On May 10 Moscow was playing host to a national competition of
performing musicians. Actually, it was the final phase of the contest which
had already been going on a whole year. 103 preliminary winners were now
in Moscow vying for prizes in four categories.
The contestants all played so well that the jury had to divide
the award between a staggering 26 laureates. Not all of them stood the
test of time, of course, but there are two names which certainly deserve
a mention.
The top award among cellists went to the 26 year-old Svyatoslav
Knushevitsky whose warm and inspired playing literally bewitched the listeners
making them forget the rough and tumble of their everyday life…
A Moscow Conservatory graduate, Svyatoslav Knushevitsky had for
two years been playing with the Bolshoi orchestra and was still largely
unknown to the broad public. After his triumph at the national competition,
however, they made a promo clip about him, stitched it up to a popular
movie and, before long, the young cellist was already the talk of the whole
country…
There were no age limits for the performers during the national
competition where seasoned musicians competed alongside young prodigies
like the 16 year-old Emil Gilels from Odessa who caused a sensation emerging
the unquestioned winner of the competition.
An eyewitness of Gilels' triumph later recalled that the moment
the young pianist stopped playing, everyone went to his feet, people exchanged
rapturous exclamations and even quarreled noisily if someone failed to
heap enough praise on the young genius who was bowing with the same ease
he displayed just moments before, extracting absolutely unbelievable sounds
from his instrument. Everyone gathered in the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
realized that there was a world-class musician being born right before
their eyes…"
On October 15, Dmitry Shostakovich was unveiling his First Piano
Concerto at the Big Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory. The solo part was
played by the author himself who had already proved his bona fides as a
brilliant pianist and a laureate of the Chopin International competition
in Warsaw, Poland. Conducting the orchestra in Leningrad was the Austrian
bandleader Fritz Schtidrie who had landed the job of the artistic director
of the Leningrad Philharmonic earlier in the year.
Shostakovich's new work brought the house down, but when the
prying journalists started asking him for a comment, the answer was a flat
no.
"I think it absolutely inappropriate," he said, "to
follow the example of those of my colleagues who try to publicly decipher
the content of their music. I have no means of describing this concert
other than those which I used in my music. Let those who have ears hear
what I want to say…"
Shostakovich played his First Piano Concerto several more times
throughout the year performing in Moscow and other cities. Just a few years
later, it was already one of the most widely played pieces of piano music
around…
In autumn the name Tikhon Khrennikov started appearing on theater
billboards in Moscow. The 20 year-old conservatory student, who simultaneously
studied at the piano and composition departments, presented his piano concerto
himself. Appreciating Khrennikov's unusual talent, his teachers allowed
him to take his first big composition right onto the stage of Conservatory's
venerable Big Hall.
"A lavish combination of melodies and brilliant colors spilled
out onto the stunned audience," went a rave newspaper account. "It
is young music written by a young composer living in a young country."
The First Piano Concerto was the start of a highly successful
career. Just a few years later, Khrennikov was appointed the head of the
Soviet Composer's Union - a job he held for a staggering 43 years!
On May 24th the Bolshoi Theater was saying good-bye to the great
Russian tenor Leonid Sobinov who had spent 36 long years singing on the
stage of this country's foremost opera venue. During the agonizing years
following the 1917 revolution, Sobinov directed the Bolshoi and knew the
place inside out. He was equally admired by old aristocrats and young workers
who appreciated the truly classical images he had forged over the years.
During that farewell night, Sobinov rolled out his big guns, singing parts
from Richard Wagner's Lohengrin and Lensky's aria from the Evgeny Onegin
opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Sobinov's voice sounded just fine and the audience
was wondering why he had decided to quit while being in such a good form.
Sobinov made light of all the questions saying that, unfortunately
his Lensky had long been dead and he just hated to keep sticking around
as his fat old grand daddy.
In 1933 they were holding a festival of Polish music in Russia
and the critics were especially carried away by Karol Szymanowski, most
notably, by his lyrical miniatures.
Almost simultaneously they were holding a festival of Soviet
music in the United States where people swarmed in to listen, among other
things, to symphonies by Dmitry Shostakovich who, unfortunately, was not
there to enjoy the widespread appreciation of his work…
In Leningrad they were holding a series of instructional concerts
of American and Soviet jazz. The concerts started off with American standards
followed by Russian numbers. The musicians, buoyed by the packed audiences,
belted out their most finger-twisting runs, their enthusiasm making up
for the ill-sounding instruments they played…
In 1933 Lydia Ruslanova emerged as the country's best-loved singer.
Beautiful and stately, she had all eyes glued on her the moment she stepped
out on stage. There was something mischievous in her wonderful voice which
made people smile and blissfully drift the waves of the never-dying Russian
folk song…
Lydia Ruslanova too had her share of popular adoration and official
persecution. She sang for the Soviet soldiers on the steps of the Reichstag
in Berlin only to join millions of other innocent victims of Stalin's deadly
Gulag Archipelago… Lydia Ruslanova will forever stay in our grateful memory
as the ultimate People's Artist of Russia ...
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.
