Gidon Kremer: Biography and Creativity

Among the many violinists given to the world culture by the Soviet music school, Kremer occupies a special place. Talent, multiplied by huge work capacity, plus a distinct public position - all these qualities have won him enormous prestige all over the world. The main thing that differed Gidon Kremer from the very beginning of his performing activity - the desire for meaningful saturation, for the discovery of new facets of spirituality.

This is expressed in the selection for the performance of works by composers who are looking for new forms - unusual and original. At the same time, in the performance of violin classics, he is a virtuoso in the highest sense of the word.

Fiddler in the fourth generation

For the first time he took the instrument in his hands when he was four and a half years old. Gidon Kremer often says that his fate was decided before his birth. In the family, all were violinists, and the ability to music was transmitted on a genetic level. When in February 1947 in Riga in the family of Marianna Karlovna and Marcus Filippovich Kremerov a son appeared, the choice for him of the musician's career seemed natural.

Maternal grandfather - Karl Brückner - was known in Europe as a violinist and musicologist, and in Riga as a professor at the Conservatory. He was also born in a family of musicians, in Germany, and with the coming to power of the Nazis was forced to emigrate first to Estonia, then to Latvia. Perhaps in the fate of the exiled grandfather and father, whose family numbered more than 30 people - victims of the Holocaust, one can see the sources of political convictions of Gidon, who always protested against state violence against an individual, against aggressive national policy at any level.

School of Excellence

His first teacher Gidon Kremer always considered his father. From him, he took the basic notion that success can only be achieved through hard work. According to Markus Filippovich, the technique of playing the violin must be mastered by the age of 16, otherwise it will be too late. Therefore, the daily many hours of training have become familiar to the famous musician from early childhood. He began his methodical musical education with training at the Riga Musical School. Emil Darzin.

In 1965, he moved to the capital of the USSR and entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he became a pupil of the brilliant violinist David Oistrakh. From the very beginning of the training, the young student chooses the most technically complex works for the performance, and by the time the conservatory ended, he earned the glory of a true virtuoso, who has a special musicality and depth of understanding both classical masterpieces and new trends in violin art.

First recognition

In the year of the end of the class of the great Oistrakh, in 1969, Gidon Kremer participates in the contest of violinists in Genoa. The program of the contest includes, inter alia, the execution of Caprices of Paganini, whose name is worn by this famous competition. The young Soviet violinist won the first prize. In the same year, he became the winner of the second prize in the traditional artists' competition held in Montreal, skipping Vladimir Spivakov in the first place .

The most important stage in the development of the musician's career was the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In 1970, Gidon Kremer won the first prize among violinists. Photo of the young artist was published by all the leading music editions of the world. A magnificent victory in it made the name of the young violinist truly popular. With him began an active concert activity Kremer on stage venues around the planet.

Emigrant

He never considered himself an outspoken dissident, and in his speeches there is still a feeling of indifference to the culture of the country that collapsed in the early 1990s and the one that became the heiress of the Soviet Union. But he never aspired to fit into the official Soviet life, which was regulated by instructions of officials and ideological bodies. Among the music that he chose to perform, much that was not recommended by the leadership, many works by those who belonged to the disgraced Soviet and reactionary Western composers.

He was friends with Alfred Schnittke, was the first performer of his music. He played Sophia Gubaidullin, Edison Denisov, Guy Kancheli - composers, whose work did not fit in form and content into the framework of ideologically correct art. Fiddler, who was a laureate of numerous international competitions, was not awarded any official titles at home.

In 1980, among those who left the USSR and whose name was banned in the country, was Gidon Kremer. The biography of the violinist has since been associated with Germany. The first concert in the homeland after the break took place only after ten years.

Priorities

It refers to musicians who consider entertainment and relaxation the most insignificant function of their art. To consider the public incapable of perceiving music, different from the untwisted and time-tested samples, he considers offensive to her. Because of this, Kremer often conflicts with those record companies and concert organizers, who do not want to risk the attention of the public, offering her unusual and experimental works, music that requires certain mental and spiritual efforts.

The violin classics remains for him the main material for concert activity. Music lovers appreciate his unique reading of works, ranked as popular. At the same time Gidon Kremer about Schnittke, about Gubaidullina, about Astor Piazzolla, Philippe Glasse, speaks of musical tops no less significant than Bach, Beethoven or Tchaikovsky. To tell the audience the way to them is a task worthy of any serious performer.

Guadalini, Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati

Famous virtuoso Kremer once said that he does not feel his dependence on the instrument, that he has experience playing the violins of modern work. In doing so, he emphasizes the special relationship between the musician and his instrument, which is sometimes mystical in nature. The harmony of these relationships allows us to achieve real magic, says Kremer. Gidon Markusovich notes that he was lucky to play on outstanding samples performed by real geniuses.

The violin, made by Giovanni Battista Guadalini, was inherited from his grandfather - Karl Brückner. She helped him win the Tchaikovsky competition. In his life there were violins of Stradivari and Guarneri, which he passed on to the musicians of the famous Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra created by him. Today he plays on an even more ancient instrument, created in 1641, by the work of Nicolo Amati.

In move

He is in constant flight. Numerous solo concerts, performances with young Baltic musicians, collected in Kremerata Baltika, are accompanied by constant success. He invented and organized a chamber music festival in the Austrian Lokenhaus, which has existed for more than three decades. Kremer published several books of autobiographical prose, he actively responds to the most important events, including those that occurred in Russia.

"To this day, I'm learning ... to live!" - as Gidon Kremer wrote in one of the articles. The personal life of the musician also seems quite harmonious. Daughters - Anastasia and the popular in Russia actress and TV presenter Lika Kremer, - he admits, continue to please his father so far. In the plans of the musician - to move to a permanent place of residence in the historical homeland, without reducing the pace of active creative activity.