concert, which was called “An Evening at Home in Major and Minor Keys”, where there is the Renaissance poetry and Shakespeare's time music.

- You mentioned you are lucky to work with such partners. Are you lucky on the whole?

- Very much . I am pretty often in luck. I have a wonderful family. Both in the ensemble and at home I am surrounded by like-minded persons – I consider it a great luck. Even my dog sings with pleasure while listening to favourite pieces. And mind you – sings competently, in the necessary key.

But my biggest fortune happened a year ago. Totally by accident, in Ulianovsk Science Library they found an archive which included among very valuable books some music prints. There were dedication lines to Empress Elizaveta Alexeevna and Emperors' House on many title pages of the notebooks. The head of the largest European Earlymusic Festival Andrey Reshetin acquainted with these notepads. As it turned out, some of these music prints used to be supposed lost, others were so far totally unknown. It was pure sensation for musicians. We've never heard of the existence of such a huge layer of Russian manor music, we've never studied it in visic college or academy.

We were presented with vocal part of this collection to perform and introduce to music custom.

Certainly this is great honour which rarely falls to musician's lot – to prepare a world premiere, the opening of Early Native Music!

- What did you feel when you got those music prints?

- At first we felt pretty much the same as those archeologists who excavated Troy . And then the long, laborious work began. We cautiously and carefully tried to read and understand these prints. Gradually we realized that the musicians of the previous centuries were much more professional than contemporary ones. You see we know only modern conceptual music of the end of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries, the whole music education was based on it for a very long time. Our music has its own conception while the music of the previous centuries appealed to feelings. And only after we more or less analyzed the notebooks, have we realized what a treasure we are holding in our hands. This treasure is the Russian sentimental music of the end of the XVIII – the beginning of the XIX centuries, and each of us has a kind of genetic understanding of this music.

Last year we presented this program, and you should have seen how the audience perceived it! We called our concert “Sweet-Hearted Consolations”.

- Do you plan to release a CD with this music?

- Yes, we do, but you can listen to only our performing of it so far. I think the ‘Sweet-Hearted

Consolations' concert will be held in the end of January.

- Does such music interest foreigners?

- Yes, very much. But in order to be world-wide famous it should be “promoted” and we Russians are not used to promoting our culture. That is why many of our native composers standing at one level with Mozart and Beethoven are hardly known outside Russia . You can't live without it – a good PR was (and still is) the base.

But there is a certain nobility in Early Music, it can't be PR-ed as any modern pop song. Besides, PR is a totally different activity, and musicians shouldn't deal with it, we should try to improve our performing.

- In every century music needed the support of the high and mighty…

- Today these wonderful people called ‘sponsors' prefer to invest money in different brand-new ‘sparkling' girls and all that. Fortunately, there are people fond of early music who help us a lot, but don't want to be categorized as ‘sponsors' because their support is sincere and unselfish.

- Your life is full of music. Do you wish to take a break from it?

- As they say, find the job to your liking and you never will work. That is why I am a happy person – I never work.

16.01.2006

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