The melody makes all the difference. “Klasika” offers two new songs by Maestro Raimonds Paul / LR3 / / Latvijas Radio

“I think that here the melody makes all the difference – if there is a melody that excites you and also excites the listener – there is its value!” Maestro Raimonds Pauls wonders, talking about two newly created songs composed especially for bass Edgar Oshley.

The song “Klusais vīrs” was composed with the words of Jānis Elsberg, and the song “Es esmu upe” is with the text of Guntar Račs. Latvijas Radio 3 – Classics in the series “Autograph after tuning” offers both new tunes and a conversation with the Maestro and Edgars Ošlej, who won the “Great Music Award 2021” in the Young Artist of the Year category. The sound director of the recording is Reinis Bagāts.

Anna Veismane: How long ago did your cooperation really start? I guess it’s not too long. When and how did you really start making music together?

Edgar Oshleja: It was about a month ago, if I’m not mistaken. (smiles)

Raymond Paul: Well, yes, thanks to the interviewer [Annai Veismanei]who told me that Edgars had a very good, distinctly sympathetic timbre…

Edgar, after some time you will also have other recordings from the Latvian Radio Foundation – they will be more classical songs, and really: we know you more as a classical music singer. What prompted you to try your hand at a more non-academic genre?

Edgar Oshleja: Before I started singing opera music, my plan was to sing lighter works – musicals, something on the jazzy side. As in childhood, we all sing along to the songs on the radio or in our parents’ playlists. There were groups like “Queen” or, for example, “The Beatles”. All of this was sung along with and therefore more like leaning towards it.

Raymond Paul: Started with the Beatles and went to opera…

… and then went back to Raymond Paul! Maestro, were these songs written with Edgar’s voice in mind?

Raymond Paul: It went at such a pace, so fast – one can only envy how we got through it all in a few days [tikām galā]…

“The silent man” to a certain extent coincides with today’s reality, when there are so few people left in the countryside of Latvia, many houses are abandoned, and that man sits alone in a country house… Everything is said there! He is a lonely tree that nobody seems to even need anymore.

The second song is a different matter – it was already with a half-finished melody, and I asked for the words [Guntaram] Racham – he is one of the rare ones who can write down the text – we have few of them. I tried the piano myself at a fast pace.

So in this case, the melody came first. The wide range entrusted to the voice is special, not every singer can sing from the lowest notes to the highest.

Raymond Paul: Those tops – I specially… (smiles) There are two things to do there: in the upper register, which is an octave higher, but the end…

Told [Edgaram]: Have you heard Rachmaninoff’s sacred music? The way the bass sounds at the bottom is fantastic! Church music – colossal, genius. I say – here you can show yourself! It is natural that Edgar has to write everything specially, thinking about his voice.

Edgar, during the recording process, did the Maestro also give any advice on interpretation issues? Because I understand that the recording process was very creative for you, different versions were created.

Edgar Oshleja: Yes, of course, that’s how the work process happens!

Raymond Paul: We had five, six options.

Edgar Oshleja: We tried that, we tried this, and then the result came.

Raymond Paul: That’s how those songs should be written!

Speaking of “The Silent Man”: it’s also a story about loneliness. This text is very multi-layered and deep: the thought is not only about the Latvian countryside and real loneliness, but also about the loneliness that, despite all the communication possibilities, many people feel. In any case, this song is very heartfelt.

Raymond Paul: I think there is another moment here: I think that the phrase “Quiet man” should be sung by everyone. You have to play with the listeners, the audience. Maybe it could be a variant of the Song Festival. It would be good.

Edgar, what clean vocals do you have to change when singing non-academic music? Maybe you need to think differently? Because there is also a part of improvisation.

Edgar Oshleja: There is, of course, yes! But we can put improvisation into opera music as well. Not always, but sometimes it can.

Raymond Paul: Many are already afraid to do it, but it is necessary! Unashamed of the fact that the music was written by geniuses.

Edgar Oshleja: From a technical point of view, professionally, I’m still quite green in this genre.

I have trained myself in classical music. Here I am guided more by my heart and intuition. This may not be the right way – I still need to learn not to tire my voice if I have to sing a larger program in this style.

However, I think that it does not change anything for the lower and middle register of the voice. You just have to sing freely.

You have to sing freely – it just sounds so simple, although it is not at all… We know this because we have grown up in a conventional environment, where every note has its own meaning, its own weight. And then it’s not easy to be free – say what I feel, that’s how I sing.

Edgar Oshleja: It’s true!

But Maestro’s playing is always the one that inspires. I am always fascinated by its very significant rhythm pulse – it can also be slow music, but you can always feel where it leads and what is its semantic load. It was still a big boost in the usual process, wasn’t it?

Edgar Oshleja: Definitely! In any case, if there is an interplay between the two, the result is wonderful.

Maestro, throughout your life you have always sought out special voices. It seems that this is your calling: starting with Viktor Lapchenok and Nora Bumbieri, you are still doing it – looking for and finding new singers all the time!

Raymond Paul: But to whom [citam] do you have the patience to start with a singer that no one knows from the beginning?

You show someone a song, and they ask – what is it? Who is singing to you there? I say – wait, let him run in!

It is also creating a repertoire, because it is not like staging “Eugene Onegin” or “Carmen”, where everything is clear, everything is already written. I think that the melody makes all the difference here – if there is a melody that excites you and also the listener – there is its value! We won’t beat Verdi anyway. Look at how opera music is built – one beautiful, melodious, popular melody follows one after the other. Verdi’s arias were once hummed by everyone. Or tunes from Weber’s musicals. Even classical singers use them in their programs! A very great talent. Although we also had one meld, which everyone sang at once: “Land of Blue Lakes”… [Maestro dungo Arvīda Žilinska dziesmu “Mana dzimtene jaukā” no operetes “Zilo ezeru zemē”].

Can we expect any further cooperation between you two? I know, Edgar, that you will be leaving Latvia very soon? At least for a while.

Edgar Oshleja: I will leave for a while. At the moment, there is a plan to go to Germany, to Weimar – there will be a triptych of Puccini’s operas: “Gianni Schiki”, “Tabarro” and “Sister Angelica”. I have catches in two of them. But I will be back at the beginning of June, and then we will continue working with Maestro. There is also quite a lot of work at the Riga Opera House. If I’m not mistaken, there will be a new project at the end of August.

Raymond Paul: Edgar has to find a repertoire that suits him. (..) You immediately feel that he is saying what he wants with his voice, but it can be done where there is a melodic line. Although, let’s say, Edgar, himself already in the Opera [pagaidām] the most are those comic roles, beautiful classic things. But for our public, our audience – that Latvian sentiment must come out somewhere… Why is Emīls Dārziņš so popular? Just because of his tunes! You have to hit there. Must hit! Classical opera has been sung by so many – oh my god, starting with Shaliapin and so on. But I think that Edgar should create his own repertoire. There was one Latvian composer whom I greatly respect – who collaborated directly with opera artists. It was Arvīds Žilinskis. All the opera soloists in the programs with which they traveled to the Latvian countryside were based on Žilinska’s songs. He worked and played with the singers.