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By Olga Fyodorova
…In the spring of 1990 the famed Russian violinist Oleg Kagan was in Germany
undergoing a course of chemotherapy after a major operation. His
cello-playing wife Natalya Gutman, tipped off about her husband’s critical
condition, had canceled all her concerts and, taking their kids along,
was staying nearby. Each time his doctors allowed him, Oleg would come
over to see them at the small cottage Natalya was renting and enjoying
the company of their many friends, including a bunch of top-notch musicians
from Russia and Europe. During one such get-together, Oleg said:
“Hey, what about holding a chamber music festival this summer right here,
at Kreuz? We’ve been dreaming about that for such a long time, haven’t
we? Let’s find the right time, align our programs and put out several
posters. We could play at the local church; I’ve already arranged
that. People here love music, they really do! Each time we play they gather
under our windows and just stay there listening… You should see there faces,
they really light up with satisfaction! Which means we’ll have absolutely
no problem filling out the hall. The tickets should be pretty cheap so
that everyone can afford buying one. We are not here to goldbrick,
back in Russia we’ve never been paid much, have we?.. Let’s get ready and
play together…”
Oleg Kagan was born in 1946. At the age of 18 he entered the Moscow Conservatory
studying in the class of the great David Oistrakh. Still in his first year
he became a proud winner of the George Enescu international festival in
Bucharest. A year later he bowed out with the first prize of the Jan Sibelius
competition in Finland, then the silver medal of the Tchaikovsky competition
in Moscow and of the Johann Sebastian Bach festival in Leipzig.
A brilliant player with a whole bunch of prestigious awards, Oleg joined
the Moscow Philharmonic society as a lead singer wowing Russian and foreign
listeners with his exquisite mastery and inspired interpretations.
He was more than a violinist, he was he ultimate musician able to bring
out the very essence of music he played…
His openhearted emotionality and philosophical profundity had a magnetic
effect on his many fans eagerly awaiting his concerts. And also on his
colleagues who literally lined up to partner with him on stage. Among them
cellist Natalya Gutman. The concerts they played together were the ultimate
expression of artistic cohesion of two kindred souls where each musical
phrase was a logical continuation of the previous and preparing the next…
Even though they never spent much time rehearsing together, Oleg and Natalya
played as a single whole. Small wonder that soon after, the two became
man and wife…
Oleg Kagan and Natalya Gutman were an amazingly beautiful pair. He – tall,
slender with a shock of blond hair and shiny blue eyes, she –black haired
and lissome with a flicker of mystery lurking in the corners of her almond-shaped
eyes… They looked different but deep inside they were like a single whole…
Before long Natalya gave birth first to a girl, then - a boy. It
was decided from the start that they would follow in their parents’ footsteps.
Busy as he was, Oleg tried to spend as much time with the kids as his packed
concert schedule allowed. Besides music, he thought up all kinds of exciting
things, like, for example, a home theater their neighbors’ kids also happily
joined in. Or a New Year masquerade everyone was welcome to…
Always the main driving force behind all that fun, Oleg wrote the scripts,
handed out the parts and designed the costumes. And of course, he was absolutely
indispensable when it came time to hit the stage…
Oleg’s talent as a musician and an actor was not lost on his colleagues,
including the venerable Svyatoslav Richter. Meeting Oleg during a party,
the great pianist suggested they play together and immensely enjoying the
experience, invited Oleg to play in the December Nights festival he held
each year at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. In 1982 the
two came together playing Mozart in concert.
Mozart was Oleg’s lifetime affection, but he also played Shostakovich,
Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina and other contemporary composers, his excellent
memory easily handling hundreds of finger twisting runs and his eager heart
always open to everything that was talented and original.
Composers knew that Oleg Kagan would never leave anything to chance and
would go right to the essence of a new piece and find there the nuances
even the author might have missed…
Then, like a bolt right out of the blue, the terrible disease caught up
with him. His doctors didn’t even have to tell him that it was cancer.
He was operated on in Germany. They told him it was going to be all
right, but he knew they were lying… Still refusing to succumb to the inevitable,
he agreed to undergo a course of chemotherapy. A real diehard, he
surprised his doctors and inspired optimism in the hearts of his loved
ones…
Already doomed, he joined Yuri Bashmet on a visit to Salzburg where on
a tour of the Mozart house museum he tried to play the violin once owned
by the great Austrian. After centuries of gathering dust among the
other exhibits, the instrument refused to give in. Whispering something
kindly to the old violin, Oleg eventually managed to coax some absolutely
divine sounds, making it sing like it probably did in the hands of its
great owner…
A few months later Oleg Kagan was to open the festival at Kreuz playing
Mozart. His doctors said it would kill him. “With tests like these,
he should have been dead a long time ago,” his doctor told his wife.
And still, Oleg came out on stage. The painkiller injection they had given
him did not last long and, braving the excruciating pain and fighting back
the nausea, Oleg played on… His friends and relatives had their eyes fixed
on his bow and the changing complexion. There was a team of medics
standing by and an ambulance waiting outside, but no one else knew that
there was a terminally ill man playing there and whose hours were already
numbered…
Each summer this small German town plays host to yet another Oleg Kagan
festival and another one takes place here in Moscow each fall, both featuring
Oleg’s friends and colleagues, his widow and their children, now musicians
all. Oleg Kagan also lives on in his records, which are being re-issued
over and over again increasing the number of those who will never forget
this outstanding musician…
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