Odessa Classics: A festival in exile

When Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov fulfilled a long ambition to have a first-class international music festival in Odessa, trouble was already brewing to the east. The year was 2014, and Putin decided to revoke the treaties of the 1990s and seize Crimea. Nonetheless, Odessa Classics established itself over the next eight years, restoring Odessa’s place as a major centre of Ukrainian music life and visibility abroad. 'I've always travelled. I've been internationally active for 30 years, but I never intended to leave Odessa,' Botvinov says. 'I started the festival with my wife to bring great artists who had never played there to Odessa. When this terrible war started and we fled, I thought, “I have to continue somewhere”.'

He has based himself in Zurich but made the festival into an itinerant series, crossing Europe to raise awareness but also to give an outlet to fellow Ukrainian musicians in exile. 'At home the festival was a huge event but now we are trying to find ways to make it special in a different context. Odessa Classics has had a great reaction, and people have been very compassionate. In 2022/23 we manage to put on 35 concerts, but of course we still have no idea when we will be able to go home and start inviting guests again.'

This year the series begins on 28 March in Vilnius, when Modestas Petrenas conducts the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra and Vilnius Choir in works by Silvestrov, Olesandr Shchetynsky and Miroslav Skoryk, while Botvinov contributes Brahms' First Piano Concerto. On 4 April they take some of the works to the Tonhalle in Zürich, where they are joined by the composer and pianist Gediminas Gelgotas. Two chamber concerts in Zurich follow. Then in Tallinn's concert hall on 10 June there's a concert devoted entirely to the chamber music of Ukraine's best known living composer, the 86-year-old Valentyn Silvestrov, who has become something of a symbol for those forced away from home by Russia's war. On 25 June Botvinov shows the quality and intent of the original festival, when Evgeny Kissin gives a solo recital for him at Lucerne’s major concert hall, the KKL. 'He has been hugely supportive and very active in the last three years,’ says Botvinov of the Russian-born pianist. ‘He has been strong and clear in his opposition to the war.' Kissin returns with another set of concerts in Germany at the end of September.

'In Zurich I have to operate without any of the sponsors who helped me at home' Botvinov is building Odessa Classics back up with new sponsors including Ukrainians abroad who are keen to help (Image courtesy of Alexey Botvinov)

Keeping the show on the road, literally, has not been easy financially, Botvinov says: 'In Zurich I have to operate without any of the sponsors who helped me at home but from the other side there are so many Ukrainians abroad who have been keen to help.' I asked him why he had decided to host the series in different places, rather than adopting one location for the exiled festival. 'Quite simply, there is not the money for the infrastructure a festival like that would need. But also, it is important to continue reminding people that the war is going on. I do feel like I had one life before the war and a totally different one now. It really is not fun and somehow we have to wake up those in the west who are tired of hearing about the war and keep them interested. The spirit is still there but every country reacts differently, and some are much more sympathetic than others.'

Violinist Daniel Hope has been one of those who have given more than moral support, recording three discs with Bontvinov for Deutsche Grammophon, two of music by Ukrainian composers and the latest, Music for a New Century, released a year ago, of works by Philip Glass, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Tan Dun. Botvinov feels it is vital to maintain the basic sense of a normal career amid all the upheaval but, while he is keeping very busy, he says that for so many of his colleagues, times are extremely difficult. 'In any normal career you can always rely on your own country, whether for concerts or for teaching. Now their home base has gone. There has been support for Ukrainian performers but the majority of it is aimed at young artists. Meanwhile there are top performers, well known at home but not abroad, who are seen as not young enough to be fashionable: those aged from 40 to 60 who are really struggling to find a place in western Europe now that the whole structure of their careers has disappeared.' He urges promoters, orchestras and concert halls to continue making an effort to find dates for them, even if the names are not immediately familiar.

One way would be to work with him to create mini-festivals over two or three days, effectively hosting Odessa Classics. Now that it has been established as a festival brand, he feels it can pop up anywhere and carry the message to audiences. 'Of course, it is a question of what is doable,' Alexey says, 'but I really do believe we can create something juicy.'