Maxim Vengerov was appointed Unicef Honorary Envoy for Music in 1997 at the age of 23. Today the 28-year-old travels the world drawing attention to the plight of children in troubled areas. His work has taken him to Harlem, Sarajevo, Kosovo and Kampala.
Born in the Western Siberian capital Novosibirsk, he received his first violin lesson at the age of five and at the age of 10 won the Junior Wieniawski Competition in Poland. His awards include two Gramophone awards — regarded as the Oscars of the classical music industry — and two Grammy nominations.
This month Vengerov plays in South Africa under the banner of the International Classical Music Festival. He will hold workshops for young people in Alexandra township and will visit Unicef-supported initiatives in Gauteng.
As Unicef Honorary Envoy for Music, do you think that Unicef could do more to use music as a tool for positive social development, by providing music and music education for the children in Aids orphanages, in homes for abused children and so on?
Unfortunately in the whole world children are suffering, also because of all the disagreements between adults. There is so much that needs to be done regarding the awareness of HIV/Aids, child abuse, drug abuse, using children for drug traffic. So you see, with all of this we are still stuck. There, music comes second, a very important point, but still second.
But involvement in music can help the children become less vulnerable to what you are mentioning. It can give them a totally different frame of mind, bring another dimension to their reality.
I agree with you. We wish music could be put first, but unfortunately there is still that basic rule of life: survival. Once that has been accomplished then immediately come cultural values. I remember my mother, she used to be a choir conductor and had an orphanage in Siberia. She fetched the children from the street, rescued them, gave them a place to live, gave them food and dressed them well. She used to fight for this, with the government you know, because in Siberia in the old days there were no means for this. First she built a school, a most beautiful school for the children to enjoy, and then came music. This was the procedure — one at a time.
I recall the words of the pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus of the Moscow Conservatory, the teacher of Sviatoslav Richter, who wrote: “To teach a great talent is to destroy it.” How did you avoid being destroyed by teachers?
Ah — a good question. Well, my first teacher was the most fantastic. She actually did not teach me but let me play like I wanted to, and directed me. This showed me above all to enjoy music, to have fun with it. The second teacher, actually, was teaching me. It was important, but it was more like survival with him. I had to battle with that teacher you know, but at the same time I became much stronger, started to appreciate and learn to know music from the other side, totally different.
Then again, I had further two teachers who were knowledgeable and who were mentors. Daniel Barenboim (world renowned pianist and conductor) and Mstislav Rostropovich (world renowned cellist and conductor). Again, Rostropovich did not teach me but created with me, and drew so many things out of me that I did not know. He told me to love music and have passion for it, to give to people, to draw from inside very deep: personality, maturity, power. Barenboim, again, he was a teacher. Basically he told me to analyse! But these were two extremes that were very important for me to know. The one wouldn’t be possible without the other. So, I am very thankful that I had these two extremes during different stages of my life.
What about teachers at normal school?
Normal school: I had a wonderful teacher in elementary subjects in Moscow for four years when I studied there. It was a great time to spend away from home. Then I went back to (my hometown) Novosibirsk and continued studies at an elementary school there that had no music subjects. That was a very different and difficult experience for me. The kids had no interest, they teased me, gave me names and said: “Ah, The Violinist” — especially when I was going to play concerts and they had to stay at school. They did not like that. So they envied me, hated me (laughs). And in the end, when I was 11 or 12, I couldn’t continue. It started becoming too painful. The headmaster at the school was very knowledgeable. I studied privately with her, she taught me everything and I absolved exams. I obviously had to finish school, but going to regular classes was impossible.
Do you think that it is true that the degree to which a person is truly creative is directly relative to the degree to which this person is, or is not, corruptible? I think of examples like Schubert or Shostakovich?
Composers such as Shostakovich or Prokofiev had this incredible wisdom. They were able to predict the future. They were able to give this energy to society, and they could even transform the society. This is the incredible wonder of music. That makes one wonder sometimes where this music comes from. It is from higher spiritual powers and spheres, and comes through normal human beings — or not normal — people like Shostakovich? And an example from the other side of the world, Benjamin Britten, his War Requiem was a statement of the 20th century, a statement of freedom. Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony was also a statement of freedom. During World War II it gave such incredible power to people that had almost lost all their hope to win the war. Historically the first performance of this symphony took place during the blockade of Leningrad and gave the population the feeling that it would survive, because of the music. This is the power that music has through composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich and composers have to be truthful. They always remain truthful to themselves, they couldn’t be otherwise.
However, if we look at music today, sometimes I get a feeling that we are somehow living in a musical vacuum. I have asked myself whether this might be that man-kind has for some reason lost the quality that we are here talking about. We are all today too easily overtaken by the urge for fame — whatever the prize for it may be. And if you want fame, there is the pressure from media, having to please. Few seem capable of resisting this temptation, yet the superficiality of it all makes an individual lose all his or her power.
Yeah. I have been wondering sometimes where the next Shostakovich is, who is it? Where is the reincarnation? There is a lot of talent but I think that the power of music is waiting for us. We have just not matured yet. We have been sleeping during the Seventies, Eighties, Nineties.
We stopped to create and look. We have driven ourselves to an existential crisis, yet mankind would need to stay alert because things can erupt all the time. And if there are good times we have to protect these good times and not just use them … for our own daily, basic needs. What we do need is to live alertly in society, love others, and once these rules are obeyed the world would be a better place.
I also believe in the energy in what we create, in what we say, in what we do to each other. It always comes back like a boomerang — comes back not just equally but in another form. It is an energy thing you know. If I would be able to explain it physically I would be a master (laughs). But I feel it — I know it from my own life.
The details
Maxim Vengerov will perform at a gala concert on November 17 at the ZK Matthews Hall, Unisa, Pretoria. For International Classical Music Festival details call Tel: (012) 392 4224. For an unabridged transcript of this interview go to www.mg.co.za.