The jubilee - tenth season of the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra will continue on Friday, November 23, with a concert by the leader of the second violins, Katarina Pavlović, who will share the stage with her colleague, the first cellist Dmitri Prokofiev. As Pavlović points out in the interview for Kroz grad, the program will include works by Mozart, more specifically, they will play the Concert Symphony (WA Mozart Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major. Movements: Allegro maestoso, Andante, Presto).
"This symphony was originally written for violin and viola, but Dmitry will play the viola part on the cello. We chose the composition ourselves. In fact, he had it all figured out as soon as we met. Mozart wrote five violin concertos, but none for the cello, so he wanted to play his work," reveals Pavlović, while when asked how much freedom they have to choose the program they will play, he answers:
"Most often, the soloist agrees the program with the conductor and chooses what he wants to play, but it happens that the soloist is asked for a certain composition to be in the repertoire," explains Pavlović.
Although they have known each other for several years, Dmitry and Katarina will play a concert together for the first time.
"As Hesse said in 'The Glass Bead Game' - 'Nowhere can two people become friends so easily as when playing music.' That's the great truth and that's exactly what happened to us," she recalls.
"We met almost five years ago at a rehearsal, and instantly recognized each other and immediately started talking about possibilities and plans. We just worked and made a lot together, but in this form this is our first performance. We are, first of all, colleagues, he is a gentleman and a great artist, we are similar in character, we understand each other even if we don't speak our native languages, and it's incredible how much we have similar interests and outlook on the world. The most important thing is communication between people and understanding", believes Pavlović.
The interviewee of Vijesti revealed that they started preparing for the concert right after Dmitri moved from Moscow to Podgorica.
“We packed it as we thought and felt at that moment and left it. However, until the moment when the concert was scheduled for us, several years had passed without us even thinking about Mozart. When we returned to him, I guess it settled in us and matured. We completely changed the concept and focused it on the basis of the first chord of the composition to play everything in that style. Maybe a little unusual, but we came up with the idea that the core of the composition is based on that first sforcando piano, and that he deliberately set it up and started the composition like that, because after all, Mozart was a genius", believes Pavlović.
"Mozart was, first of all, an opera composer, one of the most difficult to play. Legend has it that melodies ran through his head so fast that he couldn't write them down at that speed. This duet of ours, in which the voices mostly alternate, is literally a conversation between two instruments that talk to each other, and others have to understand us, what we wanted to say", she is sure.
This is not Katarina's first concert at which she performs as a CSO soloist. About what the Podgorica audience is like and what it's like to play as a soloist in front of colleagues with whom he plays and practices every day, he reveals:
"I performed several times with the CSO as a soloist, but what I love most is the feeling when I travel somewhere and stand in front of an orchestra where no one knows me. For me it is a complete experience. In front of my colleagues, the responsibility is greater, but I always have a feeling of enormous support and I literally feel that everyone is breathing with me and absorbing my every tone. Most people don't understand what I do, but they respect it very much, so almost everyone who knows me comes to hear and see me, and that's why I have the feeling that the audience is wonderful," concludes Pavlović.
Artists are forced to be their own managers
The audience in Podgorica will have the privilege of listening to this concert, but as he says, he would like it to play in other cities of Montenegro and beyond. "Unfortunately, there are no management faculties in our countries, and agents for us classicists are almost non-existent. So instead of thinking about the music and focusing on working on ourselves, we artists are forced to be our own managers. The concert should be played in several places, but I don't like to talk about any plans in advance, so we will announce it again when it is necessary", promises Pavlović.
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