Gabriel Prokófiev, composer: “Classical music has to be danced again” | Culture | EUROtoday

There are surnames that impose, particularly on their bearers. The composer Gabriel Prokofiev (London, 41 years previous) didn’t meet Sergei, the enfant horrible of Soviet modernity, however since he was little he felt nice admiration and respect for his grandfather. “When my father [Oleg, pintor y escultor abstracto] When he emigrated to Great Britain, he was very careful not to impose that inheritance on us,” he says in a telephone conversation. His childhood did not pass, as one might imagine, among strict music theory classes. “His music was always playing at home, but we assimilated it with a certain naturalness,” he remembers. “I loved his ballet Romeo and Juliet and the second of his piano concertos.”

His dad and mom enrolled him in numerous instrument lessons, and he even joined a choir, however he by no means actually match into these environments. “To no one’s surprise, when I was 10 years old I created a pop group and the weekends of my adolescence were dedicated to dancing in clubs.” Already then his path was clear, however not the precise course he ought to take, so he studied electroacoustic music in Birmingham, composition in New York and even spent a while in Tanzania recording the polyrhythmic songs of the Maasai on a tape recorder for the archive of the British Library. “That experience radically changed my conception of sound,” he says.

In 2003, after a quick interval as a producer, he reconciled with classical music. He composed two string quartets and based Nonclassical, a touring nightclub and impartial label. “I set out to take the traditional repertoire out of concert halls, attract young people and show that this music can and should also be danced.” He did not should invent something, as a result of all the pieces was on paper. “From Couperin to Mozart, Chopin or Bartók, many composers wrote dances inspired by the popular music of their time,” he says. “In the 20th century everything became too cerebral, so that physical element of dance was lost.”

After the latest publication of his album Dark Lightsan unique mixture of orchestral textures, synthesizers and electronics, was commissioned by L’Auditori de Barcelona. “The idea was to bring together a selection of my pieces adapted and versioned for the Morphosis Ensemble“, a chamber ensemble made up of piano, saxophone, percussion, cello, violin and electronics. “The arrangements alternate contemplative passages with rhythms of the universe dance“, he advances. “It’s not a club concert, but there will be moments when that energy will be felt and, who knows, maybe it will manage to detach the audience from their seats,” he ventures from his home in the London neighborhood of Hackney.

The result, which is titled Tradition on a dance floorcan be heard on March 15 on the Room 2 Oriol Martorell. “I have an idea of ​​the order of the program, but I like to work spontaneously with the performers during rehearsals,” he says. Among the items that can be included into the blending console is Howlimpressed by the function that know-how performed throughout the protests of the Arab Spring. “People go to concerts to escape reality and feel free,” he displays. “That is why I believe that music should be able to express deep emotions, and of course our concerns, but without using politics as a fad.”

A few days ago several media reported that his grandfather’s house-museum in Sontsivka, in the occupied zone of Ukraine, had been looted. “This fratricidal war is a tragedy and a gigantic mistake, so as long as it continues I do not plan to return to Russia,” laments the composer, who has family in Saint Petersburg and has begun to collaborate with the Ukrainian trio Liatoshinsky. At the beginning of the invasion, the music of Sergeiwho died on March 5, 1953, the same day as Stalin, was the subject of censorship in the West. “These types of reactions only contribute to Putin’s propaganda, since my grandfather was a victim of the Soviet regime’s blacklists.”

The no less novel story of his grandmother, the Spanish soprano Lina Codinawill be addressed at one of the conferences to be held in Paris on the occasion of Prokofiev’s 135th birthday. “At these meetings, people often ask me what my grandfather would think of the music I make,” Gabriel, who is part of the organizing committee at Columbia University, admits with a laugh. “If we look at the harshness with which he referred to the work of some of his colleagues, it is likely that he would chasten me for a poorly constructed harmony or an excess of simplicity, but I am convinced that deep down he would be happy for someone in the family to follow in his footsteps.”

Gabriel’s musical career took a new direction after the 2011 premiere of his Concerto for record player in the BBC Proms. “Suddenly I found myself in the Royal Albert Hall and in front of an audience completely fascinated by the presence of a dj in the middle of an orchestra.” Since then, his music has been debated between fidelity to classical forms (such as Violin Concerto what he wrote for Daniel Hope) and the exploration of new formulas with which to continue challenging the way of enjoying the great repertoire. “My remix of the Novena “Beethoven proposes something as simple as taking a work that everyone knows and letting yourself be surprised.”

For the London composer, live performance promoters will solely be capable to join with younger audiences in the event that they surrender the logic of the area of interest. “The Aurora OrchestraFor example, organize day raves to adapt to the lifestyle of a generation, generation Z, who likes to get home early.” Impossible to flee the actor’s latest and controversial statements Timothée Chalamet. “You are wrong to think that opera and ballet do not interest anyone, since it is these art forms that will help us escape from the screens in the coming years,” he feedback. “But I appreciate that your comments have opened a debate that I consider very important.”