Art forms are like windows that we bring to watch in another reality / day

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of composer Morris Ravel, Latvian pianist Arta Arnicane, who is a winner of many international competitions, will meet actor Gundars Āboliņš in the program Gundars Āboliņš and Arta Arnicāne. Bodler and Ravel 9 June at the House of Blackheads. Alongside Morris Ravel’s music, Charles Bodler and Alois Bertran will be translated, translated by poet, prose and translator Dagnija Drake specifically for the event.

Why is Morris Ravel and French poetry?

Because he is one of my closest composers. Wanting to complement music with French literature or poetry, we came to Charles Bodlera, because his poetry, like Ravel’s music, focuses on people’s feelings: smells, flavors. At the end of the concert I will play Morris Ravel’s cycle Night visionInspired by Aloise Bertran’s poems, the following are also named cycle pieces: Undine, the rooms and Harsh. I have known these poems since the age of sixteen when I first played this cycle. In the notes they were published in Russian. These poems are so interesting in introducing Ravel’s compositions that I proposed to make poetry in Latvian. Dagnija Drake’s poetry is very beautiful. I think such projects promote further development, as these translations will already be available to pianists in Latvia.

The name of the cycle Night vision Also translates as Night Gaspars.

I’ve read a lot about Ravel’s life and also about these compositions. I have always fascinated the cycle name in the original language: Gaspar de la Nuit. What is that Gaspar? Others say it is a human name, others are night visions. I have found that « Gaspars » in ancient French is a night guard who protects the royal treasure. In fact, it is more of a guardian of darkness, an alternative designation for the devil, and these are the visions of the Dark’s guard: fantasies and dreams, while scary and also beautiful and fascinating. Ghostly visions to night nightmare and fear, but extremely aesthetic.

Ravel is a great master directly in the sound scenery, as he makes the piano as the noise of the surroundings. Here we hear calls, and there are terrible harmony that we no longer perceive as harmony, but as the background that causes the goose. I really like to work directly on these colors that bring in another world, just like cinema. This world of fantasy is very impressive.

When thinking about Charles Bodlaire, Claude’s Piano Preludes also come to mind.

Interestingly, he only gives these prelude the names and moods at the end of the composition. Debbie first allows the music to sound and then says: it was like winds, sails at a distant horizon, heather, girl with linen hair or « sound and scent in the evening air »… The names are extremely poetically and shows how advanced the imagination and fantasy at that time. There was no need for media to have scenes and events in your head. People understood these music messages. Also, as we read books, we begin to see what described there, and each other.

Many authors succeed in getting what you are familiar with becoming yours as if you have always known it. For example, Alexander Dima Three Musketeers The landscapes are so alive that I have vividly imagined places I have never been to and the heroes become real living people. This is a miracle created by art. The art forms are like the windows we open to look at another reality. It is huge, much larger than our world. We open these windows, but we can never see everything at once. Therefore, there is a desire to read the same book or listen to the same piece again.

At the beginning of the conversation, admitted that you were getting stronger. In what sense?

I feel that it’s time not only to show what I can, but also to offer something to people. Music education continues for a very long time, even when studying with professors is over. Gradually, what really fascinates me is crystallized, and I have been able to build quality at a level that I can go on stage with good conscience and give people something that will bring them joy and enjoyment. I have an important academic side, but I am also a very social person, and it is very important for me to reach out to the listeners, to give a personal dedication to every presentation and in the record.

Why should people listen to me? These doubts have always been because there are so many other outstanding musicians. Now I started to feel who are the directions I have understood, went into and felt all the cell and I want to develop further.

Who are they?

I am interested in a musical narrative. That’s why I often choose thematic programs. I already have this quite a lot: the water program, Birds of butterfly paradise, forest and myths UC Ravels is also thematic because his world is very united. It is a world of fantasy with sound, taste, smell and extremely sophisticated pianism. This is the next important question: how do the piano sound? They are called a string instrument, percussion and keyboard. It is important to me that the piano sings. I have almost an unrealistic desire not to hear the touch. Let the sound flow, not the hammer to tap the string. This is my biggest challenge I have been to for decades. The complex construction of the piano allows a lot of nuances. In my opinion, in real art, any tool becomes an idea. Then it is not an instrument, but an idea, and then all kinds of miracles can happen.

Is it an important role in the middle pedal?

I love sostenuto pedal very much. This is a grateful way to create a voluminous sound without mixing the color of harmony.

Which directions are still important to you?

I am also very close to Vienna’s classic, its subtlety and elegance. I really enjoy playing with orchestras. I am glad that I have many concerts every year with different orchestras in different countries and continents, small halls and huge halls. I am constantly expanding this repertoire. I really like to play sound scenery inspired opuses: Manuela de Faljas Nights in Spanish gardens And Kamil Sensans Piano Concerto. Mozart’s piano concerts always feel at home.

What are the most important creative events of recent times?

I have completed a very large project – a new album recording, where I recorded 24 songs by Jānis Mediņš. I recorded this album at Latvian Radio 1 studio and will be released by Marina Rebecca brand Prima classic. So good cooperation I have not had any entry brand so far! The cover design is already ready, I am still writing the texts of the booklet. I would also like to offer cognitions from folklore, but I am stabbing unexpected obstacles: access to the songs and the Daina cabinet is very difficult and disorganized, the website works very badly and it is very difficult to find something. I am amazed that bookstores in Riga cannot buy songs, I am unsuccessfully looking for Vaira Vike-Freiberga’s edition Sunshine… Only the library remains, but I do not live in Latvia…

But I have read the autobiography of John Medina Tones and halftone. David’s Angel’s arranged also helped a lot and Musica Baltica The published New Jānis Mediņš Songs Edition (2019), in which they are finally compiled in one series. In his music, I hear so much Latvian nature. I walked through the debris meadows and the smell of fog late at night, I see sunsets and hear the sea. There are both real and fantasy folk song tunes. One of the songs also has a very sad, dramatic folk song – The little one was, I didn’t see. In the autobiography of the composer Tones and halftone I read that he had heard this folk song at home when a student came to his father to play it on the violin. As I read the autobiography, I also learned how much Medin has loved the opera and how important the element of the singing is in his piano music. I was so deeply into all that it had become part of me. I am glad to be able to give listeners compositions, which most in Latvia are almost unknown.

Janis Mediņš has its 135th anniversary this year and will also be dedicated to the 14th Riga International Young Piano Competition, organized by my mom pianist Nora Lūse, but I participate in the jury. It will take place in October in Riga – close to Medin’s birthday on October 9th or after the old calendar on September 27, when my birthday is. There is also such a link among us.

Have you fallen in love with Switzerland?

From my balcony in Zurich, I can happily see the Alpine landscape with snowy mountain peaks. Now that both of my boys andrin and Albert have grown up, I am determined to leave more. Usually it has to be combined with a concert. Last week I performed in Bern and took the opportunity to visit my beloved colleague cellist Gunta Abel. On Sunday, we walked with the children with classic Swiss meadows with Alpine landscapes.

Do you also play together?

Yes, right now we are creating a romantic, slightly feminine duo program, which we plan to record later on the CD. It also contains several pieces of Latvian composers.

Which pianist game is especially close to you?

My professor Homero Francis, who is unfortunately unknown in Latvia, although he was extremely famous in Europe. Every year, I realize that his pianism has been exactly what I have been looking for: very elegant, soft, flexible movements of the fingers and hands that allow piano singing, and extremely disciplined intelligence, analyzing and interpreting the composer’s instructions. I couldn’t do more than getting to his class and gaining this huge experience. Now he has moved back to his homeland Uruguay, but the contact continues. He has become my musical godfather. I have also quite often played in Uruguay – with an orchestra Montevideo. Last year was the seventh time.

Or do you do pedagogy yourself?

I have a very large class at the Zurich Conservatory. It is a great pleasure that students are evolving, winning competitions and choosing further music studios, but I consider myself a concert pianist and a hobby -pedagogue, because the performance is my main mission.

Will you go to the Riga City Council elections?

Definitely. By the way, Swiss schools have a subject policy, and I think it should be taught in Latvia as well.