The conductor is away. He’s fighting for Bakhmut

VAN magazine has an outstanding interview with the Ukrainian conductor Serhiy Lykhomanenko, presently with the fifth regiment of the Ukrainain army near the devastated town of Bakhmut.

Here’s a sample:
‘In the evenings I sometimes manage to listen to symphonic music in peace and with concentration. Finally I hear everything from Mahler. And I keep coming back to Bach, he helps me activate my brain. 10 or 20 years ago ‘my’ Bach and ‘my’ Mahler were completely different composers. When I was very young I was particularly interested in the spectacular in Bach’s preludes and toccatas or Mahler’s original instrumentation, now I’m discovering the aesthetics of the formerly ‘boring’ fugues, Bach’s passions, the Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde by Mahler. I always have Bruckner in my playlist and lately Philip Glass too. I always imagine how I would conduct his operas. In the conditions we live in today, classical music can be a retreat, an alternative world, a sanctuary of distraction from a rather bleak and sometimes frightening reality….

‘For me, music is an aesthetic and order of sound that evokes great emotions and feelings that help me live in this reality. The sound of war is the sound of disorder and chaos that brings death and fear. That’s why I’m against the aestheticization of war. Just as a warning, as a reminder of what shouldn’t be in society.’

Read on here.