Golden Strings Rivinius Highlights Spokane Symphony Concert
Gustav Rivinius left home when he was just a child. Rivinius was no runaway, though, at least not until he ran away with prizes in several European cello competitions.
In 1990, he won the gold medal in the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. Rivinius was recognized by the Tchaikovsky jury in a special award for best interpretation of a work by Tchaikovsky. He will perform that work, “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” with the Spokane Symphony at the Opera House Friday.
The all-Tchaikovsky concert, conducted by Fabio Mechetti, will include “Marche Slav” and the “Manfred” Symphony.
Besides the Tchaikovsky Competition crown, Rivinius has carried away other top honors, winning the Rostopovich Prize in Paris, the Mendelssohn Prize in Berlin and Holland’s Scheveningen International Cello Competition.
Rivinius came to music-making naturally and grew up with a sense of competition, too. Everyone in the family was musical.
“My mother and father and all six of us boys played an instrument,” Rivinius said in an interview on his last visit to Spokane in 1992. “I wanted to play the cello from the time I was 4; it has such deep sounds and it can go high, too. But it is not easy for a little child to play the cello, so I had to wait until I was 5 or 6.
“My uncle was a cellist in the Munich Philharmonic,” Rivinius recalled. “After I started playing for a while, he thought my mother probably had enough children around the house, so he persuaded my parents to let me come to live with them in Munich for a year. He was my first real teacher.”
One of the Rivinius brothers is concertmaster of the Duisburg-Dusseldorf Orchestra and another plays horn in that orchestra. Paul, the horn player, is also a fine pianist, and the three Rivinius brothers often play as a trio. Paul is also Gustav’s partner in sonata recitals.
Playing music with his brothers, Rivinius says, “is lots of fun. But they also make better critics. They’re very direct.”
After his start on cello with his uncle, Rivinius later studied with the Russian cellist David Geringus in Lubeck, with Heinrich Schiff in Basel and with Zara Nelsova in New York. “Geringus made perhaps the greatest change in my playing, introducing me to the Russian ‘sound’ and style of playing, but each of my teachers added a different character to my playing,” Rivinius says.
The cultivation of the Russian style certainly helped when Rivinius competed in Moscow and in his career playing the well-known Slavic masterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Dvorak as well as less frequently performed concert pieces by Denisov, Schnittke and Miaskovski. These represent less than one-third of Rivinius’ concerto repertoire.
“The cello literature is much larger than many people imagine,” the cellist says.
Though Rivinius’ career is centered mainly in Europe, he has performed in many major U.S. cities in recital and with such orchestras as the Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Milwaukee symphonies. The Harmonia Mundi label recently released a CD recording of Rivinius in some of his recital repertoire.
John Marshall, the symphony’s principal cellist, will discuss the music on Friday’s concert at 7 p.m. in the Opera House auditorium as part of the Gladys Brooks Pre-Concert Talks series.
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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT The Spokane Symphony performs Friday at 8 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets: $13.50 to $28.50, available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200), G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.