The two-minute documentary Being Pat opens with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Koh-pah-CHEEN-skah-yah) setting expectations for the “stream of consciousness� very short film: “We are looking so much for magic. I think the only way to find it is to let my thoughts be free. Not to have a plan. So here we go.� The camera cuts to her outdoors with her violin. She raises her bow to the violin, then stops, turns to the camera, and winks.
Those 20 seconds capture PatKop (as many call her): a jokester full of surprises, thoughtful and mercurial, unpredictable and undefinable. An artist who, Gramophone magazine wrote, “never fails to engage both the listener’s ears and mind with performances of personality that make scores live as if freshly discovered.�
The daughter of Moldovan folk musicians, Kopatchinskaja has won over critics, audiences, and fellow musicians across the world. Upon naming her its 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year, the Royal Philharmonic Society deemed her an “irresistible force of nature,� and The Telegraph has dubbed her the “wild child of classical music.� Her New York Philharmonic debut, April 9�11, made the vaunted cut for The New York Times Spring Preview because her “performances can send jolts through even the most well-trod pieces.�
The piece she’ll perform in her Philharmonic debut (“a dream come true�) is Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, which may not be the sort of fare she often performs � she is drawn to Ligeti, Michael Hersch, Márton Illés, and newly composed works � but, in her words, it “isn’t a usual Wiener Schnitzel.� Stravinsky composed it in his neoclassical period, with references to jazz and Bach, “a bold piece imprisoned in a Baroque costume,� PatKop says, “but inside is a cheeky Petrushka making his jokes on a Jahrmarkt, a devil, a soldier who sold his soul for a violin, an old crazy Russian peasant making children laugh with his funny uncivilized sounds.� In fact, she has performed this concerto wearing a reproduction of an original costume from Prokofiev’s Chout, a ballet about a fool who outwits seven others. Why? “Although it was intended for Prokofiev’s ballet, I didn’t think it was entirely wrong for Stravinsky as well. Or at least just as wrong as something normal.�
Kopatchinskaja says: “In the Middle Ages it was believed that jugglers, vagabonds, and artists hatched from an egg. I still dream of performing in an egg.� She is taken with the idea of the fool, the Medieval figure who seems to know nothing yet speaks the truth. In 2015, when an injury forced her to take time off from the violin, PatKop used the break to fulfill a dream: performing the part-spoken, part-sung title role in Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Pierrot Lunaire, about a moonstruck clown � or, as she calls him, a “holy fool.�
She sees artists in this role: “We are also now, in a way, fools � we enchant, provoke, and we are also dangerous and unpredictable. We have a voice that is heard � at least for the duration of the concert. It is a great power and responsibility. And a joy!�
Visit .
