The Crescendo interview is structured as a moral conversation, not a record review. Kudritskaya states plainly that after four years of aggression, music is a « second front »: « Making music, for me, is a form of resistance to defend a certain idea of the human. »
She explains Music Chain for Ukraine — concerts across Europe so displaced musicians can « preserve their dignity and continue their profession », contacts with organisers, and a women’s choir of war refugees rehearsing Ukrainian popular and sacred repertoire, then Fauré, then Debussy: « As long as voices like theirs keep singing, Ukraine will exist. »
Funding fatigue is acknowledged without cynicism: « People were sensitive at first… but everyone gets used to things. » The challenge is to keep solidarity operational when headlines move on.
On Couperin after Rameau, she offers one of the clearest statements of her artistic philosophy: baroque music was neglected for centuries, so « we have no direct testimony » of original performance — unlike the Chopin lineage teachers cite. « That is where I found salvation: imagination freed from the weight of absolute knowledge. »
Piece selection took months; melancholy imposed itself; shadow theatre and « large migrating birds » traced her own journey. Playing Couperin on modern piano? « Perhaps disruptive — not very serious! » She enjoys historical keyboards but loves research on the modern instrument — « Scarlatti or Bach deserve to leave the harpsichord too. »
For Syros audiences, this text explains why her programming is never « just » baroque: it is a cultural defence strategy played with grace.
