Anna Fedorova interviewed about ‘Intrigues of the Darkness’

Exclusive interview with pianist Anna Fedorova about her new album Intrigues of the Darkness. Available now only at NativeDSD for Plus Members!

Why did you feel the urge to record an album exploring such dark pieces?

It’s part of human nature to have certain attraction to darkness. Darkness in many meanings. For instance the night – is the time of magic, mystery, it’s the time when the hustle of the busy day disappears and one can listen to the quiet, connect to the space and get insights to something grander than life. Certain things which are invisible during the daylight appear at night. In my album however I am not just exploring darkness as the time of the day, but also the side of it where the supernatural beings come to life, when unpredictable frightening things happen and beautiful seductive but very dangerous creatures lure you with irresistible magical powers towards doom. As the performer it’s very exciting to dive into this magical, mysterious, frightening but at the same time beautiful world. It’s interesting, often some great actors are more excited about the roles of villains over heroes because they are limitless in terms of interpretation and always give room to try new things and go to extremes in search of your character. I guess I could relate to that.

And it’s so fascinating to explore the different ways of four composers I chose for this album and their approach to the darkness, mystery and supernatural. With Scriabin as always I’m fascinated with his vision, imagination and philosophy, it almost feels as if he is taking a glimpse into the circles of hell. Ravel opens for us enchanting and terrifying world, full of irresistible colors, beauty and danger, while De Falla is taking us to the mystic spicy nights of Spain, ghosts and magical rituals. And with Mussorgsky I just can never get enough of his incredible vividness of images and incredible characters. There is a definite battle in the music between the darkness and light – close to the end we get an intense concentration of darkness – the catacombs, Con Mortuis in Lingua Mortua, Baba Yaga… But in the end the light wins and triumphs through the glorious Great Gate of Kyiv.

How did you prepare for this recording? Did songs of this nature require a different mindset or energy from you?

Not really, I always try to get into the character of the music to the maximum, but only when I am performing it. It is quite interesting to play all of these very intensive emotionally and technically pieces next to each other as usually they would be a little more spread in the different concert programs but it’s definitely exciting and very impactful.

Do you find that darker themes lend themselves to virtuosity better than lighter pieces?

That’s an interesting question – I haven’t noticed. I think it all depends on writing of the particular composer, not of the mood of the piece. We all know that Ravel for instance didn’t go easy on us pianists with the technical aspects of the Gaspard de la nuit. 😀 But what helps me with performing any kind of music – is to dive fully into its world, characters and use the technique just as a tool to create the strongest artistic impact.

Can you give some details about the recording experience? How was the venue, the team, the experience as a whole?

As it always happens when we record together with Jared Sacks – it was an incredibly inspiring and smooth process. We were recording at Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in Hilversum. There are wonderful studios with great acoustics there, and a beautiful Steinway which was lovingly taken care of by Charles Rademaker. I must say at times it was quite exhausting to record certain moments as a lot of the music on the Cd has a very high energy and requires a lot of power. One thing is to play it once through at the concert, but something quite different is to record when you make a few takes and at each one I have to be giving not less than 100%. We finished the recording with De Falla’s Ritual Dance of Fire and the bloody keyboard as the final page full of glissandos was quite cruel!

Your last solo album was released in 2021. Had you missed making a solo recording?

Indeed, the last few years I was focused on recording all the Rachmaninoff concertos and a few chamber music Cds. Of course, I love recording solo repertoire but to be honest the time flew by so quickly that it’s hard to believe the last solo album was released already three years ago!

How are you looking forward to the upcoming live performances of Intrigues of the Darkness?

I am just hoping the audience will not be too terrified! 😀 But there is so much beauty in all of this music as well as mystery, enchantment and magic that I’m sure that it will end up being an incredible journey for all of us!