Oboes

Alexander Bykov

In the orchestra since 2022

Alexander Bykov was born in 1991 in Leningrad. In 2017 he graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory (the class of A.A. Isaev) and continued his studies at the Conservatory as a trainee assistant (the class of A.V. Kazakov). From 2019 to 2021 he studied at the postgraduate programme of the Lucerne School of Music (Switzerland) in the oboe class (the class of I. Podyomov). He has been working in the musicAeterna orchestra since 2022.

He took part in the master classes of such outstanding oboists as David Walter, Maurice Bourgue, François Leleux, Thomas Indermühle, Gregor Witt, Laszlo Hadadi, Alex Klein, Gordon Hunt, etc. He actively tours in Russia and abroad. He has performed as a soloist in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and other European countries.

He performed a number of premieres of works for oboe, including the Concert for Oboe with the orchestra by D. Anzarokov on the stage of the Berlin Konzerthaus in 2018.

As a soloist in orchestras and ensembles, he performed at such venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein Wien, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Elbe Philharmonic (Hamburg), the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, the Zaryadye Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, etc.

Since 2013 he has been a soloist of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony Orchestra. As a guest oboist, he performs as part of the Camerata of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra (Honoured Collective of Russia), etc.

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE WORLD OF MUSIC?

My path in music is associated with a lot of happy accidents. My parents are not musicians, and I entered a music school quite late, at the age of 11. It wasn't a conscious choice: there was just a nice music school near my house, and they decided to enroll me there. I started learning to play the oboe, but I wouldn't say that I immediately fell in love with this instrument. Rather, I was interested in communicating with friends, preparing concerts together, and performing. The love of music arose only at the very end of my music school studies.

HOW DO YOU PREPARE BEFORE GOING ON STAGE?

I didn't feel stage fright when I was a kid. But later, when I decided to study music seriously, I had to face it. With experience, it has become clear that you need to pay a lot of attention to the preliminary work, in particular, carefully prepare the instrument. The oboe has a special feature: the most important thing in sound production is the reed. And you need to devote a lot of time to it, it is a very sensitive part, it will react to humidity, air temperature, pressure. Without preparation, there is a chance that you will play well, but you will definitely have to be tense throughout the concert, constantly thinking about the cane, making yourself anxious. And for me, it's important that the performance gives me the opportunity to immerse myself in the creative process. Then it will be possible to convey a completely different energy to the listener.

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR INSTRUMENT.

I play the oboe, the English horn, the oboe d'amour, and I am currently mastering the baroque and classical oboe. I also play the viola da gamba for myself and learn to play the lute. I really like Renaissance music, and the viola and lute are very characteristic of it. It seems to me that it is useful for musicians to master many different instruments, it enriches and develops one's skills. In the Renaissance, this was the typical thing. And, judging by the musical material of that time, the musicians did very well.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MUSIC PIECE?

Richard Strauss's Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra is something I want to play more than once. Strauss is one of my favourite composers, and this concerto was composed during the final phase of his creative career. After exploring expressionism extensively, the composer returned to the stylistic roots of his early works in this piece. This is very light, major, tonal music, despite the fact that the concert was written in 1945 in Germany. It has an interesting history: one of the American soldiers who controlled the territory where Strauss lived was an oboist. He was familiar with the composer's work, visited his home, and once asked if he wanted to write an oboe concerto. Strauss initially refused, but apparently the idea still interested him, and after a while this concert appeared.

WHAT MAKES MUSICAETERNA DIFFER FROM OTHER ENSEMBLES?

The appearance of the musicAeterna Orchestra in my life is a great happiness. And it's not just because everyone in the orchestra plays at a very high professional level. Every musician is ready to step outside their comfort zone. Teodor inspires, and everyone follows him. Sometimes during a rehearsal I might think: 'It's impossible, it's already beyond feasible'. And just a moment later, I hear how everything is working out and incredible things are happening.

WHAT DO YOU DO BESIDES MUSIC?

I really like cinematography. I've been watching a lot of old Japanese films from the 1920s lately. I love Andrey Tarkovsky's films. For me, cinema is very similar to music: it conveys states that cannot be expressed in words. The director or composer translates an emotion, and the person understands that it is a familiar experience. So it means they are not alone.

My other hobby is applied Asian art. It's a very interesting aesthetic, and it intersects with music. For example, medieval Chinese poets are often depicted on porcelain or lines from their poems are written on it. Some of these poems formed the basis of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. It is interesting to learn how the most diverse traditions and types of art intertwine, enrich, and complement each other.