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1953
             
In 1953 Sergei Prokofyev was bristling with new ideas. In an interview with the Soviet Music magazine he said he was going to finish the "transparent" Concertino for cello and orchestra and also to write a Concerto for two pianos and orchestra. It was in January, and on March 5 he suddenly died of brain hemorrhage.
On that same night the very same disease killed the all-powerful Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The whole country was mourning the death of the bloody tyrant completely unaware of the loss of a genius. Only a handful of newspapers fine printed the sad news on the back pages.
In Moscow, tens of thousands of people thronged the city center to pay their last respects to the deceased Communist leader. Just a block or two away from the House of Unions where Stalin's flower-bedecked body lay in state, Prokofyev's friends gathered in his small apartment. Unable to find anything in the city's emptied flower shops, they adorned the great composer's coffin with conifer branches and indoor flowers. David Oistrakh took out his violin and played…
On March 10 Prokofyev's friends attended the funeral of the man whom they lovingly called "the sunniest composer of the 20th century." With Prokofyev's demise, the Russian and world music would never be the same again...
Stalin's death triggered an avalanche of compositions extolling the man who, for thirty years, ruled supreme over the giant country. He was God Almighty to too many people for too long a time, and only a few realized what Stalinism was really all about. Dmitry Shostakovich was one such man who had had his share of suffering at the hands of the terrible dictatorship which can destroy just about anyone, even the most larger-than-life talent, because talented people always find it hard to survive under a tyranny. Shostakovich still remembered all too well the times when illiterate big Kremlin shots were telling him, a genius, what exactly kind of music he should write. For several years, this outstanding symphonist just didn't dare to work in his favorite genre, he dissipated his talents writing incidental music. Now that Stalin was dead, he was finally back at real work writing a symphony, already his tenth…
"I wanted to paint a horrible portrait of the Stalin era - of the totalitarian machine that suppressed our thoughts and paralyzed our will, generated fear and immorality, killed millions of innocent people and took out the most talented, the most intelligent people of this country," Shostakovich told a friend many years afterwards. In 1953, however, he reserved any comment on his new symphony.
The premiere of the Tenth Symphony came on December 17 in the Big Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The conductor was Yevgeny Mravinsky whose interpretation still remains a standard of excellence everywhere in the world…
The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow still remains this country's number one stage venue. Illiterate party apparatchiks often take a split second to decide the fate of the nation's leading singers, dancers and conductors. Bolshoi's chief conductor could get up in the morning only to find out he had been dismissed. It was exactly what happened with Nikolai Golovanov who learned about his dismissal from a janitor. The great maestro whose productions still grace the Bolshoi repertoire, was simply not allowed into the building. The shock was too much for Golovanov. A few weeks later he died…
His job was awarded to Alexander Melik-Pashayev, a very talented musician who, nevertheless, in a couple of years of running the Bolshoi orchestra went the way of his predecessor… In 1953, however, the new maestro was bubbling with energy. He was a great connoisseur of European classics and before long he complemented the Bolshoi's repertoire with absolutely masterful renditions of Georges Bizet's Carmen and Giuseppe Verdi's Aide and Traviata operas.
Russian musicians continue sweeping top international awards. Moscow Conservatory graduates, pianist Yevgeny Malinin and violinist Nelly Shkolnikova shined the brightest at the Marguerite Long and Jacques Tibauld competition in Paris.
In 1953 French horn player Vitaly Buyanovsky and flutist Alexander Korneyev scooped the first prize at the Antonine Reich competition in Prague. On the strength of his successful performance, Buyanovsky signed up with the Leningrad Philharmonic orchestra where he worked for more than 30 years. Alexander Korenev combined his work with the Moscow Radio's Big Symphony Orchestra with solo concerts. Several years later he became the Moscow Philharmonic's first lead wind player.
In Moscow, the Satire Theater was presenting Marrige to a Dowry - a lyrical comedy which would never have raised any eyebrows had it not been for the wonderful music written by Boris Mokroussov. In the very same year of 1953 a screen version came out making Mokroussov's tunes popular all across the land. Some of the songs from that movie are still very much liked in Russia and the other former Soviet republics.
Also in 1953 there also came out a musical featuring the country's leading folk music performers with the Northern Russian Folk Choir belting out a slew of hilarious songs traditionally popular in Russia's European North.
The Native Songs musical was highlighted by the amazingly stirring performance by the Bolshoi's lead singer Maxim Mikhailov….
In 1953 was a debut year for the popular Russian composer Yuri Saulsky. Then a 22-year-old student of the Moscow Conservatory, he brought his first piece to be auditioned by Moscow Radio's Symphony and Light Music Orchestra Symphony. The premiere gave start to a long and very successful career…
After his graduation in 1954, Yuri Saulsky worked first conducting a variety orchestra and later moving on to work with a jazz band. He has since become a widely respected authority in his profession heading the juries of innumerable competitions and prestigious jazz music festivals with orchestras across the nations vying to play his music .
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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