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What concerns the arrangements for this specific project, it was like that:
As a child I was very much impressed by ballet and dance,
One could move to music, which I could not do having my instrument in the hand.
But this was a need that is in me - to combine music and movement.
Many works of the ballet repertory are also my personal favorites that I like very much.
And I have always dreamed to play them myself.
I think that for arrangements it is most important to keep the familiar tunes
and to create the athmosphere arount them with elements, that are already
included in the music, that are already there.
In Sheherezade there are the famous soli for violin - also in the original -
but the whole rest is indeed for the entire orchestra. There were also some points
where I thought to myself: I do not know how one can implement that. I am always
like that: I want - even if it does not seem to be possible - I really want the sound
and the atmosphere generated at this point by the orchestra to be repoduced
just by the violin and the piano. Of course this is often difficult because then I will say:
"Matthias, now you have to play that horn part and you really have to sound like one.
It has to be like that!"
Then it happens frequently, that one thinks: "This will not work - and then it does work.
or one says "Try this on the violin - maybe that will work better."
Sometimes that works well, but sometimes this results in the necessety
that one has to make cuts.
Pianists have the advantage that many original piano works
were adapted for piano solo - or vice versa, piano works were arranged for orchestra.
The problem then is that one would need at least one additional hand -
and in spite of all the possibilities of the piano, there are still not enough colors.
And now the phrase is repeated once again, only one octave higher ...
It is very appropriate - of course only if possible and playable -
to use double stops to get additional voices or to add more colours.
Like that the voice gets a completely different meaning and support.
and this gives us the possibility that all options we do not have without orchestra
can be compensated by level and sound.
The trick - if there is ever one - is that you hear in your head before recording
how it should sound like when the music comes from the speakers.
If you play with a big sound, in a symphonic way and with a lot of power,
then I have - at least in my head - a clear image of how it will sound in the studio
or how it should sound when editing and mastering.
For me it is very important that dance is trying to depict the music
so that we do not move very abstract and detached from the music,
but that all this is a harmonious unison.
So now I would be really interested what actually happens at the moment,
because as far as I can remember you are already on stage and just come closer -
or you approach the balcony, I think ...
You as Romeo in this case
Yes - me Romeo. In that scene it is the third meeting of Romeo and Juliet.
and this gives us the possibility that all options we do not have without orchestra
The first is on the ball in the company of all, the second then after the ball alone.
And in this case, it is the entrance of Romeo - Juliet is already on the balcony -
and Romeo walks around the stage (in the choreography of John Cranko)
and points up to Juliet for the first time.
Could you tap the beat while we play this music?
How could you dance it, at what speed?
Ok, as I said for us dancers, the differences are minimal - so if I say slower,
that is maybe 2 or 3% slower. So this is really minimal.
Don't slow down to much here!
Ah ok - what happens at that moment?
He suffocates at that moment. - What are you doing?
As he goes back from Julia - he stands up and he goes up ...
and if the music does not go on, then he starves to death up there.
How can I realise that, because it is written for orchestra and with dance in addition?
How to make that as a violinist? And then I met Matthias and we found out
that we share passion for dance, for ballet. So we decided make something out of that.
Is that where - I only know the old choreography by Grigorowitsch -
where she comes out of the tent?
Georg Girshenko, Grandfather of Lidia Baich & Violinist in the wold premiere of Spartacus 1956
Khachaturian is regarded as a composer of the Russian school, although he was actually born in Georgia.
In the Caucasus there are people of many different nationalities and he loved to listen to their traditional songs.
He was inspired by these impressions, but because he was trained in Moscow by Russian composers,
by Myaskovsky and Gnessin, he has completed a classical Russian training.
But in his music you can feel the influences from the oriental music, which he combines with russian music.
And it is this combination that makes "Spartacus" unique: What a great music!
The slaves are beaten and the final battle is over. Spartacus and Phrygia walk from
one hurt warrior to another, meet again and it is their last desperate Pas de Deux.
They come together and they understand the hopelessness of everything.
In between there is a section with powerful music - they see the Romans coming ...
This Pas de deux is generally the most beautiful ballet music that exists.
I think we have some common favorite works - those were the first we worked on -
Spartacus by Khachaturian is a piece that we both really like and we have
both been listening to a lot - we knew it already very well.
Yes, that was out of that question that we hade to make that!
Well, this is completely different from the version I know.
The premiere was a colossal success, and what came after the show, you can not put into words
Khachaturian had organized such a banquet that it is hard to imagine what one could get there.
We celebrated with him until the morning hours, so that the morning's rehearsal had to be canceled.
That's how it was .. fantastic!
And what do I do with my hands? - Put them up in the third position!