Time Behold Now
Maya’s first self-directed interdisciplinary performance, made in close collaboration with Alexander Knaifel
About
Since the beginning of the 80s, practically all works of Alexander Knaifel have been based on sacred and poetic texts. In Psalm 51 (50), O Comforter and Snowflake On A Spider Thread, the words are formed in the minds of the cellists and “sang” through their instruments. In one of his interviews, Knaifel says: “…when a person tries to convey what his instrument cannot, an additional space is created which cannot be created by anything else.” Exploring that space demands the utmost presence of both performers and listeners. This performance-ritual program is the result of a close collaboration between Maya Fridman and Alexander Knaifel. Made possible with the support of the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam.
Background
Alexander Knaifel (1943–2024) was a Russian composer whose highly individual music holds a distinctive place in the music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in Tashkent and raised in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), he initially trained as a cellist, studying with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory, before turning to composition. Knaifel emerged alongside a remarkable generation of Soviet composers that included Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt and Valentin Silvestrov. After the experimental intensity of his early work, his music became increasingly spacious, contemplative and spiritually oriented. Often unfolding slowly and making expressive use of silence, his later compositions have an unusual sense of concentration and stillness. Knaifel described some of these expansive works as “quiet giants,” reflecting his lifelong pursuit of beauty through sound.
Gallery
Photo: Foppe Schut