Dmitry Smirnov: A Confluence of Distinct Concepts

The word excellence has a bright and sharp resonance, not unlike the steel strings of a modern violin. Remarkable, on the other hand, has a softer and warmer tone - like the gut strings of a Baroque violin. Dmitry Smirnov was first introduced to a modern violin as a child, revealing a shining virtuosic technicity. It was only later, at the age of 20, that he started exploring the Baroque violin. Its warmer tone opened a new pathway for expression, resulting in a softer sound that could lullaby each note through a tender simplicity. Described as “one of the most unconventional minds among young violinists” by the Strebi-Erni Foundation, Smirnov aspires to end the separation between modern playing and historically informed playing (HIP), by applying a HIP approach to any repertoire. Like Smirnov’s experimental infusion of Bach’s D minor Partita and Bartók’s Solo Sonata, this concert will shuttle between the modern and the historical.

We begin with the dulcet tones of the lyra da bracchio, a Renaissance stringed instrument that was used by Italian musicians at court to accompany readings of lyrical poetry. Shaped similarly to a violin, it has two additional strings off the fingerboard that act as drones, providing a full-bodied resonance that can support a musical tale. Tales such as those created by Angelo Poliziano, a notable humanist of Renaissance Florence, through his studies of classical texts. Poliziano’s works include Fabula di Orfeo, a drama set to music in a manner not unlike that of Dmitry Smirnov, melding the Ancient Greek legend of Orpheus with the vibrant “rebirth” movement of the Renaissance. Through the somewhat lost art of improvisation, Smirnov will challenge our perception of new and old with an inimitable display of an experimental mind rooted in ancient traditions.

This patronage to past masters was shared by Eugène Ysa?e, a Belgian virtuosic violinist. He remains one of the technical and artistic standards for the modern violin today, almost 100 years after his death. Despite his nearly unparalleled technique, tone, and articulation that pushed the boundaries of innovation, he remained close to the musical past. Upon hearing Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Szigeti perform Bach’s partitas and sonatas for solo violin, Ysa?e raced to compose a set of violin works that celebrated the evolution of musical techniques and expressions of his time. And so, his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin was born. With each sonata dedicated to a great violinist of the era, this set of works is a masterful extravagance that challenges the most capable musicians to push beyond mere technicity and reveal all the hope, despair, and passion felt as humans. Smirnov will not only display his musical mastery through three of these sonatas (dedicated to Joseph Szigeti, George Enescu, and Manuel Quiroga) but will also open the door a little wider into who he is.

Compared to Eugène Ysa?e, Netty Simons remains something of an enigma. Born in 1913, she was an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Her piece “Circle of Attitudes” for solo violin and dancer, will be performed by Smirnov and the dancer Loréna Sajous as a Swiss première. There are five movements to this work: Bereavement, Awareness, Fear, Dauntlessness, and Abandonment. We may know less about Simons but it is clear that, as in the case of Ysa?e, the human condition remains important.

As this concert comes to a close, we may question if it is only the bright fizz of the modern violin and the warm indulgence of the Baroque violin that we should seek to connect. During Kurtág’s brief exile in the late 1950s, he met an art psychologist named Marianne Stein. It was a period of personal and creative crisis for Kurtág. Stein taught him something that technique could not: “[she taught] me to take my time and, as it were, to forgive myself. It made me freer.” This liberation was influenced by the works of literary figures including Friedrich H?lderlin, Samuel Beckett, and Franz Kafka. Shifting between realism and the fantastic, Kafka explored vulnerability and our state of alienation in his novels, notebooks, diaries, and letters. From these texts, Kurtág collected random fragments over several decades that ultimately became the impetus for the Kafka Fragments, an intimate duet between vocalist and violinist that shares glimpses into an inner world.

It appears that there is a constant bipolarity at play: between modern playing and historically informed playing, ancient and reborn, improvisation and composition, technique and emotions, realism and the fantastic. This concert by Dmitry Smirnov is an opportunity to see how these opposing ideas can exist together.

You can watch this upcoming live-streamed concert at 20:00 CET on Thursday 2 November on LinkedIn or via www.classeek.com. We hope you join us and enjoy the show!

Programme notes by Malika Jumbe