Future Art
Is it all about function?
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
— Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
The purpose of art has changed along with the society that produces it. As a whole, if we look at the majority of work from any one period, we can say that the artist provides a lens to view the time a work was created in, while the timelessness of what we experience as great art of the past has a relatable quality that goes beyond its own time to bring us closer to the common denominator of what inspires us in general, that connection of wonder and a solace that we feel seeing what we are capable of. Just a moment spent seeing a Picasso painting, a Picasso anything, reminds us that genius, creative genius is an innate characteristic that touches us and allows us to understand something with our collective gaze. Nothing really compares, and we are transported to a place otherwise unknown. The role of art is to open the senses and see further, a place beyond normal perception.
Ambient art, which is more like a wall paper effect, is a mood-centric art. Sounds and colors that have a psychological response. There is a lot of that all the time, out in the world. It’s part advertising and part something to create a feeling that sits in the background. So called serious art is meant to be experienced, directly.
Some works that have meaning lasting hundreds of years speak not so much of their own time as they do in making a statement, one that is seen as a valuable perception coming out of a moment, a slice of life, or just the apotheosis of some form or medium. Mozart took the concerto and sonata form to new heights. Every master of their medium does something that synthesizes what is around them into something that feels new and original, and in their own distinctive voice.
Art expresses so much of what we collectively feel and experience, it is the embodiment of a collective consciousness. But can art also save us from ourselves?
It is a sad fact that artists, living artists, the conduits to our experiences, our stories, are set so low in the hierarchy of what we attribute to as an asset value, product, or whatever term for commercial worth you might want to use. Yes, we have popular art that largely serves the trends and times as a kind of satisfaction in daily life. It’s important for sure, but then what is overshadowed is the need to cultivate the experience of art in everyone. Why? Because it is through the doing of art that we value it on a level that transcends art as product and places the meaning of art into the psyche or soul, (in Greek Ψυχή [psyche] is just that, the soul), where we all actually live, cradled and enclosed in this mortal vessel of a body.
If we embrace art and creativity into our own experience, the combining of the senses with the natural intelligence of what we are given, then it becomes the gift that keeps on giving. The potential of what we can do expands immeasurably and the purpose of art becomes something that is otherwise unattainable—art shows a way to a better world.
There are so many layers of noise being constantly thrown out at us, it is the voice of the artist that clears the way to a focused vision, a way to listen, see, and understand deeply what is true from the inside out. So let’s meet one and see what happens, meet Dimitri Malignan…
Kathy Geisler: What is your current job in the field of classical music? (what are you currently working on)
Dimitri Malignan: I am what could be categorized as freelance classical pianist, I guess! I just finished my piano education, having graduated from the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot in 2017 and received a master’s degree from the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2020. The COVID-19 period didn’t help of course, but I have been actively performing concerts, both in solo and chamber music, and I participate in major international competitions. I see myself as a performing artist more, since I am not a teacher at the moment.
Kathy: What were some of your early lessons or experiences in classical music?
Dimitri: I started playing the piano at age 5, and my first teacher, Nicolas Horvath, put me very early in the situation of doing competitions. This was a great way to get used to being on a stage, deal with nerves, and make tremendous progress at each competition. So I think this was truly a great experience for me as a kid that lead me to pursue a career in classical music! My portrait piece on Mozart’s List tells the story of some early adventures in music:
Kathy: What is one of your favorite places and why?
Dimitri: I must say I’ve always been in love with Italy, it is a country I cherish and where I go several times a year, either for professional reasons or for pleasure. Every city there is beautiful! I’ve been taking lessons this year with Maestro Benedetto Lupo at the Music Academy in Pinerolo, which is nearby Turin and I really got to enjoy this marvelous city, culturally incredibly rich and full of great people. I’m lucky this summer that I will perform twice in Italy, in Trevi and Bardonecchia, which I look very much forward to.
Kathy: What is one of your favorite pieces and do you have a favorite performer or experience of it?
Dimitri: I always loved Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto. I know it’s a classic, but it’s a piece that made a huge impression on me when I was a child, while listening to it with Arthur Rubinstein. Hearing this performance, I really wanted to be like this pianist, to play like him! It’s such an impressive work, and although I learned the music a few years ago, I hope to have the chance to perform it on stage one day.
Kathy: Is there an artist no longer living who somehow made an impression on you?
Dimitri: Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti is one of my favorite pianists. He shares his country of birth with my parents, and my grandfather, composer Henry Mălineanu, was a fellow student and colleague of him at the Music Academy in Bucharest in the 1930’s. I feel a strong connection with this pianist, whose beautiful interpretations and sensibility I have always admired and looked up to.
Kathy: What is one thing you think will be different about classical music 100 years from now?
Dimitri: I always wonder what new technologies would do to art. Virtual reality, robots, algorithms… These things will have a huge impact on our daily lives, and so probably on music as well. Probably robots will be able to perform a piece perfectly, and algorithms to compose new ones (that’s already the case now). Will artists still be relevant? Of course, the human impact of a living art will hopefully prevail, and people will still want to see actual people do something for real. But can an audience listen to the same Beethoven sonata over and over again? I do hope so, but classical music would have more chances to survive this century if new contemporary music had more impact on the audience.
Classical music up till the first half of the 20th century had an extremely rich amount of new music written by exceptional composers, which gave the audience opportunities to listen and discover new works at almost every concert. Just think about how a concert in the 1920’s would have sounded like! New works by Ravel, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Bartok… such impressive quality of music, available to everyone. Starting from the 1950’s — even if of course there were still very talented composers — the audience began to lose little by little the connection with contemporary music. It is very rare nowadays that you’d find a concert in a regular hall with newly-written music (or in any case, it would be only a small part of the program). One can of course discuss the quality of this music, since sometimes it definitely appears extremely obscure and inaccessible, and not appealing at all, but the development of pop music also played an important role in the loss of interest between the audience and contemporary classical music, as it was definitely more approachable. And many people still have a hard time digesting music written 100 years ago! When listening to music by Schoenberg for instance, most people would say it sounds too modern. So imagine about music written now! It’s very complicated to find the right balance between writing something unique and interesting — and not a cliché of past times — and that would be easy to reach for our audience.
I think that the key for our art to survive is definitely if we manage to play more high quality, newly-written music, more than playing the same older pieces for the next 100 years (though we of course always have to balance these two aspects: old and new!).
Kathy: What is something about your work that you think most people have no idea about?
Dimitri: I assume it’s the amount of work, and the time needed to learn a piece! Many people don’t know that it takes months to learn big pieces, and that we have to work many hours per day to put up the piece and memorize it. And that’s only one part of the job, because we also have to perform it many times on stage before it becomes truly natural and organic, and we feel absolutely comfortable playing it. So the whole process can actually take years, if not a lifetime! So no, talent is not enough, as many would think! It’s a lot of hard work!
Kathy: Did you have any life-changing experiences that put you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re doing today?
Dimitri: I believe every action in one’s life leads to the moment we’re living now, so every experience I’ve had in my life — good and bad — put me in the position where I am today. I don’t recall any dramatic action which had truly changed my life, it is more an addition of many coincidences where I met the right people at the right time, and of course the chance factor made many things occur! My grandfather, composer Henry Mălineanu, used to say that you have to be lucky to have talent, but you also have to have the talent to be lucky! So I’m thankful for every opportunity I’ve had in my life that brought me to where I am today.
Kathy: Is there anything else you would like to say about yourself, your work, or classical music?
Dimitri: I have many other interests outside of music because I think it is important to keep your mind active and stimulated by doing something else than just practicing. Moreover, it can feature beneficial aspects for the music training as well. For example, I’ve been practicing Qi Gong, a Chinese gymnastics which involves slow movements and meditation, and it has really helped me play the piano better, with a less tense and more fluid approach. I also play tennis and enjoy watching the games on TV a lot (tennis players share many similarities with the life of a soloist), and I am also an aviation enthusiast, regularly flying simulators for my own enjoyment (and escape from real life!).
I am very happy that my second solo album, “J.S. Bach Peregrinations” was just released in March 2022, with the French Label Éditions Hortus. It includes rare and underplayed pieces of Bach, and was recorded on a very special piano: the Straight-strung Concert Grand of Chris Maene, which features parallel strings and was manufactured in collaboration with Daniel Barenboim.
