I´ve had a wonderful week in Moldova performing the Grieg A-minor concerto with the National Philharmonic Orchestra on the 15th. The national day of Norway was on May 17th, so that was very convenient. Very interesting idea that a country like Moldova chooses to have a Norwegian day doing a full Grieg concert! Grieg is a very popular composer in Moldova too! I arrived Tuesday evening and was showed around a little bit. The town Chisinau is quite beautiful because it´s so green! Moldova was under Sovjet until it fell in 1991 and they got independent after this. They´ve been struggling with the economy ever since. But they have very nice wine, wonderful food, nice people and quite a lot of culture. The Eastern European culture is very strong and it has always been the case it seems. There are so many wonderful musicians coming from Russia and other Eastern countries. And I have very great respect for them, especially the pianists of course being a pianist myself. They have this wonderful ability to combine tremendous technique with amazing soul and musicianship. It´s like they understand that music isn´t just mere entertainment, it really means something!
And this is of course reflected in the fact that people show up for the concerts! This concert was sponsored by the Norwegian Embassy in Romania. And as I know that many people are reading this blog, I would like to give my warmest gratitudes to the organizers, both from the Embassy and the Moldovan side! It was a very special day for me and it was such a pleasure meeting all of you and getting to know you a little bit. This also goes for the Scandinavian guests that attended! Thank you for the sight seeing, the food, the Eurovision Song Contest Party (!!) and openness. And of course thank you for inviting me to the 17th of May celebration. And last but not least thank you to all the people who attended the concert! This concert was free of charge, and "everybody" came. By everybody I mean that people brought their entire families and showed up to enjoy some nice music. The house was full (5-600 people I think?). It certainly warms my heart to see that so many people will come because of sheer interest of nice music. Classical music in the west is by many people regarded as a "high culture" thing. Like it´s something that gives status, something refined that people from the higher parts of society can identify with. For others it´s an intellectual thing. Music can be intellectual too, but if don´t let go and let it flow into our inner software, you miss the whole point I think. I´m not trying to generalize here, but I know that many people in the west a reluctant to go to such concerts because they don´t think they are smart enough, fine enough or good enough for it. Like it will go right above their heads.. This is why I thought it was so nice to see all these people on the concert in Moldova. They applauded between the movements, some cell phones rang, some people came late, some people left in the middle.. they broke the "rules.." But in a way that was nice. As long as it´s honest and comes from the heart. Classical music should never be "dangerous." Come and enjoy.
For me personally it was a wonderful experience to do this concert. I think the end result was pretty satisfying. Of course not perfect. But that doesn´t matter. I´m not striving for perfection anyway, as long as I felt that I gave something from myself, that there was some passion, fire, something genuine about it. I have this idea in my system how it feels to be an experienced concert pianist. First of all I can say that it must be a very demanding thing to do in life. I think to be a concert pianist like I´m picturing it, you must have a tremendous technique, energy and openness. I faced some external challenges that I´m sure all concert pianists have experienced at least once in their life. For instance, the touch of the piano was very hard and heavy. This means that you have to work and be active on every single note. Playing in a hall were the acoustics are bone dry is NOT helping. In addition to that you have to face your own body and mind´s reaction to the stressful situation. AND it sometimes gets hot as hell on stage - which it was. And you have to deal with all this at once and do a performance as good as possible. It´s like compressed spirituality! You have to accept it, be in the moment, flow along with it and expand and express. Perfection for me is being able to do those things! It´s not about playing the right notes, it´s about having the inner security, energy, intensity and tremendous power and confidence to face all these things flawlessly. I´m not there yet, but I didn´t expect that either. But I´m grateful for the challenges I faced, because that only gives more experience to it. And experienced is highly needed. I´m more and more happy about choosing to dedicate the 6 months at the Banff Centre in Canada from September. It will give me much more technical power and stability + much more. If I can also give some sincere dedication to the deep development of my hardware and software (body and mind), everyday, in Banff and hopefully intensely through a Yoga and Meditation retreat in India, it would also strongly contribute career wise. (Although that is about developing in all parts of life.)
There´s probably alot more I could say about Moldova, but I´ll leave it there for now. I´m only a week away from the next big concert now. That will be Scriabin Piano Concerto with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra next Wednesday. It´s my final Master Exam concert And that´s a very special thing because it means that my time at the conservatory in Trondheim is definitely over. It´s a symbolical (and also practical) transition. I no longer have any formal ties to Trondheim and everything is open. More on that next time I guess! :-)
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