1901
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1906
             
In 1906 Russia was still hurting from the revolution which had struck the year before. Mass rallies, demonstrations and strikes continued unabated and still, against all odds, theaters were turning out new productions and concert halls were filled with the sounds of music...
January 11th saw the premiere at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater of two single-act operas by Sergei Rakhmaninoff. One of them, Miserly Knight was a musical rendition of Alexander Pushkin's eponymous poem and the other one, titled Francesca da Rimini, became a new version of Inferno, the fifth song from Dante Aligieri's Divine Comedy.
Rakhmaninoff had written both operas with Fyodor Chaliapin's inimitable bass in mind, but the great singer, although a good friend of Rakhmaninoff's, was being literally torn between engagements in Moscow and St.Petersburg, Milan and Monte Carlo. Just like it often happens in life, Chaliapin, always ready to please people he didn't even know well, would always put friendly commitments to the back burner...
Rakhmaninoff waited patiently for his turn never once reminding Chaliapin of his promise to "get down to rehearsals right away". With the premiere drawing dangerously close each day, the composer had no other choice than to go to a different singer who, talented as he proved to be, was still no match for the larger-than-life Chaliapin.
The hardest hit by that forced substitution was the Miserly Knight because it was essentially a one-voice opera. Things were not so bad with Francesca da Rimini however, where Chaliapin's was not the main part.
The exquisitely melodious Francesca was a bigger success compared to the more recitative Knight maybe because people usually like love stories more than they do sad accounts of a life lived by a lone and covetous old man.
The story of Francesca and Paolo is all about love... "Out there, flying high in you embrace. I will belong to you forever and ever..." Francesca sang to her beloved...
Francesca da Rimini and the Miserly Knight have since become all-time Russian classics and have survived countless stage productions across this country.
In October 1906 there was a Russian art exhibition going on at the Autumn Salon in Paris featuring an impressive 750-item collection from old Russian icons to early-20th-century paintings. Never before had the world's artistic capital had such an eye-opening opportunity to see for itself what the previously reclusive Russian art was all about...
The visual impression was augmented by a series of concerts of Russian chamber music which were almost as successful as the exhibition itself.
The whole extravaganza was organized by a 34 year-old powerhouse art connoisseur whose name was Sergei Dyagilev. Already a household name in Russia, Dyagilev was now out to conquer the whole world...
"There is one thing I know full well," he wrote, "and that's we, Russians, must move westwards and make the Europeans respect our art."
The exhibition and concerts which Dyagilev organized in 1906 gave start to the famous Russian Seasons art festivals regularly held in Paris, London and other European capitals up until 1929...
It will be no exaggeration to say that the year 1906 in Europe was all about Pyotr Tchaikovsky's music. 13 years after the death of this great Russian composer it was already clear that his music was bound for eternity...
In 1906 Tchaikovsky's opera Queen of Spades premiered on stage of Milan's venerable La Scala opera house. That was a really beautiful production and certainly worth of the admiring accolades showered on in by the people and critics alike.
Another Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, enjoyed equally enthusiastic welcome by opera lovers in Amsterdam. "This melodious music has conquered our hearts..." read a notice in one of the local newspapers.
Eugene Onegin also moved musical hearts in Britain where members of the Moody-Manners traveling opera company took the production to Glasgow and Sheffield.
The success of Tchaikovsaky's Fifth Symphony which premiered in Rome later in the year was equally resounding with the critics all agreeing that it was "the most beautiful modern symphony around".
In Paris, meanwhile, the famed Russian conductor Vasily Safonov offered a whole string of concerts of Tchaikovsky's music. Against all expectations, the concerts struck chord with the French who had never before been particularly impressed by Tchaikovsky's compositional talent.
In December music lovers in St.Petersburg were widely celebrating the 70th birthday of Miliy Balakirev in a show of muchdeserved public appreciation of this legendary and hard-working musician. 40 years before that Balakirev rallied behind himself a group of talented young amateur musicians. His bubbling energy and talent brushed off on Army officer Modest Mussorgky, naval officer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, chemist Alexander Borodin and engineer Caesar Kyui who eventually became outstanding composers turning around long-entrenched musical traditions both in Russia and elsewhere in Europe. Their bold experimentation even overshadowed the work done by their teacher, but his authority was never open to question. At the advanced age of 70, Miliy Balakirev was still bubbling with energy and filled with new ideas. His best compositions were being played all across the world ushering in an all-new and inherently Russian musical style...
Also in 1906 they opened the so-called People's Conservatory in Moscow which was the first institution of higher musical learning in Russia where students from all walks of life could enroll without any restrictions. Tuition was based on choir singing, but students were also allowed to learn to play one musical instrument. The list of the People's Conservatory founders reads like a Who's Who of the turn-of-the-century Russian music, among them composer and teacher Sergei Taneyev. The People's Conservatory graduated more than 2,000 young musicians before it was closed down in 1917...
In 1906 they unveiled a monument in St.Petersburg to the great Russian composer Mikhail Glinka - almost fifty years after the founding father of Russian classical music died in Berlin on February 15th of 1857. All these years many musicians had been giving charity concerts to raise the money and even though Rudolf Bach's massive bronze statue looked more like a burly merchant than a refined composer, the mere fact of the statue finally being unveiled was really gratifying...
Also in 1906, the 31 year-old pianist Alexander Goldenweizer was given a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. Looking for a guaranteed salary, this richly endowed performer went the way of many of his colleagues and took up teaching which eventually became his main occupation. A very perspicacious man, Goldenweiser was able to see through the character of each of his more than 200 students helping them find their own, special, way in music. The result of this amazing insight was a constellation of outstanding musicians each boasting a performing style and manner all his own.
Alexander Goldenweiser taught at the Moscow Conservatory for a staggering 55 years and all those years he kept performing stunning the audiences with his deep understanding of what he was playing and his impeccable technique.
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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