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By Olga Fyodorova
…It’s 9.20 a.m… I’m 40 minutes early, the Nikolina Gora is way closer
than I thought. What a beautiful house! Big but not bulky, with an
elegant veranda and cut-wood windows... Those old builders were real masters!
The maestro and his family must be sound asleep, because artists never
get up early. What about getting in through the garden? There is a woman
tending to the flowers there…
“Excuse me, is that Nikolai Petrov’s house?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“We are supposed to meet at 10 o’clock but it so happened that I came 40
minutes early…”
“Oh, it’s all right. Come in. I’m Nikolai’s wife. I don’t think, however,
that you’ll be able to see him before 10 o’clock because at this time he
is usually doing his favorite job…”
“I see… Artists are not early birds, are they? I guess he is still in bed…”
“No, you are wrong! Nikolai always gets up early and immediately gets down
to work…”
“Playing the piano?”
“No, he is careful not to bother the neighbors at this early hour and goes
straight to his workshop, woodworking, fixing his car and all the things
mechanical we have here… He thinks that all I and our daughter can do is
breaking them down so that he has something to work on in the morning…
He built this house and everything in it all by himself, you know…”
“Himself?! Unbelievable! He must be a real jack-of-all-trades then. But
how come a pianist can do it all, I wonder… Musicians are always so careful
about their hands…”
“He somehow manages to avoid injuries. We’ve been living together for more
than 30 years now and I can’t remember a single serious injury, really…
Despite his bulk, Nikolai is a very well coordinated man…”
“Maybe it’s because of his piano playing… It always surprises me to watch
his thick fingers become so nimble as they fly over the keyboard… How long
does he play each day, by the way?”
“It’s hard to say, really… It all depends, you know… He usually plays less
than others… because he has phenomenal memory and all he needs to do is
to play something once or twice and he’s got it by heart. Besides,
clumsy as they may look, his fingers are very piano-friendly and he doesn’t
need to practice for hours on end to get the hang of some difficult pieces,
it just happens all by itself… Moreover, his fingers sort of memorize everything
he plays and once he’s played something he gets it all down real good and
so he doesn’t have to rehearse it over and over again before concert.”
“Nikolai Petrov’s phenomenal talent is well known and much deserved, ever
since he was going to the Moscow Conservatory school for musically endowed
children… At 20 he became a winner of an extremely challenging competition
in America, if I remember it right…”
“Nikolai was 19 then… In 1962 he won the second prize of the Van Cliburn
competition at Fort Worth, Texas. Two years later he was equally successful
taking part in the Queen Elizabeth contest in Brussels…”
“Once touted as a real virtuoso for his blistering flash, Nikolai Petrov
has since come to be appreciated for his bold interpretations and psychological
profundity of his renditions…”
“Critics often pointed up his musical sportsmanship, which made Nikolai
feel real bad because flash never really meant much to him. That’s was
simply because his technique is so impressive, that’s why people kept writing
about it… Nikolai always tries to get down to the very essence of what
he plays… Maybe he was too young then to make everyone believe what he
was doing…”
“Nikolai Petrov matured early on… At 25 he was already a seasoned master…”
“As far as I know, his grandfather was a well-known opera singer, right?”
“Yes, he was a lead singer at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. His
bass was so rich and lavish... Nikolai still has portrait hanging in his
room. Along with the photograph of Nikolai’s Conservatory teacher, Professor
Yakov Zak. He was a wonderful teacher, he really was!”
“And Nikolai Petrov often plays concerts dedicated to the lasting memory
of his teacher…”
“Yes, and they have since become pretty much traditional too… Nikolai practices
real hard preparing for them, for fear of letting his teacher down. They
were real good friends…”
“Nikolai Petrov has played in virtually every major venue around but I
guess there must be ones he likes best…”
“Of course it’s the Conservatory Big Hall here in Moscow where he first
felt himself a real artist. He has regularly been playing there for
many years now. These are seasonal concerts organized by the Moscow Philharmonic
Society. Billed as “Nikolai Petrov Presents…” they often feature his friends,
conservatory students and winners of the Nikolai Petrov charity fund.”
“Nikolai Petrov has recently been paying much attention to working with
young musicians and, his fund helps not only young pianists…”
“My husband is a very charitable person. I guess you have already noticed
how generous and hard working he really is…”
“Of course I have… I’ve been to his festivals in the Kremlin where there
are so many young players also taking part there, but his one-man-shows
are still the biggest attraction...”
“Nikolai is always in demand and this is something that makes him tick.
He is always in the midst of events and always takes very close to heart
everything that’s going on around him…”
“That’s something I noticed a long time ago… Nikolai Petrov plays on the
radio, takes part in TV shows and appears in papers responding to
the pressing problems of today’s life, especially where it comes
to music and musicians… I well remember how actively he campaigned for
preserving the State Audio and Video Archives with their priceless recordings…”
“Yes, he’s a real fighter for justice but deep down, he is a very kind
and vulnerable person…”
“That’s right, and you can immediately feel that listening to his playing…”
“Well, I think it’s time for him to show up… Nikolai is never late for
anything and he will meet you exactly at 10 o’clock, just as he promised…
On his way from the workshop he will certainly drop into his room and spend
a few moments pressing the keys… It’s not practice, nor is it a morning
warm up, he does it just for fun… You see? Exactly as I said!..”
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