Maestro Raimonds Pauls: People laugh at the government, but it pays no heed

"Everything happened here, in the Radio House, it was the center of music and this is where Latvian culture was preserved. And what is happening now? How is culture being preserved? I keep asking – how? This government, well, it does not know how to run a country. Especially in a crisis. Then there is only one way – to go away yourself. But no one is going anywhere,” says Maestro Raimonds Pauls in his usual harshness, which alternates with respect for culture and love for Latvia. Here’s our discussion.

Don’t you feel like we can’t plan our future even a week ahead?

No one can know what is and what will be. We just canceled the last event - my anniversary concert with Elīna Garanča. This was logical: the state of emergency ends on January 11, but the concert is scheduled for January 12.

Who can guarantee anything? Elīna is bound by the schedule of her foreign tours, and we had been preparing the concert in Riga for a year, planning it... Elīna looked at her plans, maybe something might happen in July. But that's just maybe. In addition, such postponed concerts lose all their charm, everything we were going towards. There were rehearsals with a chamber orchestra, a special stage direction was created...

The same was the case with Andris Keišs: we coordinated the concerts with the dates of the theater performances, now it is all gone. A total of about 20 concerts are gone. Okay, I'll survive, because I'll get money for doing this interview with you... (laughs) with that I can live for a long time. But what will those other musicians do?

I started thinking about it in horror already in the spring.

How many events do we even have? There’s Midsummer, there’s Christmas, New Year's, and what else is there? Those are the only times musicians can earn something. In summer - little concerts and quick side gigs. Daumants Kalniņš and I planned out Christmas concerts - they have also gone down the drain. But what vexes me the most... I contacted an Estonian musician, and he said that concerts in Estonia are not canceled. There - like here until recently - they happen in half-empty venues, it's nothing big, but there is some movement going on. Currently, the main victims in Latvia are people of creative professions. In the public sector, everyone is on wages, and the wages for civil servants are even planned to rise. What is that?! It's not in my style - to count money in someone else's pocket, but... I've lost so much money "thanks" to all these ruling boys, it’s unthinkable. When this whole thing with the virus started, I heard that our country had received a lot of money. airBaltic immediately got their cut from it - they didn't ask anyone for anything, they just got it, and that's it. I also would not hate to receive the same salary as the head of that airline.

Yes, you're not on that level with your radio salary.

I believe that the management of the radio is getting revenge on me for the fact that I once got the grand piano in the studio of Latvijas Radio 1, thanks to my friend Avens (laughs)... * But why am I here, in the Radio House? To meet those who - like me - are still doing something here somehow. People from the old generation that are left can be counted on the fingers. Gunārs Jēkabsons... That’s basically it. There is nothing left of the old radio...

A new public radio is now being built, which will probably be combined with public TV.

Yes, that's interesting. What will this new medium be allowed to say and what not? God forbid someone says that they support someone. Private radio is not interested in anything: they blast their foreign music and that’s it. But here, in Radio House, where I have spent almost my whole life, here in Soviet times there was a Latvian Radio Orchestra, here there was life, here everything was full of sound... But now we must not talk about those times, Veidemane will be the first to swoop down, saying that the scumbag has sold out to the Russians (laughs).

Of course, of course. Where would we be without that (I also laugh).

But that was the case: everything happened here, in the Radio House, it was the center of music, and this is where Latvian culture was preserved. And what is happening now? How is culture being preserved? I keep asking - how? This government, well, it does not know how to run a country. Especially in a crisis. Then there is only one way - to go away yourself. But no one is going anywhere. A singer was appointed to the position of the Minister of Culture, he started with the concert hall project, but it seems that everything has already fallen silent there... I sometimes watch those remote sittings of the Saeima. Excuse me, but how can you even call those meetings? Some sad faces on the screen, no spirit, talking about something... Okay, they announced the state of emergency, but everything is already completely muddled. When we found out what we can and cannot buy on Saturdays... Toothpicks cannot be bought. It is forbidden to buy vodka on weekends. Haven't they read The Good Soldier Švejk? Who produces such lists? Specifically, who? Can't this person reveal himself and explain this nonsense? I can't understand - should I laugh or cry...

But every overly serious situation also creates its own laughter.

So it does. Andris Keišs said: once he was at a funeral, guys are carrying a coffin, everyone is completely smashed, one guy trips, he falls and all the other carriers go down with him... The coffin falls, opens, and a naked woman falls out of that coffin! Why naked? Relatives figured out: so as not to waste clothes! Well, that’s a story ready for a movie adaptation. It’s a good thing we can laugh. And so it is in life: the people laugh at the government, but it pays no heed. I always wonder: how do these people get to such positions?

The minister you mentioned - Nauris Puntulis - at least he was a good singer.

That’s true. But I have also enjoyed the "pleasures" of being a Minister of Culture. I resigned from that position myself because I could no longer tolerate it... Did you know that I gave up the prize for a lifetime contribution to theater?

When did that happen?

Recently. They talked to me, said they wanted to nominate me for this award, I said categorically - no. Because for several years I was publicly called the theater executioner.

Why?!

Due to the Youth Theater.

Wait, it has been written about countless times, it has been explained that you are definitely not to blame for the demise of the Youth Theater!

There are some theater actors who accuse me of killing the theater. My second "fault": "killing" the Operetta theater.

But you weren't even close to the Operetta Theater! This happened during the time of other ministers.

Who cares? If I were given that prize, the gossip would start again, but I don't need it. All I know is that thanks to my name, theaters have earned a lot of money.

Without your music the theater performances would be lacking, that's for sure. It is not for nothing that there are various guys who want to "cruise by" on your name.

Let's not talk about it. There are many interesting things about such "cruisers". Do you know of a country whose parliament is open to people involved in criminal proceedings?

We have a parliament full of such.

But instead of thinking about how to further develop an economy that is currently virtually closed, these people are thinking of how to free themselves from criminal responsibility. But now everything is closed - both catering and hotels. Riga already survived on tourists. We will see the consequences of all this later. And when you start thinking about it, then you realize: there must be something else "upstairs"... Someone else.

Do you see people who could be "upstairs"?

It's hard for us to find them... Here the situation with the national people is the same as it is with singers: there are none! There were some - light genre classics. But now they are no longer with us.

How could culture be renewed?

I think that people will just get tired of waiting for something, and even if all this covid ends, people will not go to concerts anymore. And then we will have problems.

No, people are longing for concerts, for theater...

God, let it be so. But the rescheduling and cancellation of all cultural events - it drives me to despair... When I watch TV: on TV24 some dare to say what they think, I know two people who do it - you know them too. The others are prattling on about something. Some are afraid to say something, others are not able to put two sentences together at all. I wonder about one more thing: how is it possible not to know how to fix education and health care in such a small country? And what about those vaccines? Will anyone tell us about them? Will we just let others make billions?

You are not afraid to get the malady?

No. If your appointed time has come, you will pass away. Nothing can be changed there. I submit to destiny. Of course, some precautions have to be followed, but you can get that disease in the place where you least expect it. You can't make fun of it, but everyone will have their own approach: maybe someone will drink vodka every night, another will wrap a towel around their head... But one thing is clear: no atomic bombs are needed, just release a virus... Yesterday I drove from Baltezers to Riga. I had barely left my Baltezers' house when I saw an old man walking ahead. Looks familiar, I should stop. I stopped, climbed out - of course, the smiling, healthy man was my neighbor Jānis Kubilis! He is 97 years old. I am so happy for him! See how he is holding on...

Do young people have respect for such artistic and cultural greats?

There is one interesting thing ... When I was still studying, the professorship was from pre-war times. It was a high-class Latvian intelligentsia. When they left, everything changed... New people came. But they no longer seemed to have the authority that the old ones had. For them, everyone bowed down even from a distance, whether it was Jānis Ivanovs who was coming or someone else. Now, thinking about the Academy of Music, I believe that this educational institution should only deal with the professional training of musicians, but there are also a lot of side things. So is the Academy of Arts: the modern art that is created there is a debatable thing. It is better not to criticize and keep your mouth shut if you do not want manure to be poured all over you...

You are also still going on. Very recently you wrote a wonderful piece of rock music - Veltījums dzejniekiem (English: Dedication to Poets) - with lyrics from Jānis Peters.

Naturally, while composing that piece, the old Līvi songs sounded in my ears. I won't mention the name of the particular singer, but his voice resonated with me... I had heard that this young boy Buķelis was doing something, that he was imitating old ones a bit, I think that his singing in this song was pretty good. Understand, it's hard for me to get used to the inaction I have now because I previously had so much to do. Now I watch old TV series, there is nothing else on television... Some strange shows that are made without money. But to make a quality show, you need a lot of money. Where can artists get money if they say that the Culture Capital Foundation distributes it only to their own people? I remember my sister (textile artist Edīte Pauls-Vīgnere - E.V.) near her 80^th birthday asked the Culture Capital Foundation for money to create an exhibition, but she was told that it is not considered necessary at this moment... Classy.

Many people already consider artists as layabouts, they say that they do not create anything meaningful, nor do they pay taxes.

Yeah, right. That is why benefits are so difficult to get right now. I have worked under many authorities and it has always been possible to find at least a few people with whom I can talk about the same cultural things. During the Soviet era, we visited Miervaldis Ramāns (Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, Chairman of the State Planning Committee - E.V.) and Pēteris Strautmanis (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR - E.V.). They helped us. Where to go today? I do not know. At that time, they gave money (in currency!) so that we could buy musical instruments for the radio. Nobody wants to talk about returning to those times, it would be nonsense. Simply put, there were normal people back then too. Now the only patron of Latvian theaters is Boriss Teterevs, now his foundation, because he is here no longer... But sometimes I think: what to support financially? There are no more poets like we had in the sixties, seventies... There are no more such playwrights. Cinema too - there is something, but there is no cinema of such a level that could go further.

Have you watched the Blizzard of Souls?

Yes. The movie was good. But I would have finished it at a different place: where the main character was left alone with his rifle... Not in the false presentation of orders, which was the end. Such a happy ending. But in general, director Dzintars Dreibergs hit people's feelings, because the theme of war and homeland is very difficult...

* The Russian Petr Aven Charity Foundation had planned to present Raimonds Pauls with a Steinway concert grand piano on his 75th birthday, which costs around 100,000 euros. However, Maestro thought that it would be much better if this instrument was placed in the studio of Latvijas Radio 1, because "Latvijas Radio is an old instrument that has been played, but for classical music, this will be like a beating heart". So the concert grand piano is still in the Radio House.