29. 1. 2024 what a month!! managed to play 8 concerts and travel almost 5 thousand km!.. 6 countries, 4 languages, 3 railroad strikes – and 3 musical instruments! indeed, it was a lot of fun to discover viola with its deeeeep C string giving vibration to the whole body, and tambourine, and in general to immerse even more in the folk direction. The third video is our favorite piece from the slovakian Uhrovska manuscript from the Wiener Konzerthaus.
27.5.23
…but ok, I make another jump. After the anti-human travelling with a taxi, train, bus and train started at 4:30 in the morning (!!!) I’m in Cesena practicing another four Bach‘s concerts. Last May, 2022, became a huge entrance in the Bach’s music to me , and tradition is going on.
P. S. What do they do with such a reverberation?…
21.5.23
i already mentioned the flood in Italy, and i was lucky not to die there like 20 other people, so – mentally i was just not able to practice normally. The water separated me from my friends in the Frau Musika Orchestra, i literally got stuck in Emilia Romagna with all my thoughts about having home, losing home, belonging to a certain place or belonging to trains which constantly bring you to the new one. If there is trains… Which are not blocked because of a truly biblical flood.
My condolences to ones who has lost their home or family members.
Well, trying to do all best from the situation, i opened at least a couple of baroque treaties. Many many thanks to Filippo Pantieri who hosted me in that difficult time.
26.5.23
…. But somewhen i finally managed to arrive to Lonigo, a place which means so much to me and where we all have experienced something really special during last year. Dear Ragazzini (part of it!) on the photo and some Bach which is actually a Vivaldi-one, but all this topic of arrangements is an other one which will come into a circle of reflection very soon.
P. S. I think i should rename my challenge and write #100daysofmusicianlife, because is it a real practicing? But maybe yes?… Practicing not only the instrument.. Practicing travelling, practicing adaptation again and again to new pieces, new people, new environments and different countries (and the languages!!!!!) and – the nicest part – practicing friendship.
19.5
Last days are so crazy that i just can not tell the whole story in one sentence. Italy is flooded!! 🌧️🚣
i spent about 23 hours in the bus before we would have needed a boat, but finally arrived in Cesena before the rain has begun, and played with the best professor in the world Luca Giardini.
12.5.2023 something very strange happened to me yesterday. Very spontaneusly and without any single second of being or at least feeling prepared i got an access to an indian jam-session. Those musicians are REALLY different. They have no scores and configure patterns they have got from their teachers who got it from their teachers, and so on. This tradition of playing and singing raga counts i don’t know how many generations. You have to feel an emotion and the moment, otherwise it just doesn’t work. All improvisation. Playing baroque we “kinda” use to improvise, but it’s just incomparable. I felt like a pupil of a guru. Incredible. I’m very bad, but i didn’t care at that sec, and i think that was the meaning of the whole – just to dissolve in this unpredictable musical flow. It was much more than just practicing the instrument
9.5.2023
Last week was like one long day without end with just short naps in between which we have spent together in Basel and Sankt Florian with Rafaela Salgado, Giulio Sanna and Silvia Berchtold under the newborn name Tra Noi. First public execution after 9 days in our lifes playing together brought us an invitation to the Wiener Konzerthaus for the Resonanzen Festival Wien next year. I think, we managed the beginning quite well. Practicing was not in vain..
…….and i could even practice his gamba!!!
2.5.2023 aaaaaand
something really special, those last days with mainbarockorchester, and all these jumps from super-close to completely far away – geographically, inside one flat, on one stage, musically, and so one, and back, and again, and again. But this laughing….. Worth truly a lot to me. Look at this genius gambist Christian Zincke.
1.5 What a crazy week was it lately. Three cities, four concerts, one death, one new life and sooo many thoughts. And we – the four in Basel, preparing and rehearsing endless.
24.4 it was our first time touching organ’s keys. I don’t remember when i had that much fun. The mass was just too long…
and again – what does it have to do with practicing violin?
1) we also played our normal instruments, honest to God!
2) sight reading is always useful, doesn’t matter which instrument (i think)
3) i just like our group. We are actually preparing something nice.
21.4 Couple of words about concentration on the stage…. 🤦🏻 my gosh, why it is so difficult to stay attentive to what you are doing??
But any way i got a super nice chance to remember my harpsichord exam. LOVE TO PLAY KEYBOARDS
20.04.2023 obvious thing, but what about learning by nature how to make music?
i had a luck again to have people around me with whom i could talk a bit those days. For example, about stage. Being nervous before an execution. So normal, we all know that. but if i look at flowers and trees, or even funny cats videos (!), it really helps, because i see they don’t care and give their best even if nobody sees them. as long we are nature creatures, shouldn’t we practice that, too? giving our best calmly. let’s see, if that will help me tomorrow to play this difficult passage in the a moll sonata from Bodinus. What does it have to do with daily practicing? Maybe, that is actually the basis of it? 🌸
18.4.2023
… but, getting to text from yesterday, would be nice to come back from Franck to Quantz-like ornaments without shameful loss… 🤦🏻♀️ that is exactly what I meant – those two are not the same. Bow speed, and vibrato, and rhetoric, and right shoulder, and body activity-everything has to be recharged for the capricious baroque.
A new concert is coming, this time in Baden-Württemberg, and we just go practice.
16.4.23 Which violin?
Diiiiifficult question of choice, which confronts two (or more?) different esthetics, „baroque“ and „modern“, and the fight is sometimes indeed strong. What I understood during the recording is that for me they are still, from Moscow time, two absolutely different instruments which I actually can not mix, it’s just another physiology of playing. But how beautiful (!!!) is it to take some elements from one and add it to other just as some spots, it is an endless field for a sound colour research. F.e., loudness. Should the modern violin always be ffff? What is about vibrato? Why not use “buono” and “cattivo” also here? Etc etc
.. I swear, this sight-reading with genius Arash Rokni was one of the best in my life
15.4.23 all the words about feeling groove tomorrow, now only action >>>
14.4.23 travelling=loosing roots?
today in between we spoke a lot about cultural differences, integration and home. this project somehow corresponds to all the topics, and that all takes a lot of mental energy because of things currently happening in the world. pfff, anyway of course music helps, we all are extremely lucky to have such a window we can any time open for taking a bit of fresh air. this song is from my city where I was born and grew up. TAKE NUMBER ONE THOUSAND 🎙
13.4.2023 today we were recording the whole day, and i have no videos. but i still have a couple of words about the process. it’s just INCREDIBLE how attentive you get under the microphone, this level of self-control just doesn’t come in normal life! doesn’t matter how detailed I’m practicing, for me it seems i can never be prepared enough. also you have to be VERY OPEN for feedbacks of a sound engineer, otherwise it is simply not going to work. but after a while i just got this wave, this flow, and then felt very happy. some people ask, why i do this post-challenge, because nobody cares, and even worse – it annoyes. but in fact i still think only recording of myself can bring me any proper view of how I’m currently playing, and nothing else, but self-observation can really change and improve things. slow, detailed, honest observation. and if it can inspire anybody else – I’m ready to share it. although, yes, i have to be brave enough, and not only for sharing, but for the recording process itself.
I am truly lucky to have Martin Rust, just an amazing sound engineer, on my side.
P. S. Coffee is probably the most important thing.
12.4.2023 we all know that feeling when you spend the WHOLE day on the way. to concerts, rehearsals, hotels, this, that. body is bounded, mind is flying. One, polish, melody didn’t leave my mind during this beautiful road, i think humming it i quite annoyed my neighbour. another kind of mental practicing… as good as i can. indeed a very beautiful song, which I’m going to put on my violin. tomorrow the recording is starting.
11.4
everything is slowly getting ready for my dream‘s coming true – recording with my folk project starts in two days! can not wait. Indian vibes today!
i will separately write about coordination in the body and in general the body language during the performance, it seems it’s a very exciting topic…
10.4.2023 aaaaaaand…
I just felt it’s time for a new wave. today i start the second edition of my daily practicing challenge with the hope to discover new horizons of playing. the spring is coming in all directions
…but probably the structure is still necessary, even if emotions are blooming, so i put my metronom again.
16.03.2023 …But what amazes me is again Bach with his Art of Fugue. An absolutely incredible piece. It’s like a constructor of similar blocks with a constantly changing structure. Again and again references to higher mathematics. But what a dramatic one! I am delighted.
14.12.2023 In the last two years, I played for the first time almost all of those Bach’s great works – the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion, the Mass in B Minor, the Christmas Oratorio, the Magnificat, all the Brandenburg Concertos. I don’t know what to compare this feeling with. I don’t go to church, but in these moments I feel like I belong to the common prayer of all 150 people on stage. Every note is important, otherwise the overall picture won’t form, but this picture is painted inside, inside me, it’s beauty that you can’t put out. he knew, he just knew the secret of how to write music.
my playlist for this March:
11.03.2023 Suddenly came across several studies on the benefits of music lessons in learning languages – and vice versa. one helps the other. It was fun to jump from Portuguese to English, I would like to improve both in 2023, so as not to think about every word, but to speak easily and calmly. Like singing! especially when you travel a lot, you need the language here and there. Bought the book “Poets of Lisbon” in these two languages, amazing poems, love it.
a little excerpt from the interview for our CD-release:
(read the whole text in the tab “Press”)
MUSICA GLORIA – MEET THE TEAM BEHIND THE MUSIC
Our new CD ‘Corelli & Händel: Encounters in Rome’ has been released! To celebrate this, we want to highlight everyone who collaborated intensively on this project. MEET: Daria Spiridonova – Violinist
….Your collaboration with Musica Gloria
One of the best things about working with Musica Gloria is the vegan food by Karen Decock. Karen, we love you!
It’s the people of the ensemble that make it absolutely great. Our characters match perfectly in musicianship and ‘real’ life, and we respect each other: a happy combination. Playing together with Elise Dupont is also very special for me. She plays a violin from the same 17th-century maker – Willem van der Sijde. There are only 8 violins known from his hand. Incredible that now two of these violins sound together on our CD!
…..Your favourite piece from the CD ‘Encounters in Rome’
That would undoubtedly be the third movement of the organ concerto named ‘The Nightingale’, by Händel. That’s very melancholic, and I can just put my entire soul in it.
I also love the trio sonatas by Corelli. It’s like playing ping pong with Elise.
28.1.2023. we are on Malta. it’s terribly cold to play, 10 layers of clothes, a strong wind is blowing. It is a pity to see the sea and not be able to step there. The violin is also very cold and whistles all the time. everything is about blue and brown, as in the photo. The solo went well!
1.01.2023 The year is starting nicely – already on the first day of it there is a new journey, this time – Zurich and east Germany, a bit cold like January itself, but we are trying to make it cosy. With a lot of coffee!!
There is a tiny video of our rehearsal – Masque Suite from Telemann. Didn’t know that music before.