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1955
             
Two years after Stalin's death, the overall atmosphere in the country had somewhat mellowed with the horror of purges subsiding, the Iron Curtain going up and, as a result, new stars rising over the country's musical horizon…
Composer Georgy Sviridov, still largely unknown to the broad public, wrote a vocal cycle to the lyrics by the outstanding 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns, translated by Samuil Marshak. Those little miniatures were so unlike the lyrical love songs which started emerging in Russia in the late 19th century, each offering a mischievous glimpse of 18th century Scottish life using new and simple means of musical expression. Those little masterpieces made Sviridov's name famous all around the world.The vocal cycle has since been used by many leading bass singers, including Yevgeny Nesterenko with his absolutely dazzling performance of "Findley".
A new generation of Russian pianists makes a very convincing debut with Moscow Conservatory graduates scoring wins at some of the world's most prestigious competitions. Vladimir Ashkenazi wins the Chopin competition in Warsaw and Dmitry Bashkirov bows out with the first prize at the Marguerite Long contest in Paris.
Both representatives of the romantic school of piano playing, Ashkenazi and Bashkirov were larger than life virtuosos, each in his own right.
"Vladimir Ashkenazi's playing is all about daydreaming and tenderness coming in the form of impeccably performed runs," eulogized one rave account.
"Dmitry Bashkirov is a modern-time romantic whose emotionally supercharged inspiration goes all the way, but his flaming heart is always kept in check by his cold-headed nature," went another.
The 26 year old organist Garri Grodberg was playing his first solo concert in the Conservatory Big Hall. Fresh from the Moscow Conservatory where he studied piano and organ, the young musician was quick to assert his preference for the King of All Instruments… In the fall of 1955 Garri Grodberg became the first solo organist in the entire history of the Moscow Philharmonic…
Garri Grodberg literally revolutionized the Russians' attitude towards organ with thousands of people packing houses all across the country to attend concerts of organ music which had never been really popular in Russia. Grodberg arranged for more than 20 organs to be built in various cities which he inaugurated himself. Over the years, he has spawned a whole constellation of excellent players but he still remains Russia's number one organist...
In Moscow, the Alexander Borodin string quartet was packing up for a tour of several East European countries. Starting off in the German Democratic Republic, which was celebrating the tenth anniversary of the fall of Nazism, the quartet then moved on to Czechoslovakia where they joined in the ongoing Prague Spring Music Festival.
Awed by the Russian quartet's performance, the prominent Czech composer Zdenek Nejedly wrote a glowing account:
"Their playing is absolutely mind-boggling! What a mastery and inspiration, what a profound understanding of music!!! There is absolutely nothing they cannot do and this is really mesmerizing! I'm happy to have lived to see someone playing the way they do."
In Moscow, meanwhile, the newly-formed Bolshoi String Ensemble founded and led by Yuli Reyentovich, created quite a stir with their formidable first performance during a concert devoted to the 38th anniversary of the October revolution. When all the seventeen violinists formed a wide semicircle and offered a stirring performance of a brilliant piece, the audience exploded with thunderous applause…
The Bolshoi String Ensemble became hugely popular playing concerts and partnering on stage with famous opera singers. There was thunderous applause each time the Ensemble came on stage…
The overall atmosphere prevailing at Moscow's Operetta Theater on November 15, 1955 was a mixture of joy and sorrow. The company was offering the premiere of Isaak Dunayevsky's timeless White Acacia operetta. The composer didn't live to see it staged though. The company just couldn't wait to see the score, when, on July 25, Dunayevsky suddenly died of severe heart failure…
Composer Kirill Molchanov, a good friend of Dunayevsky's, completed the work using the composer's drafts and now the vigorously optimistic operetta was finally seeing daylight…
45 years on, the White Acacia is a national classic still gracing the billboards of operetta theaters in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia. The best melodies have since become popular hits much loved here in Russia and in the other former Soviet republics…
In 1955 the Soviet film-makers turned out two lyrical comedies - "Maxim Perepelitsa" and "Private Ivan Brovkin", both about nice young men drafted into the army. Both films abound in music that has ensured them their longtime popularity.
One of the songs Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi wrote for "Maxim Perepelitsa" became hugely popular overnight and was immediately taken up by military bands all across the land…
And the lyrical song written by composer Anatoly Lepin and sung by Private Ivan Brovkin made the girls' hearts throb all around the country ...
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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