2024-01-07 07:00:14
Sonia Wieder-Atherton grew up in New York and Paris. Trained in Moscow by the great Russian concert pianist Natalia Chakhovskaïa, she won the Rostropovich competition at the age of 25. She composed for the filmmaker Chantal Akerman, whose companion she was. She has just released a record on Alpha Classics, Bach, Cello Suites nos 3 & 4and will be on the stage of the Philharmonie de Paris in the spring for a show around his former Russian teacher, titled Notebook from there.
I wouldn’t have gotten here if…
…If I hadn’t met Natalia Shakhovskaya [violoncelliste russe, 1935-2017] in Touraine, where she gave a master class every summer. When I saw her arrive, very straight, with her plaid suit, her sleeveless sweater and her white blouse, I knew that this woman would be of capital importance in my life.
At the time, I was a student at the Paris Conservatory, but I felt that there was something else. I was attracted to the Russian way of playing, like a language I wanted to understand. She was the one who helped me unlock this secret. At the end of the internship, I told him: “I want to go with you. » I would have followed her anywhere.
What did she answer?
She insisted that I finish my studies. For three summers, I signed up for his master class. Then, I applied for a scholarship in Moscow. You had to wait years to join her class, but she promised to save me a place. When an exchange was possible, I left. I was 19 years old.
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What memories do you have of Moscow?
We were at the end of the Brezhnev era. Daily life was hard. I lived in a pension, there were three of us per room. Thanks to the diplomatic pouch, I was able to write and receive mail, but it was impossible to telephone unless I waited in line for four hours. Same endless lines to buy fresh produce.
In the evening, we met in the rooms with vodka, bread, butter. One day, in class, Natalia Shakhovskaya found me pale and asked if I had eaten. That same evening, she invited me to dinner at her place. I have often returned there. We spent hours in his kitchen talking and smoking. When she talked about the communist regime or the gulag, where her uncle had been sent, she would turn on a tap or turn up the volume on the radio, to prevent a microphone from hearing us.
What did this teacher teach you?
All ! She helped me find this voice that I was looking for for a long time, made me become the performer that I am. She had an innate sense of teaching, a vision of the person who can reveal herself.
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#Virtuosity #crush #meaning #beauty