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By Olga Fyodorova
...By midday, May 7, 2002, the sprawling Teatralnaya square in downtown
Moscow was filled with thousands of mourning people heading towards the
towering bulk of the Bolshoi Theater... Famous musicians, writers, actors,
students, music lovers who had spent hours on end standing in line to get
tickets to Svetlanov’s concerts were now lining up to say their last farewells
to the deceased Master…
There was soft music playing in the Bolshoi Theater’s foyer but there were
no speeches. Just as Yevgeny Svetlanov wanted. Lucid until his very last
moment, Svetlanov said he wanted his body to be laid, in keeping with old
Russian tradition, inside a simple pinewood coffin... That the farewell
ceremony to be held in the Bolshoi Theater which had always been his second
home… That the burial service be performed inside a small church
in the very heart of Moscow where he occasionally dropped in… That he be
interred alongside his loved ones… That there be a simple wooden
cross put atop his grave and that during the whole ceremony they play Russian
music which was part and parcel of his soul…
When Yevgeny Svetlanov, then a 22-year-old young man, showed up at the
entrance examinations to the Conservatory conductors’ department, Professor
Alexander Gauk wondered why should he, a brilliant pianist and a talented
composer want to get into conducting too.
“I want to perform every single piece of music, well known and forgotten,
ever written by a Russian classic,” Yevgeny said.
Professor Gauk smiled: these youngsters were all crazy about anthologies!
Unlike many of his peers however, Svetlanov eventually realized his long
cherished dream creating an anthology of Russian classics no one had ever
done before…
600 hours of music, more than 2,000 compositions! Yevgeny Svetlanov devoted
nearly 40 years of his life to make happen what eventually became a shining
monument to his selfless service to Music…
Still a young boy, Yevgeny was forever hooked on the performances and concerts
by the legendary conductor Nikolai Golovanov. Years later he already knew
how to energize the audience and, working them up to ecstasy, sent people
on their feet, just like Golovanov once did…
A great lover of Nature, Svetlanov had a rare gift of translating into
music the quiet of a serene lake, of a steppe stretching out forever, the
sound of the wind playing with the foliage…
Yevgeny Svetlanov grew up right in the Bolshoi where his mother was an
opera singer and were he, from the tender age of five, used to take part
in crowd scenes. Becoming a conductor with the Bolshoi orchestra at the
still young age of 27, he made an amazingly quick transition to the music
director and chief conductor of the country’s premiere opera venue.
He was the ultimate leader who always knew where he was going and firmly
steered his hundreds-strong company to success. He was absolutely
inimitable in his ability to fine-tune the performers resulting in a smoothly
working orchestra playing with clockwork precision. The ultimate theater
man, he was strongly energized by the stage lights, the curtains and the
audience. His inspiration uplifted him and he soared above the routine,
above the audience and his musicians were working miracles…
Later moving on to head the State Symphony orchestra, Svetlanov kept coming
back to the Bolshoi to relish its unique atmosphere and staging a spate
of evergreens like Othello by Giuseppe Verdi, The Tale of the Invisible
City of Kitezh, Pskovityanka and the Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,
and other outstanding productions.
Both at the head of the Bolshoi and the National Symphony Orchestras, Svetlanov
worked hours on end looking for his own, inimitable, sound. The musicians
often grumbled about his nitpicking exactingness but, knowing his tough
character, never dared to openly vent their frustration. This hard work
brought amazing results though and, listening to their recordings, one
can’t help admiring the absolutely faultless performance of Svetlanov’s
orchestra.
Theirs was an absolutely one of a kind sound… It took Svetlanov a mere
few months to give the NSO its brand new sound. From the very first measures,
the listeners were immersed in the rich and warm singing of the strings,
the airy flutes, tender-sounding oboes and the ringing trumpets. Foreign
conductors who chanced to work with Svetlanov’s orchestra all admired its
noble sound and exquisite color palette which they said symbolized the
very special and inimitable sound of a Russian orchestra playing…
A born conductor, Yevgeny Svetlanov always said that, above all, he was
a composer. He wrote more than a hundred pieces of music, from romances
to symphonies, but, frankly speaking, his compositional talent was no match
for his conducting and pianistic skills. And still it helped him as a conductor.
Svetlanov was more than a performer of someone else’s music, sometimes
it looked as if he actually partook in the work of the great masters he
played…
His eternal desire to improve was another major boost. Always on the lookout
for a new, more expressive musical language, Svetlanov, completing his
anthology, immediately switched over to Mahler, then Wagner, Beethoven,
Lizst, played classical orchestral miniatures and even 20th century pop
hits. He ticked the listeners’ imagination with new, unexpected images
and associations. Until his very last moment he was desperately searching
for himself in music and, appreciating this non-stop, gargantuan effort,
the listeners literally idolized him…
Officially, Yevgeny Svetlanov was equally well appreciated winning every
imaginable national awards, honorary titles and distinctions. All
this, however, didn’t spare him the anguish and frustration that soured
his ebbing years. Social instability makes the heart grow harder
as they say and, all of a sudden, the orchestra Svetlanov had worked so
hard to make this country’s best, started falling apart with the best musicians
emigrating and the rest grumbling... Mutual resentment was building up
and, one day, it all came to a head… Rushing in to put out the flames of
a raging conflict, Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi fired the great master
who had devoted 30 years of his life to what people now called the Svetlanov
orchestra and with very good reason too… Feeling morally and professionally
uprooted, Svetlanov lost his bearings… Looking suddenly aged, he
spent some time conducting other Russian orchestras, working abroad, but
the thrill was gone now… He looked like a mighty oak tree with its roots
sawn off…
Yevgeny Svetlanov had, over the years, been ill may times, operated on
and dangling precariously between life and death, but he always managed
to recover and get back to work. This time, however, he finally succumbed
to cancer that was killing him… On May 3, 2002, during the Passion Week,
the soul departed his longsuffering body to ascend to everlasting life...
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