Future Classic Women Awards – Hana Gubenko

Hello and welcome to future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on women's radio station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Today on future Classic Women Awards, we will be talking to wonderful viola soloist Anna Gubinko. Good morning, Anna. Good morning, Stefania. Nice to meet you. Nice to have you on our program. Anna is a viola viola soloist. And that's something that is not very common because viola is an incredible instrument. It's between, for who doesn't know is between the violin and the cello. So has the beautiful high sounds of the violin and the deep rich sound of the cello. Now you won, you made several world premieres dedicated to you actually by renowned composer like Yuri Cain, Garth Knox, Franz Ezra Levy, Daniel Schneider and. And so you played throughout Europe and the United States. So how did you decide to become a viola player? Well, my life began as a violinist. Yeah. Studying violin until the age of 13 and was suddenly just wish to. To get to know something new, to produce something new. Because on the violin more or less everything is already done and you have quite established path to follow. And I was interested to create something a little bit new to develop the instrument. I knew the instrument is not that established as solo instrument. So I've got the idea to change the instrument and to do something a little bit more innovative than to stay and playing violin. But I'm a violinist from the ground on. Well, the truth is that because the viola is like the bigger sister of the violin. Hard to have a child to start to play the viola because it goes with the size of the hands, isn't it? Exactly. And it would be a really bad idea to do so. And then also I have seen a lot of friends of mine who are incredible viola player and they have bigger hands. And so that's why then they're comfortable in playing the viola. Is it really something that is physical, that is allowing you to be able to play the violins instead of the violin? For example, like is there violinist that they have smaller hands and so the viola is an instrument that they will never be able to play? I don't think so. I don't think so at all. And I don't think that the viola has to have a really huge or big sides, not at all about the sides, it's about just kind of different timbre. So in my opinion nobody is need to play big viola and to have big hands you can if you want, but you can also play smaller violas. It is around the size of the violin. And it's fine. Yeah. So I do have my small quite. I'm small woman 160 and I don't have that large hands. Okay, wonderful. That. That's exactly it. Like you know, the double bus at all the. Well, the friends that I know, normally the double bass player, they're quite big. But actually I remember when I was a student, Royal Academy, there was this very nice Spanish double bass player and then she was very little, like 1 meter 50 something. And I was like, how can she play the double bass? But then again, this instrument, they come in different size, isn't it? Yes, yes, yes. But this is actually more a point to be changed with the time and working together with a very well and great violin maker in New York. More precise of the violas. That is more like a violin that you have. Not that much diversity in the sides, but it's just one or two or three models and that's it. And more focused and more precise. Now, where are you? Now? We normally start our interview talking about the fact that this is again an interview made in remote because of the current worldwide lockdown. So let's tell the audience where you are. I know where you are, but the audience doesn't. Well, I'm home currently in Switzerland and we do not have this kind of lockdown which you have in the uk. Nice. Not at all. It's just no concerts, but life is going on. So no concerts, no pleasure, no restaurant, no singing. But you can basically go to work and come home. Oh, really? Yes. That's so strange. I mean, what do you think about the fact. I mean, there is a lot of noise about the fact that all the theaters have been closed when you could have actually allowed to have, you know, a social distanced audience, for example. So you could have continued to have a mix of online and in person performance, isn't it? What do you think about these? Well, I do not have any understanding to it. Really horrible and stupid bad because every other things like shops are open and there's people around and you never see that many people together the theater as you see in whatever supermarket you do. That's true. I do not understand these measurements and I hope it's going to be better, it's going to be uplifted and the theaters are able to recover. You know, once you are having your mask on anyway, it shouldn't be a problem, I think. Absolutely, yeah. And now also with the vaccine, with the vaccination here in the uk we're going quite fast and I'm pleased to Say that I received my vaccine so I'm very, very happy and I can't wait to be free again. How is it going there in Switzerland? Very, very slow. We do not have basically any hope to be vaccinated next couple of months. Hold on. And everybody needs to just keep doing what we are doing. So how have been, have you been keeping busy then with the lockdown with no concerts? Well, for me it was quite a blessing in all the cancellations. I finally has got the time to move the Beethoven project and to finish all the transcriptions of Beethoven's Cello Sonatas and variations. Oh wow. To make finally together with my partner Alan Bonds in Perth in Australia, we are about to make a printed edition of all of them and they are then ready to be published. And as well I was able to get new contract with a new label which is going to publish a recording, the first recording of it. So that was really great. As well as that I have finally transcribed the Philippe violin concerto in the viola version and all these things. So yes, for me it's quite a benefit, I must say. You've been working anyway. You've been working a lot. But how have you been working with your pianist in Australia? So your pianist is in Australia? He's not a pianist, he's a composer. Composer, sure. And I made edition but I'm not able to transcribe it all. It's printed edition or written edition and we work together. I did the play, so my play score, what I was playing with. Also a couple of concerts before the corona crisis and he make out of it real transcribed printed edition which is really ready to be published by a new publisher. Wow. That's our work together and of course we work together on all the instrumentation questions and how it's going to be transposed, which octave lower or higher or whatever. So why do you think the viol has always been left a little bit on a side? Like there is a big repertoire for cello, a big repertoire for violin, but not as much for viola. Viola, I just think it was not in. It was not a trend, it was not needed to the time before not enough people were playing this instrument. And I just think it's about the time changings. Before it was not needed and everybody was focused on another instrument. And especially now there's time to look there, especially by Beethoven. Beethoven has left after his death just two instruments of his own and that is a piano and the viola. Oh really? I didn't notice. So that's why I thought okay, I think he was definitely playing the viola. While he was writing pieces for violin and the cello. Well, he wrote beautiful quartet as well. I mean, and there is the viola in it. So viola is a very fundamental instrument indeed. Indeed. I played some beautiful pieces with viola. And we have some project actually for the future, but that would be for our next interview. Now, the first piece that we're gonna listen today that you brought in our interview is from Isai Sonata. Now, why did you choose to play for us the Isai Sonata number two Obsession? Well, since seven years I'm working on this project of the recording of Isai solo sonatas for the violin. First time ever in the version for viola solo. And that is album I'm working since a year. And it had to be published a year ago by Guild Music. And it wasn't the case because of the corona. So slowly, slowly I hope to make it, to bring it to the end soon. And in this album is actually all my work from the beginning on until today about the evolution of the viola, evolution of myself and bringing it to the equality to the violin. So I'm not just stealing the pieces from the other instruments. I took the pieces because I think what is so special on the ISA sonatas is that they are written polyphon for an instrument that is actually melody instrument. And you have practically always more than two or three voices in every movements in all the six sonatas. And for me, it's just crucial to show what. What. What am I working about? So after this recording, it's just like before and after, after it's done, after it's outside. There is no any gap anymore between the violin and the viola. There's nothing. But you can play on the violin and you can't play on the viola. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, let's listen to so Isaiah. So not a number two. The first movement Obsession with Anna Gubenko Sa. Sam. Sa. Wow. So beautiful. This was easy. So not a number two Obsession. The title of a piece, is that something that influence you a lot when you're performing? Like in this case, Obsession? Do you think about something that is really dark? Is Obsession dark? No, no, It's a particular story. Every sonata by Eugenizae was dedicated to a colleague or a student or a friend of his. Another violinist. Fantastic. Yeah. And one is dedicated to Jacques Thiebaud. Jacques Thibault Red pianist. No, the violinist. A violinist. Sorry, sorry. Jet Cotau was his partner. Jacques Thibault was a violinist and a friend of Isai. And Jacques Thibault was obsessed of playing bachelor every day for himself while Practicing. And in my. It's just my personal story to this sonata that Isai made kind of bitter joke about him because Shaktibu went to the first World War as a soldier. And it is kind of combination between his obsession of standing up and going to play Bach very light and with lightness and joy. And then we see in the score you have the citade by Bach from the third party at the beginning. And afterwards you see it's written brutalment so brutally. The war is knocking on his door and taking him to the front to take part in the war. And then it's coming to the dies ira, which is actually in all the sonata, the main theme. So the death and the war is brutally knocking on his door. But he still be obsessed and practicing Bach. Beautiful. What was it? I think Bach was his escape from the reality, isn't it? Sometimes music has the power of bringing us in a different dimension, I think, and out of our everyday life. Did you have anything in particular that we did bring you out from the lockdown and this worldwide situation of the COVID pandemic? Well, the work itself is exactly like. I forget myself until it's knocking on the door. Yeah, absolutely. Now, you said that you started as a violinist. Did you know when you started learning the violin that one day you would become concerts viola player or violinist in that, if not at all? To be honestly, I. When I started to study, I was about four years old. I was completely sure that I'm already concert violinist. So for me was difficult to get to know that I. It's a kind of way to get there, which my teachers brought to me because I can remember very well that I said that I can play violin and I'm going just straight away to play the Tchaikovsky violin concerto right now. That's wonderful. So where did you study? You studied in Russia, in Moscow. Am I right? Yes. So how did you. How was growing up in Russia and then how is it now living in Switzerland and seeing your children, for example, growing up in Switzerland? Well, my children and I, we do not share the same world. My childhood and my upbringing is completely different. Russia was beautiful and I just love it. It was great. There's nothing to say about. It was not my decision to get out of the country. My parents went to the immigration. My father was the director of the Jewish theater and that was his idea to move. So yes, Russia has another world and here is completely different in between. I was studying in Vienna and in Spain and Holland ever. But Switzerland is indeed completely different. So my children are In a kind of on another planet. And my. Usually they got used to say, mama, you are belonging to another century. Well, the thing is, as you said, you studied in Spain, you studied in Vienna, you've been traveling the world. The truth is that musicians are citizens of the world in a way, isn't it? Yes, yes. And I think we belong to the country of the composers that were performing in that very moment or also, you know, when we studied and the tradition that we bring with us, the way we play. But there is something that it's. It's very interchangeable and in a way is enriching us more than just being just Russian or just Swiss or just British or just French, for example. What do you think? Absolutely. I mean, we. We are kind of everywhere where we are. There was a list. Well, I feel as someone who is definitely from Russia and I'm very dedicated to my background and nevertheless, life everywhere is great and playing concert is everywhere. I'm everywhere at home where is stage. So. Yeah, yeah. And also, in a way, you always have this sort of connection with whoever you're talking and playing with other musicians. I mean, in a way we. We become brothers and sisters under the mother music. Absolutely wonderful. So what would you think about classical music today? Well, there's nothing what I do love more than the classical music. And even if we have bad time at the moment of it, I'm very optimistic for the future of classical music. I think the classical music is kind of, you know, emotional liquid of humanity. So it be just saved and kept forever as. As long as possible for the future generations. Exactly. All our emotional contents, even which are not spoken and not written, are there inside. Absolutely. Well, I know also you have a special passion for music and film. Yes. Would you like to share this unicity? It's not very common. So it's very important to know, you know, that you have this other view on the classical music today. Yes. Well, the most important mission as a musician is to transmit the contents of the pieces which I'm playing or everybody else is playing on stage. And I started to see that the contents which are inside of pieces, they are kind of not reaching the audience at all. And I was thinking what can be done to get it back? To get indeed the story behind the piece or the movement or the bar to the audience. And I have noticed that at the moment in this time, everybody is very used to watch and to see everything with the eyes and the imagination, which was before, like a hundred years ago or 200 years ago, is a different one today. So if you want to reach the audience on the same level as it was planned by the composer 200 years ago, I have to find the way to reach this person there, over there in the hall. And I do not see another option is to go on screen, because everybody is watching the screen. That's a very good point. You know, I was thinking just now, for example, I have a big passion for the Russian writers, and particularly, of course, the romanticism. Bulkakov, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and the unicity was their way of describing the world. And you could really make a picture in your mind when you were reading. And the same as you said was happening when you were listening to the music, particularly when you would put the piece in connection with a novel or a picture. So, for example, the beautiful Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy, that's a very. They made movies out of it, really. And. Yeah, and. Or the picture of an exhibition by Mosovsky. And you can see. How is it called Baba Yaya, the witch. Right. You can see the witch, you can see the chicks, you can see the children. So you can really see it. Now, this is called programmatic music. So in a way, there is people that are against the programmatic music because they say, you know, music should be talking by itself. But me, myself, for example, I'm a big fan of programmatic music. And if there is not a program behind it, in the sense there is not a story that has been given by the composer, it's nice to make up your own story. So when you say that you like to make the movie that goes with the music, are you making up a story that is relevant to yourself? Or, for example, you try to put together something that is relevant to the composer when he composed the piece. Well, honestly, I think every music is speaking, but, you know, people are speaking different language. You can speak and speak and nobody understands you. That's why I was thinking, every, every piece, every sonata, every partita, everything is pro. Has a program behind, made by composer. Surely there is no book, nor story, nor novel without story behind every one of us musicians when we are preparing the interpretation. I'm pretty sure everybody has kind of story which we have in our mind. We are producing in the music, but nobody can understand it. So for me, I just am open to every possible, different possibilities. In one way, we can use just the imagination which we have as an interpret and make a story out of it more kind of written down, which is in my mind, or ask someone else to get something suitable Inside of the brain to the piece of music. I think that's the point. It's never my stories from my personal life. It's just imagination or my personal story which I have in my mind anyway, for him. Now the next piece we're gonna listen to is from the fourth sonata by Is the Allemande. Do you have a story for this one? Of course, but I'm not going to tell you this now. Let's listen to it then. It. Satan. How beautiful and how dramatic. Thanks. And how virtuous as well. People don't really think about the fact that, yes, the viola is an instrument as beautiful and as virtuoso as the violin or the cello. And I had the privilege to play with wonderful viola soloist before to perform Rebecca Clark to perform UNESCO Sonata. And I've always been impressed by the colors, the extra colors that the viola brings to to the sound compared to the violin. Do you still like to play the violin sometime? Yes, all the time. So you didn't abandon the violin as well? Never. I feel always me playing violin and for me, you know, in Russian we have the same word for bigger and more. In the beginning, when I was explaining that I'm playing the viola now, and everybody was asking and what is different? And I started to say it's bigger, until I realized that it is not only bigger, it's more. And I focus myself on the point that this is more than the violin. We have a larger range between the bass and the sopran. So all the structure of the pieces is even more voluminous. You can express much better the. In this case, it is a little bit more than a violin, but it still be violin. Wonderful. Yes, absolutely. Now, if you have to choose a moment, the most exciting moment in your career, which one would you say would be? It's so difficult to say. I don't know what to say. So many different things that were the one hand. It was the first dual recital when I was very young and worked. I just noticed that on the viola it was fine and I could reach the audience. And then of course, the first recordings with the chamber orchestra. When I could record the concertos. It was also kind of step forward. The best experience was just more than a year ago, before the Corona crisis, we had the recital, a normal recital, which I was finally feeling with the pieces I really wanted to like Beethoven Cello Sonata and Variations. And I caught a real full standing ovation. Wow. And then the people came and said finally they never heard this second Violoncello Sonata number two five so clearly and so fresh. So finally, it was not the question, oh, it sounds well on the Viola 2. But they said, okay, finally they've heard something new in this piece, which they have heard before for several times. So I was really with the feeling that I'm doing something right and that I know on the right path. Very good. Well, you know, I think, as you say, you are in a path of searching for, you know, developing the repertoire of the viola instrument and yourself as a musician. So I think all musicians, their career is. Search is a path going forward, isn't it? Yes, of course. And these are some of the unique moments where you actually say, okay, I'm doing the right thing. So that's very important. And so if you had to choose a challenging moment in your career, what would that be? Challenging moment was my studying time in Vienna. It was very challenging and very hurtful, and I. I'm glad to. To have it behind my back. Okay. Was it because it was hard studying or it was hard being. Not at all. Because I came directly from Russia and in Moscow I had really great teachers who was really taking care so much of myself. And so often it's like twice a week or more. Suddenly I was at the age of 14 in the conservatoire in Vienna, completely alone, and nobody was caring. You just had like an entrance exam and two exams ahead of you in the year. And what are you doing with yourself? It's just your own business. And it was really challenging to find a way to keep growing, to keep the education going on and to get there where I really wanted to get. So I had to arrange everything for myself because the Conservatoire was not giving it at all. The best thing which we had was the orchestra with a great teacher from the Vienna Philharmonica. And it was kind of excessive orchestral practice. But beside of this all, there were no teacher, no coach, nobody. Wow. And 14 is a very young age. I mean, it's not the age to. This is something that it's difficult to do when you're 18, when you start university. Imagine 14, I mean, it was fine. Yeah. You survived. I did. Wow. And so if you had to say the pro and cones of your career in general, if you had to put them on a balance, on a scale. Yeah. I'm not sure I really understood the question. Can you. So the pros and the cons, the good and the bad of being a viola soloist, for example, the only pros and no cons. Very good. I like that. There is nothing I'm regretting. Maybe the only thing which I'm really sorry about that. When I was younger, like seven or six or five, that I was not practicing enough. That is the only point which I'm regretting on my part. Nothing else. I don't believe it, though. No, really, honestly, it's all really great. The only thing, if I could turn the time I was just practicing double that much, and I did maybe dream less and practice more. Okay, well. And so if you. And if you have to mention your most interesting or collaboration, which one would that be? This is really challenging question. I don't know what to say. You had great collaborations, isn't it? And collaborator. Yes. And I really don't know what to say because every composer I did work together. Okay, so let's say. Let's say, yes, the most unique one, the most. No, let's say the. The strangest collaboration you had so far. Strangest one, the most unusual. Yes. Well, I would say you have one right now going on with a theater director, a dear friend of mine called Dumble Kokbar, who is a wonderful person and a great lover of music, and you're preparing something exciting. Would you like to share these with the audience? Oh, yes, of course. So actually, in the one of them, you are completely involved with Emily Dickinson Diaries and the music by Rebecca Clark. And this is, you know. Exactly. Myself, I do. It's kind of portrait of the female artist, which can be very exciting in the times when everybody's very uncertain about which gender they have and what is gender and what is not. I would be. As a woman, I would be happy to point this. What is woman? And this is really absolutely just one genre to be a woman. And what is a female art? And the best thing is to bring it on stage. As musicians, we do together the musical part also really directed for a female artist, actress who will play the Emily Dickinson. And not only Emily Dickinson, but the female poetry in general. What of the woman which is an artist? What does it feel? How does it smell? Mm. So if you had to say something to a younger self or, you know, to the young women that are aspiring to become soloists like you and me, what would you tell them? I would say the most important thing is to figure out as soon as possible the personal attitude in your work. What do you want to do? What for? And if you really. If you're really sure about these two things, just do it. It's very important to. To be really precisely with things which. Why are you making the art? What is the goal of it? Which audience do you want to reach and what do you really want to express out there? Yes. Wonderful. Well, let's listen now to Homage to Isaiah with you, Anna Kubenko. And this was homage to Isai, played by Anna Gubenko. And a very enigmatic piece. Yes, those are those type of pieces that really bring you to Mars, I think, to completely different planet. How is it to practice this type of pieces? Well, you know, this piece is by a really great composer and a mentor of mine, Garth Noggs. He's an Irish composer. And when I got to know him, it was suddenly the idea I noticed that he is using the medieval themes and baroque themes and using and searching and kind of developing new styles of playing the viola. And that's exactly what isai was doing 100 years ago. Yeah, I told him. Do you know, Garth, you are actually kind of the same composer Isai was to his times now. So would you please to be build a bridge between today and the time before the Second World War. So this is the same, but in the language of today. And he did write this piece especially for me, the dedication to Isaiah. And it was kind of really great to learn it because I knew exactly where is what. And we were working together on this piece very much times. So kind of growth out of myself of all of this. It's really beautiful. You can really see it. Now, this is the last part of our interview, and this is the part where we ask the funny questions. So I'm gonna ask you if you have any strange hobby or just a hobby to free your mind or relax. Oh, yes, absolutely. I write silly stories and I'm joking a lot. Oh, really? Oh, that's lovely. Well, next time you have to tell us one of your stories then. I love stories. And do you have any ritual or superstition before going on stage, like a favorite dress? It's very important to get a huge walk at the same time before. Yes, it's very important to me. So the last time I was in Paris to play together with Gars this piece for the first time, I went to visit Pere Lachaise cemetery for a couple of hours before. Wow. And that makes me really very happy. Well, do you have any funny moment or embarrassing moments that you can share with us going on stage or going to a concert location? Well, embarrassing moment. It was kind of ghost in my mind a lot of years, many years that when I go there, my dress is going to fall. Oh, yeah. So. And I was kind of fighting this imagination. And once I was playing with the chamber orchestra from Tools in Switzerland, and I was really I took care of my dress very carefully, but it had some open places on my back. And suddenly while I was playing the concerto, the door went. So the kind of balcony opened itself and huge wine came on stage. It felt exactly like it's going to happen. So how. What did you do? I mean, you can. You played with your arms tied to your dress. No, nothing happened. But this was exactly this feeling because of the moment, now it's gonna happen. And I was just staying and playing together Concerto. There was nothing but I could do. And it was a moment when I said, okay, never mind. If it happened, then it will happen. Okay, well, what is gonna be then, your next project? We talked about this album dedicated to Isai, about the Beethoven. Are you gonna record as well the Beethoven sonatas for. Transcribed for viola? Absolutely. All the cello sonatas from 1 to 5 and all creations are going to be recorded. I'm going to finish my solo album as soon as possible. As soon I am able to enter the uk, I will do it. And there is another exciting project ahead is to record the Viola concerto by Michael Fine in Prague later June. And as well, I'm working on a project to make an album with a violin concerto by Philip Glass for viola. Wonderful. As well as that, there is a festival ahead for 2022 in Moscow and another Russian cities where we will together with you, our new vision of the classical music of today. And I can't wait to go, to be honest. I mean, since I was a child, since I was reading this wonderful Russian writers, I always had the dream of being in the Red Square with the snow. But it's gonna be in the summer, right? It's not. I think so. Doesn't matter. I have to stand there and imagine the snow. I've been to Kiev as well and there was no snow. And I was like, no, that's very disappointing. I want this. No, I'm so sorry. And I remember I had this wonderful friend, a conductor who was telling me, ah, I have to show you the snow. And of course I've seen the snow in Italy, in the Alps, even in the cities. You know, we see this though everywhere. But there is something so magical about the snow and the Russian way of describing the snow. I. I had these wonderful lessons on Shostakovich Quintet. Yes. With the wonderful Russian professors, Boris Barret. And he was telling us about how the. The snow make everything still, but at the same time so beautiful. And that's where the fairy stories come, isn't it? Yes, yes, yes. So, yeah, I can't wait anyway to go there with you and with you sharing, you know, all your insight from a culture that I think is so rich and so charming and so beautiful and so special for music as well. So all the great, my favorite great pianists are Russian. What can we do? And we're bringing that to London in our new conservatory in the London Performing Academy Music because you're going to be one of our star professors there, bringing the viola solo repertoire to the musician of tomorrow. So on these, we're gonna listen to the last track of today. That is Daniel Schiner. Scheiner Schneider. Schneider, sorry, Schneider at Eternum that you recorded live in Raju, Zurich. Sam. Ram. Ram, Sam. And this was Daniel. Daniel Schneider Schneider with Anna Gubenko. If you have any questions that you would like to ask for guests or nomination for our future Classic Women awards, please email presentersomensradiostation.com or tweet us @womensradio sdn. A big thanks to our guest Anna for the great chat and the beautiful music played today. Thank you so much Stefani for such a nice talk. I really hope you enjoyed was a pleasure. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on women's radio station live every day at 10am and 10pm London time. If you would like to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to the presenters page. Stefania Pasamonte Future Classic Women Awards on womensradiostation.com thank you for listening.