In 1918 the enormous country, still hurting from a war and two
revolutions, was lying in ruins. In Petrograd people were subsisting on
meager rations of 100 grams of bread and three herrings every two days,
but people still carried on proving right again and again the old truth
about man not living by bread alone... In 1918 they set up a Music Council
in Moscow of leading artists and other cultural celebrities charged, among
other things, with reorganizing the country's system of musical education.
The Gnessin sisters, the organizers of Moscow's very best music school,
were very actively involved in the council's work. They helped establish
a smoothly-working three-stage system of free primary, secondary special
and higher musical education. Music schools and conservatories were placed
under state control and musical curricula uniformed. Music education in
general schools was another major priority for the Council which was also
helping find teachers and setting up instrumental bands and choirs at the
workers' clubs. Choir singing was receiving additional attention as a potent
tool of consolidating the masses, but the authorities were working hard
to phase out church music and singing which they thought did not sit well
with Communism. Before long, they transformed the famous Synodal School
into a People's Academy of Choir Music where students were now learning
to chant revolutionary songs. The Music Council was also holding concerts
which, along with the traditional concert halls, were now also held in
the workers' clubs. The Communist powers that-be were resolutely shelving
the romantic refinement of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt and even Tchaikovsky
was now being frowned on as too slow and enervating and, therefore, destined
to make way for everything tumultuous and heroic, like Beethoven's music...
Revolutionary composers like Beethoven and Wagner were very much "in"
and their music was mandatory for the so-called People's Concerts that
were now regularly held at the Winter Palace in Petrograd. Each concert
was invariably preceded by an introductory lecture heavily-laden with politics
and officially-approved comments on what was going to be played. The country's
finest orchestras, singers and choirs were playing to audiences of laborers,
soldiers and sailors. On May 1st, Mozart's Requiem was performed by an
orchestra led by the British conductor Albert Croats who was then working
in Petrograd. In Moscow, the Bolshoi Theater issued discount season tickets
for the workers who could use them to attend three operas and a ballet.
On Sundays, the Bolshoi was giving free performances for Red Army soldiers.
The audiences, not used to the sounds of classical music, often
made too much noise during the concerts but still showed up regularly because
they were ordered to and military orders are certainly not something you
can take lightly... Once a week the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow's biggest,
was handed over to the newly-opened Children's Theater led by Natalya Sats
who, eager to bring up a new generation of theater-goers, was always bristling
with new ideas. One of her early productions was The Blue Bird staged to
the music which her father, Ilya Sats, had written especially for Meterlink's
timeless masterpiece.
Fyodor Chaliapin remained Russia's greatest and most popular
bass singer performing in operas and charity concerts given for the care
of Petrograd's rail and cotton-mill workers. Chaliapin donated money to
prepare free meals for the poor and open an orphanage. He was a member
of the National Council of Theaters and Public Shows and, at the same time,
sat on the Education Ministry's music-affairs panel. One day he was singing
with a workers' choir, auditioned an amateur Russian folk orchestra on
the other, spending the following day judging a song and drama competition
and so on and so forth...
In October 1918 Chaliapin was singing on stage of Petrograd's
Mariinsky Theater. After the performance was over, the Education Minister
Anatoly Lunacharsky, who was in the audience, stepped out on stage and
announced that Fyodor Chaliapin had been awarded the title of First People's
Artist of the Russian Federation.
On the following day the newspapers carried a government decree
which said that "in recognition of Fyodor Chaliapin's outstanding
services to Russian art, a decision has been made to award to this highly-endowed
representative of the Russian people the title of a People's Artist of
the Russian Federation. From now on this title shall be considered the
highest distinction awarded for exceptional achievements in the field of
arts and culture..."
The news about the socialist revolution reached composer Sergei
Prokofyev while he was vacationing in the Caucasus. This is how he described
his initial reaction:
"We were getting some really erratic accounts of what was
happening in Petrograd. People were talking about the October revolution
and the new government led by Vladimir Lenin. Getting back to Petrograd
was absolutely out of the question, no matter how eager I was to get back
and see what was really happening there..."
It was only in March that Prokofyev was finally able to hit the
road. On his way to Petrograd he made a stopover in Moscow where me made
the acquaintance of the revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky who was
very much in vogue back in those days. The two men liked each other a lot
and, seeing Prokofyev off at the station, Mayakovsky gave him a book of
his poems complete with an appropriately in-your-face autograph which went
like this: "To the Chairman of world music from the Chairman of world
poetry."
In Moscow Prokofyev was often seen playing his own music at the
Poets' Club. "Red-haired and burning like fire, he dashed out on stage,
announced himself as a devout futurist and sat down in front of the piano,"
an eyewitness later remembered. "Enraptured by his music and excellent
performance, the audience just wouldn't let him go. The man really burned
and it seemed like the place was also on fire, the ceiling, blazing hot,
just like the composer's hair, was coming down as we stood there ready
to burn alive, engulfed in the flames of his incredible music!" On
April 21 Prokofyev was already conducting the orchestra during the premiere
of his First Symphony. Just for the fun of it and to tease the critics
who never missed a chance to badmouth his new compositions, he labeled
it as a "classical symphony". There was one more reason why Prokofyev
did so and, remembering another classic, he wrote:
"If Haydn were still alive, he would certainly have retained
his compositional manner but he would also have learned a thing or two
from our modern composers. This was the kind of a symphony I wanted to
write, a classical one..." 16 days after the premiere, Sergei Prokofyev
headed for Vladivostok where he arrived 18 days later planning to sail
on to South America. His plans changed, however, and he headed, instead,
for Japan where he played a series of concerts in Tokyo and Yokohama. From
there he moved on to the United States where he spent almost three years.
It was the beginning of a long period of wandering and living a life all
too familiar to many Russian musicians, writers and painters who were trying
desperately to find their way out of the revolutionary maelstrom in Russia...
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.
