G.P.

Tomorrow my old teacher from St Petersburg Conservatory, Leonid Korchmar will arrive to Finland to teach on a master class organized by me. I have been toying with this idea ever since I moved back to Finland from St Petersburg, but only now I had enough contacts, enough free time and enough willpover to push through with this project.

I have gathered a group of open-minded conductors and conducting students who are curious enough to take a look at the Russian school of conducting. Or "one Russian school of conducting" would probably be a better description, since many schools coexist in Russia, most of them good or at least highly interesting.

What is so special about the so-called "Russian school of conducting"? I think the remarkable characteristic of Russian musicians is their scientific approach towards mastering their instrument. For example, Russians took the violin, an Italian instrument, and looked very carefully at how to perfect the technique of playing this instrument. And see - they have generally the very best school of string playing in the whole world (and yes, the teachers of the great violin players these days coming from Korea and China either are Russian or studied in Soviet Union)! The same thing they succeeded in doing with piano playing!

Now, conducting is totally a different matter, since there is no physical instrument to play on. But nevertheless several Russian teachers tried to codify the technique of influencing this human instrument. And they paid great attention to the fact that this instrument is very sensitive to subtle emotional and psychological impulses.

There are other "conducting systems" too, of course, but somehow they all fail to give the whole picture of conducting. So many times the conducting books are either traffic policing manuals or simply consist of a bag of tricks without underlying basis for technique. I have studied conducting in three countries and done several master classes in different parts of the world, and met so many conductors from all over the world during competitions that I can say with confidence: The Russian schools of conducting produce the most even output of professional and technically solid conductors. Why can't the West compete in this field? I have my opinions on that, but let's discuss it some other time!

Friday the 13th, the final day of the master class! Well, despite the ominous date everything went fine! I enjoyed some beautiful performances in the final orchestra rehearsal - especially Oleg Soldatov's interpretation of Don Juan by Richard Strauss! He is already an experienced conductor who gets what he wants from the orchestra. Still he is ambitious and curious enough to come to master classes to learn more! I have high respect for him!

Oleg Soldatov conducting Don Juan

After the rehearsal we gave roses to the orchestra players to thank them for the good work. They were a fantastic master class orchestra with a friendly but professional attitude. I am sure every participant got an honest evaluation of their skills just by listening how the orchestra played under their direction.

Maestro Simonov rehearsing

After that we took a bus ride to Gödöllö, to a beautiful palace where the final concert was to take place. The orchestra played in open air, in less than ideal circumstances. Nevertheless the result was good! Maestro Simonov demonstrated his virtuosity in preparing the Mendelssohn violin concerto for concert with barely more than a run-through of the piece. The rest of the program was from our master class repertoire.

Open air concert in Gödöllö

Maestro Simonov's conducting was really pleasurable to watch even though the orchestra's power was reduced without proper acoustics. When the evening got darker they also had to compete with birdsong! Afterwards we had a nice coctail party and paid a visit to one of the three surviving baroque theaters in Europe, located inside the palace and recently restored.

Jolly master class participants after the concert

The partying continued late that night in a sentimental mood. After all, it is so hard to let go of your new friends and colleagues after working so hard side by side for ten days!

Heikki Seppänen gets his diploma

The official closing of the master class was held on Saturday morning. We were served a fantastic meal with good wine and people gave speeches in emotional state... We also got our master class diplomas, and maestro Simonov would speak briefly about every participant, evaluating their progress and giving advice for the future - all this in highly encouraging and poetic manner. Besides the diploma, everyone got a letter of advice from maestro, as well as a photo of all the participants with their contacts, and a new baton with our name inscribed onto it! We also got a DVD of our orchestra rehearsals and maestro Simonov's first rehearsal before the master class started!

After the lunch it was time for emotional goodbyes... Maestro Simonov encouraged all the participants to keep in touch with each other and help each other in the profession. Needlessly, I would say, since everyone seemed to have made great friends during the master class!