The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its Casual Series season opener on Saturday with critically acclaimed Russian-American pianist and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Recognized internationally as one of today’s most gifted artists, he will lead Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 11” from the keyboard, followed by Schubert’s “Symphony No. 4 Tragic.”
The Examiner recently caught up with Solzhenitsyn in Philadelphia, where his is now serving his fifth season as the music director of the city’s Chamber Orchestra.
Your versatility as an award-winning artist extends to conducting as well as to piano performance. Do you prefer one over the other?
Both are important to me, and I feel fortunate to pursue both full time, [but] I am increasingly tilting the focus toward conducting. The piano is like an orchestra in its range and what it’s able to do with harmonies, bass and treble. Pianists tend to be more analytical and [therefore] conductors.
In his piano concertos, Mozart strove to please a diverse audience, writing to his father that these works “are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult … they are pleasing to the ear.” Is Mozart a composer for all levels of audience understanding and appreciation?
Most certainly. I think the quote sums it up. Mozart was an astonishing genius, but he probably tempered his limitless capacity with his desire to be open to everybody. At the time of [“Piano Concerto No. 11”] he was coming to the zenith of his talent and was focused on being successful. Mozart is all things to everyone; his music is so perfectly proportioned, so effortlessly laid out – at least on the surface. I cannot think of a more approachable composer.
Franz Schubert was greatly influenced by Mozart. How does the pairing of Mozart’s piano concerto and Schubert’s “Symphony No. 4” illustrate that influence?
In the two, there’s an extraordinary likeness of texture, an utter ease of melodic invention. Schubert’s melody is never forced and amazingly frail. People will hear in [Mozart’s] “Piano Concerto” one of the most gentle and introverted [melodies] in the Mozart genre.
What draws you to this period of Viennese composers and their works?
I think [Mozart and Schubert] combine in their music a uniquely perfect balance between mind and heart, equilibrium between emotion and reason. That’s a big reason why they remain so beloved.
Are you looking forward to your Baltimore visit?
Very much. I’ve been here two or three times as a soloist, but never as conductor. I guess the best way to present it is to say I’m a conductor who plays the piano.
If you go
BSO Casual Series: Mozart and Schubert
Where: Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore
When: 11 a.m. Saturday
Tickets: $20 to $60
More info: 410-783-8000 or www.bsomusic.org
