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Boris Allakhverdyan plays clarinet with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first time in Winnipeg,\u201d says the Russian-born Armenian principal clarinetist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have to miss Mother\u2019s Day. It\u2019s OK, because I\u2019m really excited to play Mozart \u2026 it\u2019s a true gem of the clarinet literature.\u201d<\/p>\n
That piece is Mozart\u2019s almost operatic Clarinet Concerto in A Major. One of the Austrian composer\u2019s final works, it\u2019s among the finest examples of his late style \u2014 and seems positively to sing, showcasing the clarinet\u2019s most lyrical qualities.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying Mozart concerto is actually so hard, because it sounds so simple, but it\u2019s (not). The sound has to be perfect, the intonation has to be perfect,\u201d Allakhverdyan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt somehow transforms you more into the vocal world rather than just clarinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting out of L.A. is often when Allakhverdyan gets to really stretch as a soloist.<\/p>\n
In fact, it\u2019s how he met WSO maestro Daniel Raiskin in Dubai, when the two came together to perform Ukrainian composer Alexey Shor\u2019s Clarinet Concerto with the Slovak Philharmonic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be playing that with my friend Daniel Raiskin, who I worked with before. I\u2019m looking forward to hearing (Mozart) in Daniel\u2019s interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean Allakhverdyan has any shortage of things to do in his adopted home in California.<\/p>\n
As well as teaching music at UCLA and California State University, Allakhverdyan, in his 40s, is also a father and plays in a duo with his wife, pianist Alin Melik-Adamyan.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s his gig at the L.A. Phil. It\u2019s become one of the world\u2019s orchestral powerhouses, thanks in no small part to conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who famously led the orchestra in the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n
There, Allakhverdyan leads his section across a long season \u2014 roughly September to June at Walt Disney Concert Hall after an intense summer schedule at the Hollywood Bowl. As these venues\u2019 names evoke, L.A.\u2019s entertainment industry is inescapable even for the city\u2019s classical musicians \u2014 and Allakhverdyan seems mostly to get a kick out of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt keeps you on your toes playing jazz concerts, pop concerts, super classical concerts,\u201d he says, recalling shows he\u2019s played with Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did Coachella last year with the L.A. Phil,\u201d he say, referring to the annual music festival held in the California desert. \u201cThat\u2019s something hard to forget \u2026 70,000 people listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allakhverdyan grew up in Russia in the 1990s and studied at the eminent Moscow Conservatory. By the 1980s, under Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev\u2019s more liberal policies, Hollywood movies and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll were already blaring from Russian teenagers\u2019 cassette players and screens.<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, after the Soviet Union\u2019s fall, American brands were advertised on every street corner and most middle class homes had ready access to MTV Russia.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t WSO maestro Daniel Raiskin<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have that vacuum. I grew up listening to Eminem and watching Home Alone and Terminator,\u201d says Allakhverdyan. \u201c(But) I didn\u2019t listen to much pop music when I was growing up. The older I get, I get to listen to much more.\u201d<\/p>\n This may be the early influence of his parents, both classical musicians. As significant for many classical musicians was the growing availability of modernist scores that had been censored or discouraged in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n Allakhverdyan fondly recalls performing modernist heavyweights such as Berio, Donatoni and Boulez in Russia when he was a youngster, the sort of experimental Western music that resounded more rarely in Russia\u2019s performances spaces under Soviet cultural policy.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t to say that innovative, daring music wasn\u2019t composed in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s most famous composer of the Soviet period, Dmitri Shostakovich, was unequivocally a modernist pioneer, and had a fraught relationship with the Soviet state.<\/p>\n At Saturday and Sunday\u2019s concerts, the WSO will play his Symphony No. 5 (as well as Mahler\u2019s tender Blumine).<\/p>\n Shostakovich\u2019s triumphant 1937 piece is often seen as marking the composer\u2019s return to official favour after an infamous 1936 article in the Soviet press, trashing some of his music on political grounds, that compromised his career and safety.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tDish<\/p>\n Every Second Friday<\/p>\n The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSign up for Dish<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t While it\u2019s not as politically rebellious as other works of his, many listeners continue to hear a coded ambiguity, even sarcasm, in this masterwork.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Shostakovich Five \u2026 Usually I don\u2019t look at it from a political perspective. I think it\u2019s one of his best pieces,\u201d says Allakhverdyan.<\/p>\n As well as looking forward to performing Mozart and hearing Shostakovich, the clarinettist says this weekend\u2019s concerts allow him to catch up with old friends in the WSO, whom he\u2019s played with before \u2014 and flex in ways he often can\u2019t when he\u2019s leading his section and playing symphonies at the L.A. Phil.<\/p>\n \u201cI become a better musician when I\u2019m in front of the orchestra,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen opportunities like this come, I almost always agree to do them.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/conradsweatman<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Conrad Sweatman Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for\u00a0outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad.<\/a><\/p>\n
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