The Rite of Spring is probably the most exciting piece of orchestral music ever to have been written. Composed by Igor Stravinsky, and conceived originally as a ballet score, it first hit the stage in Paris in 1913 with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. A riot famously erupted that first night at the Champs- Elysées theatre where the primeval rhythms and the dissonance in Stravinsky’s highly inventive score, was just one step too far for some Parisians.

Scroll up one hundred years plus – and The Rite of Spring is now recognised as a modernistic masterpiece in classical music which still sounds fresh and new to this day.

Eager to see this momentous work performed live, ArtMuseLondon’s Karine Hetherington travelled to Strasbourg last weekend, to see one of France’s top orchestras, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, play to a packed house. First stop however, was a meeting pre-concert with the orchestra’s charismatic conductor and music director, Aziz Shokhakimov.

ArtMuse: You conducted your first orchestra aged thirteen. What made you decide to take up conducting as such a young age? 

Aziz : At six years old, I was entered into a music school as a violinist. At eleven, my mother suggested I take singing lessons (she is a singer of jazz and folk songs). One day, my singing teacher said to me, ‘Maybe you can ask the conductor to perform these songs for a concert. My mother went to the professor with my recordings. He listened and liked them very much and invited me to join his chamber orchestra as a singer. So I was singing Italian songs, Santa Lucia , Sole mio, this kind of thing, He said one day – you seem a talented person, maybe  I can give you some exercises for conducting, for the coordination – because for conducting – it’s very important to have independence of the hands. I did it easily. He was very surprised. Then he gave me some piano scores to do the orchestration,   I was soon conducting the orchestra of the music school. And this is how it started.  And sometimes in rehearsals, there were some instruments missing. And so I was at the piano playing the instrument, and this is how I learned how to do the transposition of instruments. So you can say that I learnt conducting in the most natural way.

.ArtMuse: What makes a good conductor then?

Aziz : It’s a combination of many things. It’s very complex.

.ArtMuse: Surely it is your ability to bring out the best in the orchestra?

Aziz: Yes- all conductors have their own methods of doing this. But I’m  always trying with my career to find the right balance – to inspire the musicians to play well but also to make them rehearse properly. To work on the details.

ArtMuse: For the Rite of Spring, what are the challenges of the piece? For you and the orchestra?

Aziz : There are several – one of the challenges is to bring Stravinsky’s score clearly to the public. It’s such a perfectly written piece.The second thing is to show the wild energy of the piece.

ArtMuse: On the concert programme, I see that you have included some contrasting works by Mozart and Debussy to the Rite of Spring.

Aziz: I thought it was a good idea to open the concert with  Debussy’s orchestral work, ‘Spring’ . It is a very different piece of music from the ‘Rite of Spring’ and it is interesting to note that both Stravinsky’s and Debussy’s work premiered in the same year – 1913. However by that time, Debussy’s orchestral score was lost and the arrangement we are playing tonight by H. Büsser, was played instead.

ArtMuse: What excites you about conducting? What motivates you to get up in the morning?

Aziz: The music. And I love the people. I really enjoy the moment, on stage and off, when I am with the musicians. We are a community. It gives you some special energy as a conductor.

ArtMuse: If you had the budget, what musical project would you like to undertake?

Aziz : Maybe Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

ArtMuse : Any favourite composers?

Aziz: I have many favourites starting with Bach, Brahms, Mahler, Shostokovich. And Wagner!

ArtMuse: What are you playing next season? 

Aziz – I am very excited – we are playing Shostakovich’s 7th symphony in Strasbourg and at the Philharmonie. And the rest is to be announced soon.

ArtMuse: How do you relax?

Aziz: Well, I’m addicted to chess. I play badly and do it mostly online. But sometimes I play with my son who is almost eight and he’s very good. I also love table tennis. We play here in the concert hall during the breaks. I really like to play football too with the musicians.

ArtMuse: Do you miss your homeland? 

Aziz: Of course.  I try to visit my parents in Uzbekistan for a couple of days, every three months. Tashkent, the city where I grew up, has changed. Every time I go there, there are new buildings. Unfortunately it’s bad for the environment. Growing up in Tashkent I was surrounded by beautiful nature.

KH

Aziz Shokhakimov and the Strasbourg Philharmonic have just released Daphnis et Chloé by Maurice Ravel on Warner classics : https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/ravel-daphnis-et-chloe-0https://philharmonique.strasbourg.eu/