I BELONG TO MY LAND

An interview with pianist Svetlana Navasardyan

-Having relations with great values, we involuntary seek to see the beginning, to recognize the source. Where does Svetlana Navasardyan come from and from what thickenings has the phenomenon Svetlana Navasardayn arisen?

– Human mind can’t decepher the past of the gene and it can’t reach the source. Man’s birth and his life are the next refuge of that great and interminable way. I am from Alaverdi. My father Hovhannes Navasardyan was a historian, my mother Hranush Petrosyan was a mathematician and singer; she had a beautiful, precious voice. My childhood was bathered with bright beauty. The nature was beautiful, my mother’s voice was beautiful, human relations, standards and values were beautiful. The impressions of childhood accompany us during the whole life, the echoes of the past are always with us; they are the wrap of our spirit, they give birth to our dreams, experiences, emotions, they colour our life. Lately, when I again went to our mountains, I understood that wherever I went, wherever I lived, I’d never forget the aroma of the soil that has soaked into my spirit and blood. Everything was so dear, so mine.

– Your musical triumphal march begins from 1965. You won in Transcaucasian competition which was followed by international series of competitions. Let’s remember the competition named after Shumann in his birthplace, Zwickau, when you were still a student; the competition named after Bach in Leipzig, the competition named after queen Elizabeth in Brussels, in Sidney and the successive laurels. You have performed in more than forty countries of the world. Has the state of being an Armenian played any role?

– High art wipes off all the borders and limitations, global values are the property of humanity. But even performing a Bach or a Mozart I remain an Armenian musician, and my gene’s distinctiveness, the structure of my spirit, national mosaic colours attach their seals to my art. Today the tendency for drawing structural borders for national art and determining that phenomenon by resollutions is observed. While the problem is to specify the standards of art. Today any training of mind is called art. Human creations become art in high spheres and any work of that level is national in its kind and global in the unlimitidness of perception. The artist, even if he wants it, can’t get rid of the kernel of the national, of his nature, of himself. So we mustn’t decline the problem of the national so much; moreover, it’s inadmissible to call national all that is far from the definitions typical to art. Wherever the Armenian goes, wherever he creates, if he is talented, if he is awarded from above, he will carry the colour of the pomegranate in his spirit and blood, will be deeply national as William Saroyan, Aram Khachatryan.

– What is fatherland for an artist?

– There is no fatherland outside of me. Fatherland is the reflection of my root, my traversed path in my spirit, in my inner life. Fatherland is all that I carry inside of me. The land is fatherland if it is dear to me, if it is the element of my nature. The trees, the bushes and the mountains are fatherland if they are desirable and darling. I belong to this land. I am thread by thread weaven from all that is called Armenianism.

-If we try to be objective, what is the place of Armenian culture in the frames of universal culture? What significance, what influence does an Armenian artist have? To what extent is the Armenian art known?

-We are lucky in that sense, because Armenian culture is an indivisible and urgent part of the global culture. But our culture isn’t fully known in the world. I greet the idea of the pan Armenian festival “One Nation, One Culture” and I would like us very much to have an opportunity also to organise the great and exceptional festival “Armenian Culture in the Treasury of Global Culture”.

– How do you estimate the Armenian history of the last decade?

– Heroic. At first we gained Independence. Independence is such a high and absolute value that you can compare it with nothing. Independence is a national dignity, honourableness. The birth of the natioal army was a historic event which conditioned the victory of Artsakh, the liberation of Armenian historical lands.

– You teach at the Conservatory. Are there promising talents in our young generation? Have you followers?

– Of course, the obligation of passing own experience, knowledge is important, but nobody must repeat the traversed path of even the most authoritative artist, but must look for his own, his handwriting, individuality, because each artist is unique, is great just for his originality. As to the young generation, I can say that there are many talented and gifted students and in the future they can properly present Armenian culture to the world.

– In the end our traditional question? What will you tell the soldiers of our national army?

– I love them and I am proud of them.

GAYANE POGHOSYAN