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1952
             
Unfazed by recurrent bouts of hypertension, Sergei Prokofyev kept working hard putting the finishing touches to his Symphonic Concerto for cello and orchestra. This composition would have never been written had it not been for Mstislav Rostropovich and his bubbling energy. He kept unveiling to the composer the vast potentialities of his instrument, prompted new techniques, playing and correcting the newly-written parts. Small wonder that Rostropovich was to become the first performer of Prokofyev's new piece. But who was to do the conducting? Previously Prokofyev always conducted his own music, but now his doctors said he'd better forget about it. The ever-imaginative Rostropovich suggested using for this purpose his good friend and a devout Prokofyev fan, pianist Svyatoslav Richter. Prokofyev loved the idea and so, on February 18, Richter made his first and last attempt at conductorship…
The moment I walked out on stage, I felt my blood freezing in my veins. The grand piano was missing…" Richter later recalled. "I stumbled over the conductor's lectern. Everyone gasped. All of a sudden, the fear was gone. I thought "how funny, really!", then everybody calmed down and we started off… Rostropovich and I had agreed that no matter what happened, he would smile and otherwise encourage me during the rests. Much to my surprise, however, the orchestra started off just fine and the rest was like a dream come true...
After the concert we were exhausted. We just couldn't believe we did it and were so dazed that we even forgot to call Prokofyev out on stage. He bowed right from his seat. We were in seventh heaven and then, in the dressing room, Rostropovich and I were jumping with joy!"
"I don't like to be in a state, I like to be on the move," Sergei Prokofyev often said and his every composition reflected that dynamism and the constant search for the new. Prokofyev is never the same, his music is always different, always a surprise...
Shortly after the Symphonic Concerto, he completed his Seventh Symphony, probably one of the most elevated and inspiring things he wrote during the last few years of his life. Prokofyev, who had stirred so many a scandal with his overly sophisticated composing, suddenly proved his ability to write simple, very simple music…
On October 11, the Seventh Symphony premiered in the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatory by the State Radio Orchestra led by Samuil Samosud. The performance really brought the house down!
Composer Dmitry Shostakovich who attended the premiere, sent Prokofyev an enthusiastic letter wishing him a long life and many more equally wonderful compositions. These wishes never came true though and the Seventh Symphony became the very last piece written by the great composer…
Meanwhile, the famous composer Dmitry Kabalevsky was busy writing his Third Piano Concerto. He was writing it for the young, and built it around one of his songs that was very much liked by Soviet children. Young pianists quickly logged on to the new concerto playing it at all kinds of official gatherings highlighting the Soviet gains in the cultural upbringing of the young generation…
The third Piano Concerto was the beginning of Kabalevsky's lifetime interest in the musical education of children. The composer spent the rest of his life working out the methodology of musical education in secondary schools, lecturing and otherwise popularizing music in his books.
The year 1952 marked a hundred years since the death of the great Russian writer Nikolai Gogol whose works inspired some of this country's foremost composers.
Gogol's imagery-flavored style is inherently musical and with a good reason too because music was a major influence and a guiding light for the great author.
"Music immediately gets you off the ground and immerses into a world all its own," Gogol wrote about his favorite art form. "It strikes on your nerves, as if on piano keys, sending shivers down your whole body. Eager to save our poor soul, we are holding out for music. Pray, save us and keep us alive! Wake up our souls and our sleeping feelings. Tear apart and chase away this cold egoism out to conquer the world!"
On March 3, right on the eve of the great writer's death a century ago, they were holding a gala concert at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow featuring a variety of Gogol-inspired music, including fragments of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night opera…
Meanwhile, Igor Oistrakh, the 20 year old son and disciple of his famed father, David Oistrakh, won the Genrik Wenjawski International Violin Competition in Poland. 17 years before that, Oistrakh Sr. was also among the winners of that very prestigious contest…
Igor Oistrakh's success at the 1952 competition gave him a chance to perform at the world's best venues. He had already emerged from under his father's shadow and was now a celebrity in his own right, enjoying the respect of his colleagues and the love and admiration of his listeners.
In 1952 the Bolshoi Opera was recruiting new singers. The winners of the first-round auditions held across the nation then gathered in Moscow. One of those who endeared herself most to the nitpicking jurors was the young soprano from Leningrad, Galina Vishnevskaya, who offered an absolutely brilliant rendition of Aida's part from Giuseppe Verdi's opera of the same name.
The jury members were very much surprised to find out that Vishnevskaya was actually an operetta singer, had never sung in opera before and, to top it all off, had no serious musical training either. The management of the country's oldest opera theater still gave the aspiring greenhorn a chance and eventually got a world class superstar…
Aida's part has since been a hands down favorite in Galina Vishnevskaya's extensive repertoire and has, over the years, awed thousands of admiring listeners all around the world…
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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