Born in 1984 in Moscow. Graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky in the 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 Competition of Conductors (Moscow, 2008).
From 2008 to 2011 - artistic director and conductor of the choir of the State Music College. Gnesinykh, teacher of 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 - a teacher at the Moscow State Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky. Since 2011 - conductor of the State Academic Symphony Choir of Russia (art director Valery Polyansky).
In September 2012, the Bolshoi Theater conducted by Philip Chizhevsky hosted the premiere of Sergei Nevsky's opera "Francis", and in October 2012 - the premiere performance of Michael Nyman's opera "Prologue to Dido and Aeneas Purcell" with the State Orchestra of Russia in Perm. In 2013, together with the Ensemble Questa Musica, he staged I. Stravinsky's The Story of a Soldier (choreography by Oleg Glushkov). Since 2014 he has been a conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2014, he staged Mozart's opera "So Do All Women, or the School of Lovers" at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (directed by Hans-Joachim Frei). He is the musical director of the first Baroque Festival at the Bolshoi Theater (season 2014/15).
In June 2015, together with director Boris Yukhananov, he staged the opera series The Drillers at the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, which included world premieres of operas by leading Russian composers: Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexei Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexei 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 to Sunset" and "Russian Seasons"). He is the artistic director of the II International Festival of Orthodox singing "Illuminator" (Fr. Valaam). Within the framework of the 5th Festival of Contemporary Music "Another Space", together with Vladimir Yurovsky and Fuad Ibragimov, he performed the Russian premiere of Stockhausen's "Groups" for three orchestras and three conductors. In 2013 and 2016 was nominated for the theatrical award "Golden Mask" in the nomination "best work of a conductor".
Jury member of the theater award "Golden Mask" 2017
Collaborates with leading Russian and foreign orchestras, including: Tokio New City Orchestr, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor - Alexander Markovits), Brandenburgische Staatsorchester (artistic director Howard Griffiths), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New Opera Theater Orchestra ( 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 (artistic director Vladimir Yurovsky), Musica Viva (artistic director Alexander Rudin).
conductor
Born in 1984 in Moscow. Graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky in the 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 Competition of Conductors (Moscow, 2008).
From 2008 to 2011 - Artistic director and conductor of the choir of the State Musical College. Gnesinykh, teacher of conducting.
In 2008 he founded the ensemble Questa Musica, with whom he has performed a number of
major projects in Russia and abroad.
Since 2011 she has been a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky.
Since 2011 - conductor of the State Academic Symphony Choir of Russia (artistic director Valery Polyansky).
In September 2012, the Bolshoi Theater conducted by Philip Chizhevsky hosted the premiere of Sergei Nevsky's opera "Francis", and in October 2012 - the premiere performance of Michael Nyman's opera "Prologue to Dido and Aeneas Purcell" with the State Orchestra of Russia in Perm. In 2013, together with the Ensemble Questa Musica, he staged I. Stravinsky's The Story of a Soldier (choreography by Oleg Glushkov). Since 2014 he has been a conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2014 he staged Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte" at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (stage director 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 Electrotheatre, which includes world premieres of operas by leading Russian composers: Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexei Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexei 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 the violinist Roman Mints, he recorded the music of Leonid Desyatnikov ("Sketches to Sunset" and "Russian Seasons"). He is the artistic director of the II International Festival of Orthodox Singing "Illuminator" (Fr. Valaam). Within the framework of the V Festival of Contemporary Music "Another Space", together with V. Yurovsky and F. Ibragimov, he performed the Russian premiere of Stockhausen's "Groups" for three orchestras and three conductors.
Twice nominated for the theater award "Golden Mask" for the best work of a conductor (2013 opera "Francis" by S. Nevsky, Bolshoi Theater and 2016 opera series "Sverliytsy", Stanislavsky Electrotheatre)
Member of the jury of the theater award "Golden Mask" 2017
Collaborates with leading Russian and foreign orchestras, including: Tokio New City Orchestr, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor - Alexander Markovits), Brandenburgische Staatsorchester (artistic director Howard Griffiths), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New Opera Theater Orchestra ( chief conductor Jan Latham-Koenig), National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia (artistic director Vladimir Spivakov), New Russia (artistic director Yuri Bashmet), Russian Philharmonic Society (artistic director Dmitry Yurovsky), State Symphony Orchestra. E.F. Svetlanova (artistic director Vladimir Yurovsky), Musica Viva (artistic director Alexander Rudin).
On the Small Stage of the Musical Theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko in May, the Russian premiere of Georg Friedrich Handel's oratorio "The Triumph of Time and Insensibility" will take place.
The performance was directed by Konstantin Bogomolov, who first turned to the musical theater.
The new libretto was created by the 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?
- I was invited by Anton Getman, and on my birthday. He said that he already had an agreement with Kostya, and now he needed me and my musicians. True, he set a condition to play historical instruments.
For me, this offer was the best gift! “Triumph…” is a very complex and unusual project. In this oratorio there are four allegorical genderless figures. I suggested to Kostya that we should make an all-male story, and he immediately jumped at the idea. We have four wonderful soloists, we held the first block of rehearsals with the orchestra, we came up with something for the continuo ... But I will not 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 Mulds. Now - one of the early creations of the great composer.
Yes, this is, as you know, his first oratorio. We play 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 already entirely performed in English.
For Handel, this is an absolutely "avant-garde" opus. I don't like this word. Indeed, in principle, Handel is a rather "combed" composer. All his music is beautiful, harmonious - just Igor Krutoy of his time. And if you listen to the aria "Gentle Morpheus" from "Alcesta", then this is pure ABBA style.
Of course, the opposite is true, but the meaning of what I want to say is clear. In his youth, Handel still had a "wolf" scent. And then he calmed down a bit.
— In “The Triumph of Time and Insensibility” there is no the most important thing for the oratorio – the choir. One would like to call this work an opera. But, as Larisa Valentinovna Kirillina writes in her book on Handel, by order of Pope Clement XI, public opera performances in Rome from 1700 to 1721 were not allowed to be staged. Don't you think that Handel thus encrypted his work?
- Of course. Handel wanted to write an opera. But he was still a young man, and, as they say, he did not need problems. Therefore, the opera became an oratorio. There are quite a lot of composer's finds in the score - for example, a completely written solo part of the organ. This is quite rare in his music.
In addition to chic duets and arias (by the way, one aria later migrated to the opera “Rinaldo”), there are only two accompaniator recitatives and two quartets, one of them is full (“Voglio tempo”). How many similar samples 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 because of the abundance of "bel canto", the embryos of which are very clearly visible. The parts of the vocalists are written in the wildest way! 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 being a little bit teased. Handel was then 22 years old, he was overwhelmed with vital energy, he was not afraid to experiment.
But after many years, he looked at his young self through the prism of a mature musician, as Bruckner would later do when he returned to his first symphony in the last years of his life.
- Konstantin Bogomolov called Cardinal Pamphili's libretto "rotten". Do you agree with him?
- I guess, yes. In general, if we look at some samples of the libretto of that time, we will hardly find anything super interesting. Everything is clear with Pamphili - here Pleasure says to Beauty: "You will always be beautiful." And Time answers: “No, everything ends sometime ...” Well, everything around it.
And for Kostya, as a theatrical person, a more precise embodiment of this conditional plot is important. What did Sorokin do with the text? He just took and wrote his text! Although, of course, the roll call with Pamphili remained. In my opinion, this is incredibly well done. A very interesting solution. Here we are looking at the picture - if we guess the angle and the angle at which 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. But will the modern viewer be interested in this whole complex of symbols and allegories? Or is a cardinal decision needed, as in the case of 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 have seen the production of Krzysztof Warlikowski in Aix-en-Provence, where in the last aria Beauty opens her 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, an accomplished artist.
- There was no triumph at the premiere of the oratorio, but do you think we will have it?
I can say one thing for sure - it will be interesting. Even now, in the process of rehearsals, we feel fresh. Naturally, we play on the "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. Yes, we know that here we need to slow down, but here we need to go forward. But why should we stick to it 100%? We play the latest music, but we can play 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.
Born in 1984 in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a degree in choral conducting (class of Stanislav Kalinin) and opera and symphony conducting (class of Valery Polyansky). In 2008 he became a laureate of the All-Russian Conducting Competition in Moscow, at the same time he founded the Questa Musica ensemble, with which he works in Russia and abroad. In 2013, with this group, he presented Stravinsky's The Tale of a Soldier at the Theater Center on Strastnoy (choreography by Oleg Glushkov), and in 2016 he took part in the Baroque Music Festival in Linz (Austria). He led the choir of the Gnesins State Music College, where he also taught conducting.
In 2011 he became the conductor of the State Academic Symphony Choir of Russia (artistic director - Valery Polyansky). He assisted Gennady Rozhdestvensky in the preparation of subscription concerts of the group, participated together with the Capella Orchestra in holding the 1st All-Russian Music Competition, for which he was awarded the gratitude of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. Conducted the premiere of Michael Nyman's Prologue to Dido and Purcell's Aeneas in Perm. In 2012, he directed the premiere performance of Sergei Nevsky's opera Francis at the Bolshoi Theater of Russia. For this work, he was nominated for the Golden Mask National Theater Award. In 2014 he was a full-time conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, since 2015 he has been an invited conductor. Musical director of the 1st Baroque Festival of the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2014 he staged Mozart's opera All Women Do This at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (stage director Hans-Joachim Frei). In June 2015, together with director Boris Yukhananov, he staged the opera series The Drillers at the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, for which he was again nominated for the Golden Mask.
Within the framework of the V festival "Another Space", together with Vladimir Yurovsky and Fuad Ibragimov, he performed the Russian premiere of Stockhausen's Groups (2016). Member of the jury for the Golden Mask award (2017). Musical director of the production of the oratorio "The Triumph of Time and Insensibility" by Handel at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater (2018). Collaborates with Russian and foreign orchestras, including the State Orchestra of Russia named after E. F. Svetlanov, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, New Russia, the Russian Philharmonic, the Moscow New Opera Theater Orchestra, the Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra , the Brandenburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and the New Tokyo City Orchestra. With the violinist Roman Mints, he recorded Leonid Desyatnikov's compositions "Sketches to Sunset" and "Russian Seasons". Since 2011 he has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory.
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 FERZ: Philip, what are your musical plans for the near future?
PHILIP CHIZHEVSKY: ~ Since this season I have been working at the Bolshoi Theatre. And next season, my orchestra Questa Musica and I will give concerts on 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 instruments of that historical era to which this music belongs. We will have several projects with the artists of the youth opera program, which is directed by Dmitry Yuryevich 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 itself 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 with current classics? Do you work with contemporary Russian composers?
~ I have to carry out a large project of five operas by contemporary composers. Now we have five names of leading avant-garde composers - quite young, all a little over 40: Sergei Nevsky, Dmitry Kurlyansky, Boris Filanovsky, Vladimir Rannev and Alexei Simak. It will be five performances to the libretto by Boris Yukhananov, who, in fact, will play the role of director. The program is quite voluminous: at first it will consist of 5 separate performances, and then it will be narrowed down to a marathon program of modern operas.
All the living composers with whom I had to collaborate write in different styles: everyone is looking for their own musical path. The pleasure that we get from performing high-quality music is easy to convey to the public. Feeling the forms of modern classical sounding is possible only by experience. We are pioneers in our era. In some decades, this music will be looked at as a classical repertoire: something will be forgotten, something will remain.
And how does the audience perceive new composers?
~I am happy to work with people who are responsible for the notes they write, and not just abstraction, which is a common technique in contemporary art in general.
An interesting fact is that for an audience not prepared in a musical sense, but inquisitive, the emotion that they receive from what they listened to is important. We convey this emotion by playing a Mozart sonata or an avant-garde work - it does not matter. The audience needs current.
In modern classical music, even non-musical instruments can be used: from wooden boxes to anvils. But for a harmonious musical composition, their parts must be spelled out just as carefully as for strings, for example.
On the one hand, it is easier to play modern music: no one has done this before you - you do it as you like. When performing classical music, one should adhere to traditions and canons. But the moment of interpretations and transformations in music is also very important for me. Authentic performance is great, but music is not a vacuum, Mozart's masterpieces rush through the ages, so, in my opinion, it is important to bring in the nuances of modern reading, not forgetting the experience of previous generations. Then the music will breathe. And whether we are doing it right or wrong - time will tell, sweeping aside all unnecessary.
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 public through plastique?
It doesn't matter which conductor - restrained or expressive - only the way the orchestra plays is important. If the conductor's plasticity is justified, and the musicians understand him, then this is a good concert. Now almost any classical work can be played without a conductor. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was the Persimfans orchestra, in which the conductor was replaced by the first violinist-accompanist: he showed the auftakt. With a conductor, one symphony takes three rehearsals, without a conductor - much more.
If we talk about classical music, then the function of a conductor is much wider. It lies not only in how he distributes the aftertaste, but in how he gives direction to this music, how he controls the breath of the orchestra. The orchestra can play rhythmically, perfectly in terms of all the nuances and touches, but the music will be absolutely dead - it will not be interesting to listen to. A conductor is needed in order to add fire, build phrases, round them out, put accents - control the movement.
In communication with each of my musicians of the Questa Musica ensemble, I insist that every time he performs the part as if no one had played it before him, even himself.
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