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By Olga Fyodorova
…The year 1938. The office of the director of one of the best music
schools in Odessa, on the Black Sea coast.
“I don’t know how to cope with this boy of yours! He is only eight years
old and he’s absolutely uncontrollable! A busybody, he can’t sit still.
He’s got some crazy ideas in his head, you know… Instead of coming in through
the door, like all people do, he jumps in through the window… Failing to
learn a poem, he keeps inventing things right here in class… Right in the
middle of a teacher’s explanation, he bursts out laughing saying he recalled
a funny story…”
“He’s a terrible fantasizer and a fun-loving guy too, that’s right... It’s
not that bad, after all, is it?”
“I don’t think this will get him anywhere… He’ll end up with some
gang out there in the street and then…”
“I guess fantasizers make the best scientists, inventors, artists and musicians.
My son too is studying music and I hope that some day he’ll make it big…”
“Studying music?! A busybody like him?!”
“The moment he picks up the violin he forgets about everything else and
can play for hours on end… Professor Stolyarsky thinks he’s real good…”
“Well, then the boy is a real talent, if Pyotr Stolyarsky says so… Okay,
we’ll blink at his frolics, maybe someday we’ll all be proud of him…”
Eduard Grach finished music school at the top of his class which was led
by Professor Stolyarsky, an outstanding teacher famous both in and beyond
this country and who at various times spawned the first Soviet laureates
David Oistrakh, Yelizaveta Gilels and Mikhail Fikhtengolts. The young Eduard
always looked up at them dreaming of someday being able to play like these
great musicians did…
He went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Professor
Abram Yampolsky and after Yampolsky’s death, honed his skills as a postgraduate
student under the great David Oistrakh.
Excellent musicianship, a hardworking attitude and an inborn predilection
for the violin propelled the 19-year-old Grach to the very top of an international
competition in Budapest and, four years later, of the prestigious Marguerite
Long and Jaques Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris.
In 1962 Eduard Grach, already a seasoned musician, won a medal at the Tchaikovsky
international competicion in Moscow. It was the start of a busy touring
life with experts admiring Eduard’s flash, noble sound and explosive performance,
ranking him with superstars like Isaak Stern, Yehudi Menukhin and David
Oistrakh.
Wanting more than just going solo, Eduard Grach teamed up with the country’s
best pianists and cellists and was invited to play with the best orchestras
and conductors around. Many Moscow composers were writing expressly
with Eduard’s inimitable playing in mind and their premiers invariably
became the season’s biggest highlights.
His performances are always a sight to see and always well rehearsed too,
giving credit to Eduard’s inborn flair for all things bizarre. Each program
bubbles with life and some of his numbers are real fun to watch…
The diversity of his musical tastes really boggles the mind. Perfectly
heeled in classical music, Eduard Grach also dabbles in contemporary and
romantic music and his showmanship is absolutely fantastic!
His performance of chamber pieces by Kreisler, Ponce, Piazzolla and Albeniz
is as charming as it is inimitable…
Already a world-famous musician, Eduard Grach started teaching at the Moscow
Conservatory. Explosive, energetic and, at the same time, thoughtful and
exacting, he proved an excellent teacher training a constellation of laureates
and always knowing each one’s strong and weak points…
In the late Eighties Eduard Grach realized his longtime dream of conducting
his own chamber orchestra. In December 27th, 1990, Professor Grach and
his newly formed Moskovia orchestra of Conservatory friends and students,
played its first concert...
There are 25 young musicians playing in the Moskovia orchestra, which is
essentially a group of lead players. Eduard Grach often doubles as a conductor
and solo violinist.
A German tour that followed shortly after, won the new orchestra glowing
reviews in the local press and in Cyprus the audience went on their feet
and applauded for a whole 30 minutes…
The Moskovia orchestra has since played a series of sold out concerts in
Italy, France, Poland, Greece, Macedonia and China…
They are a steady fixture at major national and international festivals,
their democratic repertoire invariably winning them the attention
of concertgoers everywhere…
Moskovia is now one of Russia’s best-loved chamber outfits always playing
to capacity audiences, no matter how big the hall…
…Nimble and bubbling with energy as always, Eduard Grach runs out on stage,
his youthful body and flash smile doing nothing to betray the fact that
the man is already past 70! Resplendent in a custom tailored snow-white
dinner-jacket, he bows to the applauding audience, raises his arms
and the next moment the hall is filled with music...
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