KONSTANTIN ORBELYAN: "I was near Khvorostovsky for the last 17 years of his life"

At the end of last year, the world was shocked by the sad news about the death of the great opera singer Dmitry Hvorostovsky, who had fought a terrible disease for the last two and a half years. One of Dmitry Khvorostovsky's close friends and colleagues was the artistic director of the Armenian Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Spendiarova Konstantin Orbelian. He was at the best stages of the world was next to Hvorostovsky last 17 years of his life. Even at the moment when the doctors announced the diagnosis to the artist, Orbelian was next to him. Konstantin Garriyevich supported his friend during illness. They continued to perform and record together and, as a result, the last joint CD by Dmitry Hvorostovsky, released in July last year, was nominated by the American Academy of Recording for the Grammy Award. Unfortunately, this news became known on the day of Khvorostovsky's funeral. This interview of Konstantin Orbelyan is dedicated to the memory of his friend Dmitri Khvorostovsky, a wonderful artist and person.

I still can not believe that this mighty person is no more.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky was an exceptionally important persona in my life. I still can not think of him without tears. It was a great happiness for me to stand next to him on the same stage, record and be friends with him. Each our joint rehearsal and every joint concert was a real revelation. Since 2000, I conducted, practically, at all of his concerts, together we recorded more than 15 CDs. At the beginning of our acquaintance, he himself expressed a desire to work with me and I was incredibly happy about it. It was convenient for him to work with me. We together wormed with concerts all over Russia, went around the world - Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles. I witnessed all his victories, accompanied him at the most important concerts of his life. We became friends as soon as we began to work together. Since then, we have been walking together in life, leg to toe. We spent six months a year together. I still can not believe that this mighty, handsome talented person is no more.

"So we will forever be friends!"

For the first time I heard Dmitri Hvorostovsky in 1987 in New York, where he came to a number of young artists, music awards prizes in Russia. Dima won the Glinka Award in Baku in 1986. Subsequently, he always with great warmth remembered Baku and this competition, where, by the way, there were a lot of Armenians. At a concert in New York, Dmitry sang absolutely phenomenally. At that concert, my teacher Nina Svetlana, who in turn invited her friend - the concertmaster of the Bolshoi Theater Irina Arkhipova - one of the organizers of American tours of young Russian artists invited me. All the artists performed excellently, but when this young, incredibly beautiful, with a unique voice came out on stage, we realized that we are present at the birth of the brightest star. Presentiments came true - a year later Hvorostovsky received the "Best Voice" award at the BBC television contest "The Singer of the World", which was held in the British city of Cardiff. Thus began the triumphant victorious career of one of the brightest stars of the world opera of our days.

Personally, we met Khvorostovsky in 1999. I came to the Soviet Union, where in 1990 I headed the State Chamber Orchestra of the USSR. Dima was just at that time moved to live in London, but he often gave concerts in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, which I could not get to because of frequent tours. But I drove my trips to New York so that I could be at his performances. I was at his first play in New York, where he sang "The Queen of Spades" with Placido Domigo and Galina Gorchakova. It was absolutely phenomenal! I tried not to miss any of his performances. But behind the scenes to congratulate the artist after the performance has never climbed. And in 1999 in St. Petersburg at the Rimsky-Korsakov competition I met with his agent Mark Hildrew. It so happened that at this time, the recording company "Phillips", where he recorded Hvorostovsky and many other Russian artists, including Gergiev, ceased to exist. I then already worked with a very good record company Delos. Mark addressed me in this regard, and we were the first with whom he spoke. I replied that we are interested in cooperation and we will write everything that Khvorostovsky wants to do.

Mark invited us on October 4th to New York to Lincoln Center, where Dima was supposed to sing with Renee Fleming in a concert that was broadcast all over America. After the concert, when all the admirers of Khvorostovsky's talent dispersed and only his young wife Florance remained, I approached him. I introduced myself. He said he knew me. Between us there was such a dialogue:

 

- When you arrived? - he asked.

- Today.

"And how long will you be here?"

- Tomorrow I'm leaving.

-Where did you come from?

- From Moscow.

- And where are you going?

- Back to Moscow.

- It turns out that you came here only to hear me
Strictly speaking, it happened. Unfortunately, it lasted only 18 years, but I would like it to be endlessly long.

I was next to Hvorostovsky for the last 17 years. Six months a year we were together. We were friends with families, we rested together, well, and, of course, we were connected by work. We gave 30 to 40 concerts a year, recorded in the recording studio. Over the years, we have released 20 CDs. This is a huge layer of labor. I saw this man completely from different angles. He was a thousand percent musician and a man and always gave his audience that thousand percent.

I was with him when he found out his diagnosis.

In Armenia, the last time we were with him was May 12, 2015 at a special concert with the ensemble of the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the leadership of General Eliseev for veterans of the war, which was held under the patronage of the first lady in the presence of the President of Armenia. It was not long before Dmitry found out his diagnosis.


I was with him when he was told about it. All May he felt problems with the vestibular apparatus, but thought he had an inflammation of the middle ear or something like that. Together we went to the hospital, where they checked it and told him that everything was fine with his ears. To clarify the problem, he was offered to make an MRI, and after he passed it, the doctors said that he had a very serious tumor that is located in such a place that surgery is impossible. Dima was the winner by his nature. At first he simply did not take this diagnosis. It was a normal reaction of any person who receives such a diagnosis. I saw his face at the same time and understood what he was feeling. We all could not imagine this even in the worst dream. He was a mighty man, never sick. I do not remember it as a flu or with any other health problems. How could it happen that he had this disease for no reason at all? Dmitry immediately said that he would fight and make every effort to cure. He fought to the last and carried out all the recommendations of doctors.

Khvorostovsky continued to work. During the first year of treatment, he did not cancel a single concert. Practically, all the concerts that we had planned for this year, he gave. He canceled the concerts already in the second year of the illness, when complications began. The last chemistry he received in July. He did not yet know that this would be his last chemistry. During the illness he did not change outwardly, which was very important for him.

His last solo concert took place in his native Krasnoyarsk on June 2, when he was already very ill. It is impossible to remember this without tears, it was incredibly touching. The whole concert, I was filled with tears in my eyes.

We already knew that he was leaving. I went to him to say goodbye immediately after my concert in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, which was held on November 18th. The next day at six in the morning I flew to London, where I spent the last three days of his life. I managed to say goodbye to him. The last time I saw him at nine in the evening, and at 3:30 am he was gone.

Hvorostovsky loved the Armenians.


He had many friends in Armenia. One of his favorite friends was our famous Gegham Grigoryan. He adored him and was always happy to work with him. His other close friend was Barsegh Tumanyan. These two people played a big role in his life. They were real friends. He adored Barça, they were not just friends, but also were in the same agency and sang together. With Gegham Grigoryan they sang quite a lot in the Mariinsky Theater and the Metropolitan Opera. I was in Japan in their play War and Peace. They recorded a lot together. May 12, 2015, when Khvorostovsky was last in Armenia, was the birthday of Hasmik Grigoryan, the daughter of Gegham. After the concert we went together to Gegham's home, and Dmitry was there almost until four in the morning, and the next day he flew to London. It so happened that in 2016 he sang with Assim Grigoryan Rubinstein's opera "Demon". He received a tremendous pleasure from working with his friend's daughter, a magnificent artist with a unique voice and temperament, a touching singer. He loved her very much. In October 2015, we recorded a disc that was titled "Hvorostovsky sings about Life and Death, Peace and War", where Hasmik sings with him the last scene from "The Demon" and the first scene from the opera Prokofiev's "War and Peace" . Then there was their joint concert in Moscow in the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic. You can see this concert on their website.

If we talk about the attitude of Hvorostovsky to Armenia, then, I can say that he loved the Armenians. Including, he treated me well, to my parents, to my uncle.

In Soviet times, he was never in Armenia. For the first time he came to Armenia to a concert in honor of the 15th anniversary of the republic. He was a guest of the event and sat in the front row with his wife and children as a spectator. And the whole hall looked at him in the hope that he would sing something. He climbed the stage and performed the amazing song "Farewell, Joy", which he always finished all his concerts. The next time he came to Armenia with a solo concert, which was performed by my uncle. And he sang with him his song "Noise of the Birches". For both, it was a very pleasant meeting. He loved my uncle and my uncle answered him the same. Uncle was very pleased that Hvorostovsky performs his song "Noise of the Birches" around the world, that he recorded it and included it in his repertoire. Dmitry also performed Babadzhanyan's works, he adored his music. If you recall the friends-Armenians of Khvorostovsky, it is impossible not to mention his best friend - a singer, an Armenian native to Baku, who moved to Seattle. Hvorostovsky constantly communicated with him.

The musical testament of Hvorostovsky, nominated for the Grammys.

One of the first things he told me when he found out about his diagnosis is that we need to record the Sviridov cycle "Otchalivshaya Rus" on Sergey Yesenin's verses. I immediately ordered the orchestration. It was done long enough. It was a painstaking job, because the music is very serious. Exactly one year later, in June we recorded the opera Rigolleto in Kaunas, and then we came to St. Petersburg and there we signed up with the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg. The ensemble "Style of Five" also participated in the recording. We worked with composer and arranger Evgeny Stetsyuk. The vocal cycle "Otchalivshaya Rus" by Georgy Sviridov was released in July, and the opera "Rigolleto" just on the day of Dima's death on November 22. Unfortunately, he never learned that "Otchalivshaya Rus" was nominated by the American Academy of Recording for the Grammy Award. I received a notice of this on my mail the day of his funeral, when we were at dinner. I took the microphone and told my parents about it. This caused a sea of ​​emotions and tears.


I hope that we will win the "Grammy" and it will be very worthy. It will be worthy of this man's memory. It is important that the Grammy Award was nominated for a record, which he did with great love and trepidation and of which he dreamed. He managed to realize his desire, which arose with him when he learned about his diagnosis. He said so: "I must do two things - write Sviridov and Rigolleto." I would not call his last disc the result of his whole life, I would call him the musical testament of the great Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

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