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1946
             
The year 1946…Only a few months had elapsed since the end of World War Two which took away 35 million Soviet lives… People were mourning their dead, the economy was in tatters but the war-scarred country was already thinking about the future…
In Gorky, on the Volga, choir enthusiast Valery Malyshev was going all round the local orphanages looking for endowed young singers for the choir school they were going to open there. The city authorities contributed a spacious building complete with classrooms, dormitories, a cafeteria and even a small concert hall. Their hearts warmed up by adult love and affection, the kids were working miracles and, before long, the boy choir became the pride of the whole city…
In Moscow, the Gnessin sisters arranged the opening of a school for musically-endowed children. They drew up a special 10 year program which was a perfect combination of music and conventional subjects, concerts and sports. The results exceeded all expectations with almost every graduation class offering a constellation of would-be celebrities…
In Leningrad, the Maly Theater was preparing the world premiere of Sergei Prokofyev's War and Peace opera based on an eponymous novel by Leo Tolstoy. Conductor Samuil Samosud and director Boris Pokrovsky wanted to present the larger-than-life musical epic in its entirety, but doing so would take a whole two nights running…
Samosud and Pokrovsky were working very closely with Prokofyev whom they asked to add several episodes including the famous waltz danced by Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky.
The first part premiered on July 12 and the second one was scheduled to come out later in the year. It never went past the dress rehearsal, though. Despite the tumultuous applause offered by those present at the rehearsal, the production was banned. It was the start of a well-orchestrated campaign of official criticism against Prokofyev and many other outstanding Russian composers…
Right after the war, the Iron Curtain that had separated the Soviet Union from the rest of the world, started slowly going up giving the Soviet performers a chance to play abroad. The Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonic, led by Yevgeny Mravinsky, was the first major Soviet outfit to cross the border. In February and March they played nine concerts in Finland attended by Cabinet members, public leaders and local musical celebrities.
The performances provoked bursts of enthusiasm in the Finnish press. The newspaper Uusi Suomi wrote that "such concerts are momentous musical events we have to wait for years to enjoy. A conductor and his musicians coming together in a single whole is certainly not something that happens every day. That's exactly the feeling you get when Mravinsky is conducting this wonderful Russian orchestra."
A few months later Yyevgeny Mravinsky was already conducting a Czechoslovak symphony orchestra in concerts played as part of the first Prague Spring music festival dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Prague Philharmonic Society. The local papers extolled Mravinsky as one of the most brilliant European conductors alive…
In late 1946, Mravinsky was awarded the very prestigious Stalin Prize. The other winner was pianist Emil Gilels who won this country's highest award for a series of concerts played in 1945 -1946.
In 1946 Emil Gilels spent most of his time on the road playing large and small venues across the nation and even entertaining workers right on the shop floor. He was also playing sold-out concerts in Europe often being the first Soviet artist to come over since the 1917 revolution.
"Gilels' playing is so emotionally charged and his interpretations are so vivid that they immediately invite comparisons with the world's greatest conductors," went one rave account. "Each phrase impresses the mind, every little detail stands out and the concepts are amazingly simple with the kind of simplicity found only in the greatest masters…"
In 1946 the much-coveted Stalin prize also went to the Bolshoi lead singer Vera Davydova for a series of seven chamber concerts spanning the history of the old Russian love song. Vera Davydova had selected for her cycle a collection of old folk songs and the finest classical tunes written by the great 19th and 20th century Russian composers. Many of these romances were written by Tchaikovsky who was one of Davydova's favorite composers.
The Soviet Army Ensemble that gave more than a thousand concerts during the war, kept up the good job performing in the Far East, Ukraine and Central Asia. In summer the uniformed musicians went on a highly successful tour of Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany. The triumph was soured by the untimely death in Berlin on July 8 of the band's founding conductor and artistic director Alexander Alexandrov...
A man of exceptional talent, Alexandrov came from a peasant family and worked his way up to one of this country's most authoritative musicians. A gifted composer, singer, teacher and choirmaster, he started out as a church precentor and ended his days as a Soviet Army General.
Composer Anatoly Novikov, whose songs were hugely popular during the war years, came up with a new song about Russia which immediately struck chord with millions of people across the nation…
In 1946 a young girl with an immediately recognizable voice made her debut accompanied on stage either by a single accordion or an orchestra of Russian folk instruments. Her name was Olga Voronets… She still performs winning the listeners' hearts with her heartfelt warmth and sincerity…
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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