On His Own

When the pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn made his Carnegie Hall debut in the mid-1990s, giving a commanding performance of the difficult Brahms D minor Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the biography of him in the printed program left the audience in the dark about a significant detail -- his relationship to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. As it happens, the latter is his father. Did the omission signify a rebellious streak in the young musician, or even a rift between him and his father, one of the great political heroes of our time?

Not at all, according to the younger Solzhenitsyn, who will appear with the Moscow Philharmonic as both pianist and conductor on Saturday in the Tchaikovsky Hall. "I just wanted it to be a so-called 'artistic' biography -- it's sometimes a fine line to decide whether to mention my father," he said by telephone from his home in Philadelphia, adding that "we are very close."

If the idea was to become known in his own right, he has in the years since reached his goal. As a pianist, he has given recitals around the world and performed with many of the world's great orchestras; as a conductor, he has attracted attention as principal conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a post he has held since 1997, and through guest assignments.

Although he tries to perform in Russia at least annually and leaves no doubt about his close identification with the country, he comes across as very much an American, though one of considerable polish. In conversation, he is direct, articulate, confident and thought-provoking. You also sense a cosmopolitanism, but it seems less the result of a cultivated sophistication than of his uniquely privileged upbringing.

Solzhenitsyn was born in Moscow in 1972, two years after Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was 18 months old when the Soviet government forced the author of "The Gulag Archipelago" and his family into exile. They went first to Zurich, eventually settling in 1976 in rural Vermont. Fortunately, their new home came with a piano, which quickly attracted young Ignat's attention. "My parents were great music lovers, but there was no tradition of playing in the family."

As a youngster, he had a "perfectly normal average education in the local public schools." But it was "supplemented by wonderfully rich and broad instruction" from his parents. "We studied Russian language and literature, of course, but also chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy and history -- including church history. Both my parents are professional mathematicians by background."

His piano-playing might not have been heard much beyond the Vermont woods had not a family friend, the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, recognized his gift. "He was instrumental in suggesting proper training and lessons, since my parents were unaware that I had talent." Rostropovich also "helped me make decisions as a kind of mentor as our relationship developed over the years. Most important, I just learned a lot from him by attending rehearsals, recording sessions and performances."

Rostropovich must also have been a model for Solzhenitsyn's decision to pursue a career both as an instrumental virtuoso and as a conductor. A dual major at the Curtis Institute of Music, Solzhenitsyn studied piano with Gary Graffman and conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. Before long, he made his first appearances in Russia, touring with Rostropovich in 1993, a year before his father's celebrated return to eastern Russia and subsequent leisurely train journey across the country.

Is there something special about playing in Russia? "Absolutely," Solzhenitsyn said. "In some places it just means more to the audience, especially Russia and Germany. Music is more than an evening out, more than just entertainment. There is a different level of intensity, an anticipation of a gift about to be bestowed. The flip side is the disappointment if it doesn't materialize."

As far as Russian music is concerned, Solzhenitsyn is more an impartial judge than an advocate. He often plays Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev and has led his orchestra in a number of new works by Russians, most recently the world premiere of a piece by composer Vladimir Ryabov. But looking at the 19th century, he favors Russian orchestral repertoire over music for piano. "Take Tchaikovsky -- the symphonies and operas are great, but the piano music? I can take it or leave it." It's a view with which it is difficult to disagree.

Russian composers are represented in his repertoire, but he feels no need to emphasize them over the German masters. The latter "produced the core repertoire, and to me it's strange if people don't perform it." His program with the Moscow Philharmonic is pure Viennese Classicism: Mozart's Concerto in C minor, K. 491, and Beethoven's Third Symphony (Eroica).

He will lead the Mozart from the keyboard, a practice that "works very well," he says, not least because the concertos "were conceived to be performed that way," without an intermediary in the form of a conductor. "The piano concertos are wonderfully intimate, and the intimacy is made more difficult by the presence of a kind of broker. Besides, musicians listen better without the constant presence of the baton." In April, Solzhenitsyn will return to Russia to lead the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Bruckner's Sixth Symphony, a work he will perform for the first time.

Given the depressed state of the classical recording business, Solzhenitsyn hasn't had much of a recording career, but this doesn't seem to bother him. "Everything should fulfill an artistic need at the time, and I haven't yet felt the need. It's a serious undertaking because records remain for posterity. I'm not going to record just for hype or to sell seats or fill a gap in repertoire."

This trip to Moscow will also allow him to see his parents at their home on the Moscow River outside the city, as well as his older brother Yermolai, who "married a Russian girl, lives in Moscow and works at McKinsey & Company," a management consulting firm. His younger brother Stephan is an environmental consultant in New York. Ignat is married to a doctor, and they have two children.

The example of his father, who just turned 85, continues to loom large in Solzhenitsyn's life. "Living under one roof with an artist of such magnitude affected my whole approach to life and art. He is a man of humility and great courage, both moral and physical. In the Soviet Union of the 1960s, when nothing had changed, he lived and acted like a free man. It's as if he said, 'If I say it's changed, it has.'"

Some are concerned that Russian literature has lost the authority it had in his father's day, when dog-eared typescripts of books circulated clandestinely. Is this a concern in music as well? "No," said Solzhenitsyn, "and I reject the argument in literature, too. Yes, it's better if everyone reads Shakespeare, and there is a concern about unsavory elements from the West. But part of the price of freedom is allowing people to make choices. Great art is essential to our self-definition as a species. It's the fundamental thing that separates us from the animal world. It may not be the first thing that a scientist thinks of, but it's close to the top and necessary for survival. It's as eternal as the Earth is."

Ignat Solzhenitsyn performs with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, located at 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad. Metro Mayakovskaya. Tel. 299-3681/3957.