|
By Olga Fyodorova
…During the Fifties teachers at the Moscow Conservatory’s Central Music
School often crisscrossed Russia looking for musically endowed children.
One day one such delegation arrived in Kharkov, in Ukraine, and headed
straight to the city culture department, which was managing the local music
schools.
“We have lots of gifted kids around here, the department officials said,
but there is one boy who is absolutely unbelievable! Really, he never needs
to hear something twice to play it on the piano note for note! And you
should see his hands too! As if made for pressing the keys! This guy is
a real natural, all he needs is just to have a look or two at the
notes and then his fingers simply play it all by themselves…
The boy looks just like thousands of his peers, pretty short and his ears
popping out of his head. But his eyes are something special, inquisitive,
joyous and very na?ve, they went on. Frankly speaking, we would hate to
let him go because in Moscow he will have to live in a hostel where the
kids grow up too fast, you know what we mean. On the other hand, there
are so many theaters, concerts and interesting people in Moscow and they
will certainly help him grow as a professional...”
“Does he need to grow any further now that he already plays so well?…”
That’s how this provincial boy first came to Moscow entering the Central
Music School with its top-notch teachers and that very special competitive
atmosphere that spurs some people on and ruins others. Vladimir Krainev
proved very hardheaded successfully sailing through all the exams and doing
it better than anyone else did apparently enjoying his edge over his Moscow-born
classmates...
At the age of 18, Vladimir won easy entrance to the Moscow Conservatory
joining the class of the formidable pianist and teacher Genrikh Neuhaus,
who once was the teacher of Emil Gilels and Svyatoslav Rikhter and whose
teaching method was widely emulated all around the world. Neuhaus
only took on board students who had real personality and Vladimir Krainev
immediately caught his attention.
Always eager to learn, Vladimir was taking keen interest in just about
everything, above all the art of playing in the broadest meaning of the
world. Romantics both, the wizened teacher and his greenhorn student easily
understood each other…
“He is one of my favorite students. He is very, very gifted, he really
is…” Professor Neuhaus once said about Vladimir.
Fresh from his first year at the Conservatory, Vladimir was sent to a very
prestigious piano competition in Leeds, Britain. Winning the second place
there, he then headed to the famous Vian da Mota competition in Lisbon
and this time he came out on top! Professor Neuhaus was overjoyed, but
only three months later Vladimir mourned the death of his beloved teacher…
He continued his education with Stanislav Neuhaus who had inherited many
of his late father’s excellent qualities, including the all-stops-out romanticism…
After these triumphs, Krainev joined the Moscow Philharmonic Society as
a lead performer playing prestigious venues in and beyond Russia and also
at schools and workers and student clubs.
Already a popular pianist, he was summoned to the Culture Ministry and
advised, in no uncertain terms, to play in the 4th Tchaikovsky International
Competition. The year was 1970 and the country was celebrating in a grand
fashion the centennial birthday of its Communist founder Vladimir Lenin.
Just like everything else, that year’s Tchaikovsky competition was dedicated
to Lenin’s upcoming birthday. Small wonder that Soviet musicians were supposed
to win, hence all that fuss about only the very best going to take part
in the competition.
Like always, Vladimir Krainev’s playing was passionate and stirring, but
he was competing with Britain’s formidable John Lill who was absolutely
impossible to beat because he was so inimitably different from the rest…
Much to the dismay of the Culture Ministry big shots, the jury had to divide
the first prize – a fair decision that added much to the competition’s
well-deserved respectability.
This made Vladimir Krainev even more popular. Now the winner of one of
the most touted competition around, he had the world’s best venues opening
up for him and was playing with famous ensembles, orchestras and conductors...
Vladimir’s repertoire is absolutely mind-boggling reflecting his phenomenal
memory holding hundreds, even thousands of compositions written in different
genres and styles. He doesn’t have to spend whole days crouched by his
instrument to bring back something he played a long time ago. All he has
to do is recall the most difficult parts the rest goes all by itself…
He is always filled with music, no matter what he does, his brain tirelessly
processing and picking out the right variants and finding parallels between
music and words, music and action in the never ending process of professional
growing…
This inner discipline also helps him as a teacher, first at the Moscow
Conservatory and now at the Higher School of Music in Hanover, Germany.
There are many Russians attending his class there, the less affluent living
right in his house. Professor Krainev is like a doting father to them helped
in his cares by his mother, who, unfortunately is not getting younger…
His wife, the famous figure skating coach Tatyana Tarasova, is only an
occasional guest in Hanover, spending most of her time between Russia and
the United States. Separation makes the heart grow fonder they say, that’s
probably why Vladimir and Tatyana are such an ideal pair, tenderly caring
for each other, keenly interested in each other’s work and helping each
other in times of trouble. Which, happily, are very few and far between,
so Vladimir is more often than not celebrating the victories of his wife’s
prot?g?s and Tatyana toasting Vladimir’s competition winning students…
A few years ago Vladimir Krainev organized a junior competition all his
own. It is held at his hometown of Kharkov, and each contest unveils new
names. Who knows, maybe some day they will become as popular and recognized
as the competition’s organizer?
|