A Special Aura

MALCOLM MILLER describes
Goldsmiths College's special tribute
to Alexander Ivashkin

There are many types of silence: the silence that filled London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12 February 2015 after the end of the 'Sarabande' from Bach's Suite for solo cello, BWV 1001, played with intimate intensity by Nicolas Altstaedt, was one of reflection and affection, directed towards the memory of Alexander Ivashkin (1948-2014), the Russian international cellist and conductor. As Professor of Music and Director of the Centre for Russian Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Ivashkin was an influential champion of new Russian music, whose activities combined both performance and scholarship. His untimely sudden death on 31 January 2014 shook the musical and musicological worlds; a year later, this concert tribute offered a chance for colleagues and friends, those who worked with him at Goldsmiths College and on the international concert scene, as well as the general public, to recall and celebrate his achievement, artistry and humanity. As author, broadcaster and Prokofiev expert David Nice put it in his warm and personal introductory remarks, Ivashkin was 'a wonderful human being', whose unique accomplishments included the first English language biography of Alfred Schnittke; it was moving to hear Nice read a personal message of admiration penned for the occasion by Schnittke's widow Irina...