Our very last trip was to Kosovo. From the very beginning I had an intention to go there instead of Serbia. But because Russian Federation does not accept this Republic as an independent country, we were told not to go there. Basically, the situation was the following: we had contacted the University of Prishtina during the summer. We had told them about the project and the idea, but it was clear that the problem was our Russian background, of course. So we did not get any answer from them nor from other people there. So, we contacted Russian Embassy, which was a mistake from one point of view but it gave us the opportunity to make other contacts in Kosovo and finally get there.
This country, Kosovo, is divided into two parts: Serbian and Albanian. All the northern part is Serbian, the South is Albanian. One could say that the situation is dangerous, but people are so used to it, it is a normal thing for them at the moment, they can’t imagine living in a different way, without the hatred, fear, readiness to attack or to seek shelter, they have forgotten what it feels like going anywhere they want and not getting killed. We went to Kosovska Mitrovica – the Serbian town in Kosovo, where they all hate American and European peacemakers and love Russians. I did not conceal the fact that I have an American passport despite being Russian. The reaction to my citizenship was really strong: suspicious glances, a storm of feelings and emotions from every person who heard it, when they were trying to understand how that girl (myself) could be an enemy. But I am not an enemy, I am a pianist, so finally they started ignoring that unpleasant fact, and my Russian nationality rescued me. It seemed that they felt sorry for me and could not help me. All these people have been living in the state of emergency for at least 13 years now. In that town, Kosovska Mitrovica, they have a bridge, a bridge with barricades (which are huge stacks of stones, sand, scrap metal, etc.) and no Serbian people can go on this bridge or enter the Albanian area, no Albanian can go to the Serbian part. They have different, separate schools, shops, medicine, institutes, even currency. So it is like two different countries – and the main argument is that Serbians want to be Serbia, and Albanians want to be Kosovo, and both want to have independence. Last December they had a new fight because of the customs at the border where Albanian people wanted to get the rule of law. When something like that is happening, Serbian people were telling us, we are using other roads: in the mountains, inside the forest. All the people know these roads, but they also know that they are so dangerous, that it is quite easy to die there. But they understand that it is better to die in the car accident than to be killed by your “neighbor”, enemy or “shipter,” as they call them, which is the rude way of calling an Albanian. They never use the word Albanian, they use only shipter, which is a curse.
On the other hand, I have some Albanian acquaintances who say absolutely the same about Serbians: that they, Serbians, have caused Albanian genocide, that they started the war (Serbians say the complete opposite, as you can imagine), etc.
It is impossible to find the right solutions, to seek reconciliation at the moment. They really hate each other and to the question if it is possible at least to try to find some solution, they all reply that it is impossible. Religious, ethnic problems do not help them either. Orthodox and Muslim, the eternal argument about who is right and who is more important, who has the bigger church or mosque, where it is – on the central avenue, the main square or in a remote place… All that matters.
The fact is that some years ago (around 50 years ago, maybe) there were 300,000 Serbian people in Prishtine, now there are only 40. Not thousands, but forty. All Serbian people are living in enclaves in the South now.
03/04/2012
We had a long car journey from Belgrade (around 6 hours). Quite tiring one, given that it was a hilly terrain. So, we arrived around 2pm and had a recital at 7pm. We played in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Pristina. Before it was Pristine`s Uni, they had an area of 400,000m, lots of rooms, classes, grand pianos, organs, lots of other instruments, spaces for architects, sculptures, materials for them and artists, etc. Most of the teachers were Serbian and they left Pristina for the Serbian area and now they don’t have any space, of course. They have a small house with 2 floors, no instruments, nothing. They have a Gallery, where we played, where they have finals, exhibitions, and installations. But that Gallery is like a medium-size hall in a small flat. I mean for the University that has 10,000 students, it is next to nothing.
We played our Duo program first, and a really nice thing was that there were lots of people, full house, they were standing in that small gallery as they had no place to sit and still they were listening as if it was the last time in their lives. So attentive, so grateful they were! And with such a joy they absorbed everything we were offering them.
That was quite a surprise. I can’t say that they were easy people, they all are a bit hard-hearted, they all know what hatred is and that somebody is hating them. Why? The common sense can’t give any answer to this question. We all inside us are small children who deserve to have unconditional love and when we are living in the atmosphere of the constant hatred we can’t accept it, understand it, we can’t answer many questions. We have to blame either somebody or ourselves, but we are searching for a way-out.
Music is a gift. It can drive us to another world, it can help us forget, forgive, feel, be free of fear, be ourselves, relax, look at the sky, think about nature. It has this power. And I felt the same as those people whose life is terrible, who have problems with electricity, water, who don’t have any beauty in their lives – we were happy. It was important for them to put on their best clothes and come to the concert of classical music. It was a real treat for them.
And for us, it was equally special to play for that kind of audience.
04/04/2012
We had a master-class in the morning followed by the recital. The piano was not great, as one can imagine. The students study at the University and some still don’t know how to use the pedal. Or if they do, their teacher doesn’t allow them to do it till they learn piece by heart. And it takes ages, as they work on the first couple of pages for months and don’t go through the whole piece, not even a movement. So the first girl played Liszt Etude in D minor and she was very keen to do it well, to know how to play it, but she wasn’t allowed to use the pedal till she knew the piece well. And that particular etude needs pedal like nothing else. It helps to feel the harmony, keep the base and create a tune out of the base line. Without it, it is just a sequence of ascending and descending notes. So, we worked on using the pedal with the right balance in between hands, so it didn’t get muddy. And she was very excited about how beautiful she could play, and how beautiful the music was.
The next one was the girl with the Mozart sonata in A minor, and she did not play it to the end: only the first four pages. Absolutely dreadful, without any understanding of the tempo it should be played in, how to play grace notes in classical music, where to change the character and where not to do it, etc.
Then Vitaly had two students: saxophonist and clarinetist, and they were really good. A very talented clarinetist with a rare ability to catch the attention of the audience, a real musician, who listened to himself, who had a beautiful sound and knew what he was doing and a good saxophonist as well with a good school of playing, taught very well.
So it does not matter where one studies, but it is all about the teacher. You might find some genius, who will have the fire to inspire you, or you can have a bored one in the good place. So, everyone should look for a teacher who will suit them, who will have one and the same language with them, who will be interested in music more than in anything else.
After that we had a Flautist with the Franck Sonata, originally written for violin and piano which we played together as well, so we spoke about our interpretation, how to shape the thing up, add sense and atmosphere. As this Violin Sonata has an agenda of its own (it was a present for Franck`s friend wedding) it is not difficult to understand the character, but one just has to make it clear.
After that we gave a recital including both solo music and duet, and it was the same concentrated attention from the audience as the day before. I can’t say why we felt the audience`s reaction so well – whether it was so much of noises and whispering, along with so much applause and so much coughing, or whether it was actually something that we can’t express in words. But definitely we feel it every time we are on stage. We know exactly all the moods that people are experiencing. We know if they like it or not, we feel if they are attentive or bored, when they are inside the music and when they are just watching a show. This time the attention was great, and people were drawn to another world. The world of Music.