Philip Chizhevsky conductor biography personal life. Philip Chizhevsky: “The audience needs current

conductor

Born in 1984 in Moscow. Graduated from Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky in the following specialties: choral conducting (class of Prof. S. S. Kalinin, 2008) and opera and symphony conducting (class people's artist Russian prof. V.K. Polyansky, 2010). Laureate of the All-Russian Conducting Competition (Moscow, 2008).

From 2008 to 2011 - Artistic director and conductor of the State Choir music college them. Gnesins, teacher specializing in conducting.

In 2008 he founded the ensemble Questa Musica, with which he carried out a number of

major projects in Russia and abroad.

Since 2011 - teacher at Moscow State Conservatory named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky.

Since 2011 - conductor of the State Academic Symphony Chapel of Russia (artistic director Valery Polyansky).

In September 2012, at the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of Philip Chizhevsky, the premiere of Sergei Nevsky’s opera “Francis” took place, and in October 2012 - the premiere performance of Michael Nyman’s opera “Prologue to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas” with the State Concert Hall of Russia orchestra in Perm. In 2013, with the ensemble Questa Musica, he staged “The Story of a Soldier” by I. Stravinsky (choreography by Oleg Glushkov). Since 2014 he has been conductor of the Bolshoi Theater. In 2014, he staged Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte” at the Buryat State academic theater opera and ballet (produced by Hans-Joachim Frei). Is musical director first Baroque Festival at the Bolshoi Theater (season 2014/2015).

In June 2015, together with director Boris Yukhananov, he staged the opera series “The Drillers” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater, which includes world premieres of operas by leading Russian composers: Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexey Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexey Sysoev and Vladimir Rannev.

Since 2016, Philip Chizhevsky has been collaborating with Tokio New Sity Orchestra (Japan, Tokyo).

In February 2016, with Questa Musica, he took part in the Baroque Music Festival in Linz (Austria). Together with violinist Roman Mints, he recorded the music of Leonid Desyatnikov (“Sketches for Sunset” and “Russian Seasons”). Is the artistic director of II International Festival Orthodox singing “The Enlightener” (Fr. Valaam). As part of the V festival of contemporary music “Another Space”, together with V. Yurovsky and F. Ibragimov, he performed the Russian premiere of Stockhausen’s work “Groups” for three orchestras and three conductors.

Twice nominated for the Golden Mask theater award for better job conductor (2013 S. Nevsky’s opera “Francis”, Grand Theatre and 2016 opera series “The Drillers”, Stanislavsky Electrotheater)

Member of the theater award jury Golden Mask» 2017

Collaborates with leading Russian and foreign orchestras, including: Tokio New City Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor - Alexander Markovits), Brandenburgische Staatsorchester (artistic director Howard Griffiths), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Theater Orchestra New Opera"(chief conductor Jan Latham-Koenig), National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia (artistic director: Vladimir Spivakov), New Russia (artistic director: Yuri Bashmet), Russian Philharmonic (artistic director: Dmitry Yurovsky), State Symphony Orchestra. E. F. Svetlanova (art director: Vladimir Yurovsky), Musica Viva (art director: Alexander Rudin).

Born in 1984 in Moscow. Graduated from Moscow State Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky in the following specialties: choral conducting (class of Prof. S.S. Kalinin, 2008) and opera and symphony conducting (class of People's Artist of Russia Prof. V.K. Polyansky, 2010). Laureate of the All-Russian Conducting Competition (Moscow, 2008).

From 2008 to 2011 - Artistic director and conductor of the choir of the State Music College named after. Gnesins, teacher specializing in conducting. In 2008 he founded the ensemble Questa Musica, with which he carried out a number of major projects in Russia and abroad.

Since 2011 - teacher at Moscow State Conservatory named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky. Since 2011 - conductor of the State Academic Symphony Chapel of Russia (artistic director Valery Polyansky).

In September 2012, at the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of Philip Chizhevsky, the premiere of Sergei Nevsky's opera "Francis" took place, and in October 2012 - the premiere performance of Michael Nyman's opera "Prologue to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas" with the State Concert Hall of Russia orchestra in Perm. In 2013, with the ensemble Questa Musica, he staged “The Story of a Soldier” by I. Stravinsky (choreography by Oleg Glushkov). Since 2014 he has been conductor of the Bolshoi Theater. In 2014, he staged Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte” at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (produced by Hans-Joachim Frei). He is the musical director of the first Baroque Festival at the Bolshoi Theater (season 2014/2015).

In June 2015, together with director Boris Yukhananov, he staged the opera series “The Drillers” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater, which includes world premieres of operas by leading Russian composers: Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexey Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexey Sysoev and Vladimir Rannev.

Since 2016, Philip Chizhevsky has been collaborating with Tokio New Sity Orchestra (Japan, Tokyo). In February 2016, with Questa Musica, he took part in the Baroque Music Festival in Linz (Austria). Together with violinist Roman Mints, he recorded the music of Leonid Desyatnikov (“Sketches for Sunset” and “Russian Seasons”). He is the artistic director of the II International Festival of Orthodox singing “Enlightener” (Fr. Valaam). As part of the V festival of contemporary music “Another Space”, together with V. Yurovsky and F. Ibragimov, he performed the Russian premiere of Stockhausen’s work “Groups” for three orchestras and three conductors. Twice nominated for the Golden Mask theater award for the best work of a conductor (2013 S. Nevsky’s opera “Francis”, Bolshoi Theater and 2016 opera series “Sverliytsy”, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre)

Member of the jury of the Golden Mask theater award 2017.

Collaborates with leading Russian and foreign orchestras, including: Tokio New City Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor - Alexander Markovits), Brandenburgische Staatsorchester (artistic director Howard Griffiths), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New Opera Theater Orchestra ( chief conductor Jan Latham-Konig), National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia (artistic director Vladimir Spivakov), New Russia (artistic director Yuri Bashmet), Russian Philharmonic (artistic director Dmitry Yurovsky), State Symphony Orchestra. E. F. Svetlanova (art director: Vladimir Yurovsky), Musica Viva (art director: Alexander Rudin).

Philip Chizhevsky, conductor of the Questa Musica ensemble, told the site about what stands between classical and modern music, whether it is worth playing a symphony without a conductor, and what has never happened at the Bolshoi Theater.

KSENIA FEZ: Philip, what are your musical plans for the near future?

PHILIP CHIZHEVSKY: ~ Since this season I have been working at the Bolshoi Theater. And next season, my orchestra Questa Musica and I will give concerts at historical instruments. You have already heard a concert in Moscow with: something similar will begin at the Bolshoi Theater, where, as you know, strange music, for example Handel, has never been performed on the instruments of that historical era, to which this music belongs. We will have several projects with youth artists opera program, which is led by Dmitry Yurievich Vdovin.

I believe that any music should be performed authentically: both historical and modern, that is, in the manner and style of the era in which it was written. Historical musical instruments: gut strings, low tuning and other attributes are not an end in themselves for me. But if it is possible to use such instruments, and if there are musicians who own them, then this adds charm and flavor to the sound.

How are things going with the current classics? Do you work with modern Russian composers?

~ I have to carry out a big project of five operas modern composers. Now we have five names of leading avant-garde composers - quite young, all in their early 40s: Sergei Nevsky, Dmitry Kurlyansky, Boris Filanovsky, Vladimir Rannev and Alexey Simak. This will be five performances with a libretto by Boris Yukhananov, who, in fact, will play the role of director. The program is quite extensive: at first it will consist of 5 separate performances, and then it will narrow down to a marathon program of modern operas.

All living composers with whom I have collaborated write in different styles: everyone is looking for their musical path. The pleasure we get from performing quality music is easy to convey to the public. The forms of modern classical sound can only be found experimentally. We are pioneers in our era. In some decades this music will be looked at as a classical repertoire: some will be forgotten, some will remain.

How do audiences perceive new composers?

~I am happy to work with people who are responsible for the notes they write, and not just create an abstraction, which is a common technique in contemporary art generally.

An interesting fact is that for an audience that is not musically prepared, but inquisitive, the emotion that they receive from what they listen to is important. We convey this emotion by playing a Mozart sonata or an avant-garde piece - it doesn’t matter. The audience needs current.

Modern classical music can even use non-musical instruments: from wooden boxes to anvils. But for slim musical composition their parts must be written just as carefully as for strings, for example.

On the one hand play modern music It’s simpler: no one has done this before you - you do it as you want. When performing classical music, one should adhere to traditions and canons. But the moment of interpretation and transformation in music is also very important to me. Authentic performance is wonderful, but music is not a vacuum, Mozart’s masterpieces rush through the centuries, therefore, in my opinion, it is important to introduce the nuances of a modern interpretation, without forgetting the experience of previous generations. Then the music will breathe. Whether we are doing it right or wrong - time will tell, sweeping aside all unnecessary things.

Please tell us about your profession as a conductor. In addition to directing the orchestra, does the conductor have the function of communicating with the audience through plasticity?

It doesn’t matter whether the conductor is restrained or expressive, the only thing that matters is how the orchestra plays. If the conductor's plasticity is justified, and the musicians understand him, then this good concert. Now almost any classic you can play without a conductor. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a Persimfans orchestra, in which the conductor was replaced by the first violinist-accompanist: he showed the aftertaste. With a conductor, one symphony takes three rehearsals, without a conductor - much more.

If we talk about classical music, then the conductor’s function is much broader. It lies not only in how he distributes the aftertaste, but in how he gives direction to this music, how he controls the breathing of the orchestra. An orchestra can play rhythmically, ideally in terms of all the nuances and touches, but the music will be absolutely dead - it will be uninteresting to listen to. A conductor is needed to add fire, build phrases, round them off, put accents - control movement.

In communicating with each of my musicians of the Questa Musica ensemble, I insist that every time he perform the part as if no one had performed it before, not even himself.

Official website of the ensemble

On the Small Stage Musical theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko will host the Russian premiere of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “The Triumph of Time and Insensibility” in May.

The director of the play was Konstantin Bogomolov, who turned to musical theater for the first time.

Created a new libretto famous writer, screenwriter, artist Vladimir Sorokin.

The ensemble Questa Musica under the direction of Philip Chizhevsky is responsible for the musical component.

Shortly before the premiere, the conductor spoke about this oratorio and Handel’s music.

— Philip, as I know, Konstantin Bogomolov planned to stage “The Triumph of Time and Insensibility” three years ago. How did it happen that you became part of the already discussed performance?

— Anton Getman invited me, and on my birthday. He said that he already had an agreement with Kostya, and now he needs me and my musicians. True, he made it a condition to play historical instruments.

For me this offer was the most the best gift! “Triumph...” is a very complex and unusual project. This oratorio contains four allegorical asexual figures. I suggested that Kostya do it completely men's history, and he immediately jumped on the idea. We have four wonderful soloists, we held the first block of rehearsals with the orchestra, came up with something for continuo... But I won’t reveal all the secrets.

— You already had experience working on Handel’s music - both on the oratorio “Messiah” and on the opera “Rodelinda” - together with Christopher Moulds. Now it is one of the early creations of the great composer.

— Yes, this, as you know, is his first oratorio. We are playing the earliest version, written for his Italian patrons in 1707. Handel turned to this work thirty years later (1737), and it turned out to be half English, half Italian. And then another 20 years later (1757) the oratorio was performed entirely in English.

For Handel, this is an absolutely “avant-garde” opus. I don't like this word. After all, in principle, Handel is a rather “combed” composer. All his music is beautiful, euphonious - simply the Igor Krutoy of his time. And if you listen to the aria “Gentle Morpheus” from “Alceste”, then this clean water ABBA style.

Of course, it's the other way around, but the meaning of what I want to say is clear. In his youth, Handel still had a “wolf” sense of smell. And then he calmed down somewhat.

— In “The Triumph of Time and Insensibility” there is no the most important thing for an oratorio - the choir. One would like to call this work an opera. But, as Larisa Valentinovna Kirillina writes in her book about Handel, by order of Pope Clement XI, public opera performances in Rome from 1700 to 1721 were not allowed. Don't you think that Handel encrypted his work in this way?

- Certainly. Handel wanted to write an opera. But he was still a young man, and, as they say, he did not need problems. That's why the opera became an oratorio. There are quite a lot of composer's discoveries in the score - for example, a completely written out organ solo part. This is quite rare in his music.

In addition to gorgeous duets and arias (by the way, one aria later migrated to the opera “Rinaldo”), there are only two recitative accompaniments and two quartets, one of them full-length (“Voglio tempo”). How many similar examples do we know from him, where four people sing at the same time? This is a unique example.

In “Triumph...” the Italian style of writing is clearly felt, primarily due to the abundance of “bel canto”, the germs of which are very clearly visible. The parts of the vocalists are written in the wildest complexity! Soloists must have phenomenal technique.

Handel, like many of his colleagues, treats voices instrumentally. Let's say he has two oboes playing small notes, and then he immediately launches this texture in a vocal duet. It feels like he's mocking him a little. Handel was then 22 years old, he was overwhelmed Vital energy, he was not afraid to experiment.

But many years later he looked at his younger self through the prism of a mature musician, as Bruckner would later do when returning to his first symphony in last years life.

— Konstantin Bogomolov called Cardinal Pamphilj’s libretto “rotten.” Do you agree with him?

- I guess, yes. In general, if we look at some examples of librettos of that time, we will hardly find anything super interesting. In Pamphilya everything is clear - Pleasure says to Beauty: “You will always be beautiful.” And Time answers: “No, everything ends someday...” Well, everything is around that.

And for Kostya, as a theatrical person, a more precise embodiment of this conventional plot is important. What did Sorokin do with the text? He just went and wrote his text! Although, of course, echoes of Pamphilya remained. I think it's incredibly well done. A very interesting solution. Here we are looking at a picture - if we guess the angle and at what angle the artist applied this or that stroke, then this picture is revealed to us. It seems to me that Sorokin did the same. He figured out Handel.

— The text of the libretto was in tune with the era. Would it be interesting? to the modern viewer this whole complex of symbols and allegories? Or is a radical decision necessary, as is the case with Sorokin’s version?

— I don’t think that the oratorio in the original historical production will be boring. But we have our own way. Surely you saw the production by Krzysztof Warlikowski in Aix-en-Provence, where in the last aria Beauty opens its veins. Everything is different with us. An artist who takes on something new for himself wants to say a lot, convey a lot to the viewer. Moreover, he is an accomplished artist.

— There was no triumph at the premiere of the oratorio, but do you think we will have one?

“I can say one thing for sure – it will be interesting.” Even now, during the rehearsal process, we feel fresh. Naturally, we play on “veins”, but I tell my musicians: friends, forget that you are baroque performers.

We look at this music through the prism of our time - both in terms of structure and in terms of articulation, strokes, dynamics. We need to look for other ways out. Yes, we know that we need to slow down here and go forward here. But why should we adhere to this 100%? We play the latest music, but we can perform baroque music from the same “look”.

In “The Triumph of Time and Insensibility” there will be a Handel, perhaps unlike the one we are used to hearing. We are making an atypical Handel. But on historical instruments.

Elena Musayelyan

The young conductor and his wife talk about their ensemble Questa Musica - one of the most pleasant new products in Moscow musical life

Philip Chizhevsky is a name that has finally extended the list of conductors who are “the right ones to follow” in Moscow, and has moved Teodor Currentzis and Vladimir Yurovsky from the category of “young” to the category of “mature”. Chizhevsky received a diploma from the Moscow Conservatory in 2008 choral conductor, in 2010 - opera and symphony. Since January 2011, he has been working in the State Academic Symphony Chapel of Russia (directed by Valery Polyansky). But back in 2008, together with his wife Maria Griliches, he founded the ensemble Questa Musica, whose popularity Lately grows like a snowball. The ensemble specializes in works of the Renaissance and Baroque, as well as works by contemporary composers. Among the large-scale projects are the production of Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas”, the performance of Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” together with the Mark Pekarsky percussion ensemble, an opera by Sergei NevskyOutlandat "Platform" and "Francis" at the Bolshoi Theater, Dmitry Kurlyandsky's opera "The Drillers". Very soon there will be another premiere on the Platform - “Passion” by Alexander Manotskov. ELENA MUSAELYAN spoke with the creators of the ensemble.

- Who came up with the idea of ​​creating the ensemble? Questa Musica?

Maria Griliches: The idea belonged to the composer Sasha Matveeva, who studied at the same time as us at the composition department of the Moscow Conservatory, and, one might say, initially this was her production project.

Philip Chizhevsky: We invited my friends from the Academy of Choral Art and immediately recorded a demo disc, which included compositions that had little connection with each other, it was such a medley: both Russian sacred music and folk songs, and classics, and even spirituals.

Griliches: Soon we went on our first tour to Venice and gave a concert of Russian sacred music there. And the second season started with solo concert at the House of Music. This was the birth of the ensemble Questa Musica- the core of the guys who were with us then still remain in our main lineup. Soon after this concert, Sasha separated from us, and Philip and I began to pull this burden together.

The posters indicate that artistic director The ensemble is Maria, and the conductor is Philip. So you divided creative and administrative responsibilities within your family tandem?

Griliches: We do not have a clear division that I am only the organizer, and Philip is the creator. We do everything together - for example, there was a rehearsal, and then we talk through everything together, discuss some creative moments. There were several projects that I conducted, but, naturally, chief conductor- Philip. And, of course, he helps me in terms of organization. On some poster they wrote that Philip Chizhevsky was both artistic director and conductor, on some they didn’t write, and at first we were jealous of this - which of us was which. And now I don’t care at all, it doesn’t matter to me at all.

- Ensemble Questa Musica unusual for its versatility. As a rule, there are either instrumental chamber ensembles, or vocal-choral, and Questa Musica includes both vocal and instrumental parts.

Griliches: Initially Questa Musica was a vocal ensemble, but later instrumentalists began to join us - first for individual projects. And then they somehow grew very close to us.

When the conductor opens the score, and nothing is clear there at all, one will immediately close it, and the other, on the contrary, will say “wow.”

Chizhevsky: You know, Questa Musica in Masha’s and my understanding, these are two people, she and me. Because we had projects with completely different compositions, where I did not act as a conductor, but, for example, sang. There was a performance of Gesualdo's madrigals, when I read the text and even played the percussion instruments. Let’s take projects such as Sergei Nevsky’s “Francis” at the Bolshoi Theater, when we had both a choir and a fairly large orchestra. When we performed Stravinsky’s “Le Noces,” the choir and soloists were ours, we invited drummers from Pekarsky’s ensemble, and the pianists were conservatory teachers: Yuri Martynov, Ivan Sokolov, Mikhail Dubov, Vyacheslav Poprugin...

Griliches: Of course, now there is a permanent core in both the vocal and instrumental parts of the ensemble. This is about eight singers and about fifteen instrumentalists who constantly collaborate with us. When the same composition is maintained, the ensemble grows from time to time. And I, as an artistic director, always fight to ensure that this backbone is preserved as much as possible. Ideally, of course, we would like not to have to select one composition for modern music, and another for ancient music. There are some versatile guys who are equally proficient with both live and modern tools, and that is, of course, amazing.

Chizhevsky: When we do projects with early music, there are some nuances, for example, with brass players. There are only a few trumpeters playing natural trumpets in Russia, which is why they migrate from group to group. It's the same with horns. By the way, we do not believe that all music, say, of the classical era must be played on gut strings and in 30th tuning. It's certainly interesting, and if you have enough time, why not? But this is not an end in itself. After all, you can pay more attention to articulation, composition, stroke, and everything will sound very good and close to authentic. After all, we live in the 21st century, and you can vary all this in terms of sound, make some kind of mixes, syntheses, which at first glance are not very digestible.

One gets the feeling that you have not lost your enthusiasm, which usually happens only at the very beginning. It is clear that when everything starts, everyone works only for the idea. How are you coping with finances now?

Griliches: This is our main problem, because all the guys who play with us are forced to work in parallel at other jobs. Everyone has their own work schedule, you have to look for windows for rehearsals, and it’s always a hassle. It’s not like people came, worked and left. As for free concerts, I try to keep them to a minimum. We already have musicians of the wrong level working for us, and if I call and say: “Hey, we’re going to have such and such a concert, we need help,” this is humanly not good, because the work must be paid. And I feel awkward, I don’t want to position our ensemble as “oh, this is Masha and Philip, they always have everything for free.” We were invited to the Bolshoi Theater by the “Operational Group”; accordingly, we calculated how many rehearsals we should have and how they should be paid for. And through negotiations with the producer we came to a common denominator. In December I conducted Dmitry Kurlyandsky’s opera “The Drillers,” written for our vocal ensemble a cappella. We were invited by the Individual Directing Workshop, Boris Yukhananov, who was in charge of the production. And everything was paid for.

But we have concerts at the Moscow Conservatory, which we absolutely love, we love the Rachmaninov Hall and are always happy to perform there. However, everything there is free, the conservatory does not pay for anything.

Chizhevsky: It turned out very well that we were given a grant for Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

Griliches: It turned out like this. All last season I shouted at all the windows and doors that there was such a young team, at the Department of Culture, at the Philharmonic - wherever I turned. And I realized that, in principle, no one needs us. But the Department of Culture advised me to apply to “ Open stage"for a grant. And we wrote an application for “The Story of a Soldier” and “The Wedding,” which we did together with Alisher Khasanov - this is a director-choreographer, with whom we previously did “Dido.” I went to the Open Stage a certain number of times and submitted documents. And at the end of 2012, they called us from there and said that we had been given a grant for “Wedding.” But in any case, even if we had not received the grant, we already had the “Wedding” planned, it would just be free. I love all our guys very much, I appreciate their work, and for their sake I am ready to go further, ask, prove that our ensemble exists, that the public needs us and we are not doing all this in vain.

- Have you tried to find your sponsor?

Griliches: Yes, but I don't know how to find it. At one time they sent out a bunch of disks and letters. Then somehow they stopped.

- Did you cheat?

Griliches: Certainly. I won’t even lie and say that hack work is not for us. The only thing I always set a condition for myself and all our participants is that this is not a hack, but the same concert, for which we have the same rehearsals as usual. But we have strict limits, there are proposals that I immediately refuse. Naturally, we don’t play in restaurants when people are eating and drinking, as background music... Or if they ask us to play music from a cabaret... We had one corporate event - our vocal ensemble was invited, it was a concert classical music in the Pashkov House, which the company arranged for its clients. We performed in the first part, and Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi performed in the second part. In fact, it was a concert in good company. If there were more corporate events like this, we would live better!

On the issue of the ensemble's repertoire. On the one hand, it is quite wide - from Renaissance music to the most modern. In the programs of your subscription to the Moscow Philharmonic, Gesualdo and Sciarrino, Charpentier and Messiaen coexist. But at the same time, you get the feeling that you are deliberately avoiding the romantic “middle” that is familiar to the average listener. There is a moment of challenge here - we will sing and play what we want and we don’t care that only a very narrow circle perceives it?

Chizhevsky: You know, we didn’t even think about this topic. As the program takes shape, we hope that it will be interesting for other people to hear. Now there is an increasing number of audiences who can perceive this music, and, by the way, among non-musicians. There are a lot of intellectual young people who have nothing to do with music: actors, artists. Music is emotions, and if it is presented well, showing how much we ourselves enjoy performing it, then it will not go unanswered.

Our ensemble does not have a clear orientation towards any particular era. We only do what interests us this moment. It is my deep conviction that we have no right to play old music if we do not know what is being written now. And if we play modern music, we begin to look at ancient music in a completely different way. It’s very close, and it’s always good when a concert program puts old and new music side by side.

Perform a symphony by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, any romantic essay, in principle, it is possible without a conductor. But if nothing changes in his presence, then the question arises - why is he needed?

Paradoxically, your ensemble becomes famous thanks to projects in modern music, although many believe that it scares away the listener...

Griliches: This is largely due to Philip's courage as a conductor. When the conductor opens the score, and nothing is clear there at all, one will immediately close it, and the other, on the contrary, will say: wow, what a score, I’ll do everything now. In the notes Outland Nevsky (this was written for our vocal ensemble and a Dutch group), for example, at first I didn’t understand anything at all. What should you do here - sing, whistle? And this experience gives a very powerful charge. We are very interested in overcoming difficulties and learning new things. Each composer has his own technique, and I wonder if we can cope with this, and with this... And I want to do it in such a way that it turns out great and hooks not only us, but also the listeners. It seems to me that Philip, like no one else, perfectly interprets modern music, and in his conductor’s presentation it really comes to life. When we sang Outland, Mitya Kurlyandsky heard us and composed “Sverliytsev” with us in mind.

Chizhevsky: And Nevsky met us at a concert in the Rachmaninov Hall, when we performed Gesualdo a cappella and Purcell’s “Dido” on historical instruments. It’s interesting that he heard us specifically as performers early music. Although, of course, Gesualdo’s madrigals are comparable to the most sophisticated vocal exercises that modern composers can imagine.

- Philip, your personal conducting career is developing quite successfully. You have performed with the orchestra several times Musica V iva , National Philharmonic, you work in the Polyansky Chapel. How do you prioritize if you choose between your career and the development of your brainchild - Questa Musica?

Chizhevsky: Hard to tell. For me, the priority is always what I am doing at the moment. When I am preparing a concert, I am completely occupied only with it. I love you very much Questa Musica, for me this is home. But I feel comfortable everywhere, there has not been a single case when there were any conflicts with other orchestras. Now I want to suggest to the director “ New Russia» make a concert by Morton Feldman and combine it in the program with Myaskovsky’s Tenth Symphony. There is another project - to play works by Sciarrino and Monteverdi. Monteverdi to perform on historical instruments with our ensemble, and from Sciarrino to play Story di altre story for accordion and orchestra, using music by Mozart and Scarlatti. But this is still in the plans.

- Who is the conductor in your understanding?

Chizhevsky: The conductor is an instrument for the orchestra. He, of course, must have the qualities of both a teacher and a leader. He must offer something and do so that they believe him, must be able to distribute energy and direct it to the right direction. Should be a psychologist, maybe say something, but in to a greater extent, of course, he must show with his hands, as if touching the sounds, weighing them...

- Do you speak in words about what you want from the performers?

Chizhevsky: I try to talk as little as possible and show everything with my hands. If something doesn't work out, I take it personally - it means I didn't show it well enough. I demand that the musicians respond to my gesture.

- Can I show everything?

Chizhevsky: I think so. The conductor's task is to make everyone feel the same way as I do, but at the same time one cannot impose one's will. Every musician should feel comfortable. And in the end, if everyone perceives this music as I do, then it will be a single organism that doesn’t really need a conductor. Then the conductor can step aside and enjoy the performance. But before that he has to do a lot of work.

The task is to do with the orchestra what it cannot do without the participation of the conductor. In principle, it is possible to perform a symphony by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or any romantic composition without a conductor. But if nothing changes due to his presence, then the question arises - why is he needed? Then, I like to change some things at the final performance, even the dynamics. When everything is learned, why not do something sudden. Of course, within reasonable limits. But I will never demand at rehearsals the same things that I will do at a concert.

The ensemble is now in its fifth year. The period is sufficient to look back and evaluate what has been done. To sum it up, what does your ensemble have that others don’t?

Griliches: In our ensemble there is a living and genuine love for music, we have a soul, internal energy and expression that unites us all. We have already earned a name for ourselves, and when they say Questa Musica- this implies a certain quality. And, I think, we already have an established style, our own sound.

Chizhevsky: And also faith in what we do, which helps us live, play, create, and gather musicians.

- What goals would you set for your 10th anniversary? Questa Musica?

Chizhevsky: Play the opera "Parsifal".

- This is what composition it should grow to Questa Musica! As I understand it, Philip is preparing a mini-version of the Polyansky Chapel?

Griliches: Chizhevsky Chapels. And if we put aside the creative aspects, of course, I would like financial stability, so that I can calmly look our musicians in the eyes. They all have families, not only Philip and I have children, many in the ensemble have children, and I am offended when I understand that they are forced to work ten jobs, because they love music and our ensemble, believe in us and want be with us.