The legend of the Bakhchisarai Palace is one of the themes Alexander Pushkin
repeatedly took up throughout his literary career… Centuries ago the palace
was home to the Crimean Khan Girei and his many wives. Once Khan Girei’s
wife Zarema finds out that her husband has fallen out of love with her
and i s in love
with Maria, the fair daughter of the Polish Grand Duke Adam, Khan Girei
takes hostage during a military campaign. Maria, alone, shy and distraught,
resists Girei’s advances. The jealous Zarema then visits Maria and kills
her. Brokenhearted and inconsolable, Khan Girei builds a “fountain of tears”
in memory of the beauty whose heart he failed to win…
The old legend came live in “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai” poem Alexander
Pushkin wrote in 1822 and a century later, in a ballet of the same name
by the composer Boris Asafyev which premiered at the Mariinsky Theater
on September 28, 1934.
Boris Asafyev, a leading Russian composer of the 1920s and 30s, the author
of many ballets and symphonies, was also a brilliant critic and admirer
of everything that was progressive in the realm of the arts. In The Fountain
of Bakhchisarai, however, he deliberately strayed away from his avant-garde
style recounting the romantic story very much in the vein of the Pushkin
era…
Deeply inspired by the story of the Bakhchisarai palace, Alexander Pushkin
later followed up with the hauntingly beautiful poetic dedication to the
fountain of Bakhchisarai…
Two roses do I bring to thee,
O fount of love ‘fore me dances
Thy tears poetic comfort me,
Thy tender voice my soul entrances.
Thou greetest me as I draw near,
My face with silvered dew-drops spraying.
Pour, pour, O fount, and, ceaseless playing,
Speak, speak thy story in my ear.
There are several musical accompaniments to this poem; the best penned
by composer Vladimir Vlasov. In 1937, as this country was marking the centenary
of Pushkin’s death, Vlasov wrote a romance which is one of the very best
and most inspired musical tributes to Pushkin’s verse written in the 20th
century…
The year 1937 produced a veritable treasure trove of musical dedications
to Pushkin’s works, most notably the music Sergei Prokofiev wrote for productions
by the Moscow Chamber Theater none of which was ever presented to the public
eye and ear…
The theater’s artistic director Sergei Tairov wanted to stage two of Pushkin’s
leading works, “The Queen of Spades” and “Yevgeny Onegin”. To match the
productions’ new style Prokofiev, one of the most atypical composers of
the time, was commissioned to write the music…
Undaunted by the fact that both stories had previously been harmonized
by the great Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev ventured to write something
that would be completely different…
Tairov was not allowed to go ahead with his experimental productions, though,
told by the Culture Ministry watchdogs that Pushkin was too great a figure
to play with. The official ban scrubbed the whole project, including, of
course, Prokofiev’s music. However, always careful of everything
he wrote, the composer later used it in his Pushkin Waltzes suite.
“The Bronze Horseman” was another ballet slated to mark Pushkin’s death
centenary. Deciding to write a ballet to Pushkin’s eponymous poem, Reingold
Gliere failed to finish it in time for the memorial event and so he decided
to sit on it for a while. Gliere resumed work on “The Bronze Horseman”
only after the World War II was over and the ballet’s premiere in 1949
coincided with the 150th birth anniversary of Russia’s greatest poet.
“The Bronze Horseman” is how Petersburgers traditionally call an imposing
monument to Czar Peter the Great by the outstanding 18th century sculptor
Etienne Maurice Falconet. The monument to the city’s founder spurring a
rampant horse is a longtime symbol of St. Petersburg, just like Pushkin’s
poem of the  same
name. Even though the events depicted in the poem are taking place during
the terrible flood that devastated the city in 1824, “The Bronze Horseman”
is a stirring anthem to the city Pushkin loved so much.
Small wonder that Reingold Gliere, just like Pushkin before him, found
equally anthem-like chords singing praise to the city Peter the Great built
on the swampy banks of the Neva River. Gliere’s “Anthem to My Beloved
City” has since been a musical emblem of Russia’s northern capital…
The 20th century spawned a veritable galaxy of beautiful music written
by several generations of Russian composers. Looking back at some
of these 20th century classics we certainly can’t miss Dmitry Shostakovich’s
music to “The Tale of the Priest and his Worker Balda” cartoon…
Very unfortunately, this film made right before the war never reached the
silver screen because the entire footage perished during a bombing raid.
Many people feared that the sheet music was also lost but many years later,
already after Shostakovich’s death, they found in the archives the orchestral
scores. Before long the original score was fully reconstructed and the
music came alive again…
The music to Pushkin’s funny story about the tightfisted Priest and his
smart worker Balda was initially played in concert and later came out in
a record form and finally was taken up by the Mussorgsky Theater in St.
Petersburg for their production of a ballet of the same name.
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