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1962
             
130 musicians from 31 countries were in Moscow participating in the Second Tchaikovsky Competition. Heading the jury of the contest, which had added cello to its traditional piano and violin specialties, were Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The second Tchaikovsky competition was as popular as the first one with the contestants playing to packed audiences and people lining up for hours in front of the Conservatory building hoping to get in.
In the pianists' section, John Ogdon, a Briton, and Vladimir Ashkenazi of Russia, led the pack from the very outset, Ogdon on the strength of his fiery and very imaginative playing and Azhkenazi winning the juror's hearts with his refined and very inspired elegance… In the end, the jury divided the first prize between the two formidable contenders…
Russians were hands down leaders in the strings section where the inimitable Boris Gutnikov was celebrating victory, already his third, after winning prestigious violin competitions in Prague and Paris…
For the young cellist Natalya Shakhovskaya, fresh from the Moscow Conservatory, it was the first serious success…
The jury's choice of the top winners proved absolutely right with the gold medallists eventually all shooting to international stardom…
Young Russian musicians were winning kudos abroad with singer Galina Kovaleva from Leningrad winning the gold medal in Toulouse, France, the 22 year old conductor Dmitry Kitayenko becoming a laureate of the Herbert von Karajan competition in West Berlin, and the Bolshoi Opera's Tamara Milashkina invited to sing at the world-famous La Scala Theater in Milan. Tamara's success was all the more impressive because she was now singing a traditionally Italian repertoire…
After spending nearly half a century abroad, Igor Stravinsky was finally back home enjoying a hero's welcome accorded him by the leading Russian composers and a chat in the Kremlin with the then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Stravinsky was pleasantly surprised to find here good orchestras, world-class singers and the admiring faces of his compatriots who flocked into the concert halls to see the performances given by the 20th century classic… Deeply touched by the warm welcome, Stravinsky was having the time of his life speaking his native language which he had very little chance to practice during the past few decades he had spent living in the United States.
"I always think in Russian and my very musical style is essentially Russian," he once admitted at a news briefing.
Stravinsky conducted most of the programs and, stunned by his overwhelming success here, promised to come over again and again. Unfortunately, the 80 year old maestro was too old to keep his promise…
On February 26, the Bolshoi Theater got an additional stage - the giant Palace of Congresses in the Kremlin. Holding up to 6,000 people, the hall was acoustically imperfect and microphones had to be set up to boost the sound quality. The singers, long accustomed to the excellent natural sound they enjoyed in the Bolshoi, had problems getting used to the new place. The artistic directors, however, were in seventh heaven savoring their newly-acquired ability to implement their wildest dreams on the new hall's enormous stage. Small wonder that the very first productions made there were so heavy on mass scenes. The Prince Igor opera by the 19th century Russian classic Alexander Borodin, started off a whole series of large-scale productions at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses…
On September 1, the Bolshoi Ballet crossed the Atlantic for a month-long and hugely successful tour of the United States with local critics lavishing praise on the company's rising star, Maya Plisetskaya whom they admiringly called The Queen of Ballet…
The Moscow Chamber Orchestra led by Rudolf Barshai made a very extensive world tour with performances made in Germany, Holland, France, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Britain and the United States - all in just over a month. "The orchestra is absolutely fantastic!" went a rave account in Vienna…
"These Russians boast a performing culture which is without a parallel in the world," echoed a newspaper review in Prague…
"The Russian musicians have a lot to learn from," enthused critics in Germany.
The musical exchanges were in full swing with the world's leading orchestras, among them the formidable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra led by Herbert von Karajan, performing in Moscow, Leningrad and other major Russian cities.
From the United States, Robert Shaw brought in his choir and chamber orchestra offering absolutely admirable renditions of the High Mass and St.John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach…
The Russian jazz buffs finally enjoyed a much-awaited opportunity to see in flesh and blood the legendary American clarinetist Benny Goodman who had come along with his orchestra. Tickets were impossible to come by and, as a result, the Americans wound up playing to a full house of Communist party apparatchiks while real connoisseurs were crowding outside, unable to get in… Realizing the unfairness of what was going on, Benny Goodman gave an additional concert in a youth cafe which was then home to the Moscow Jazz Club.
In the summer, composer Alexandra Pakhmutova, poet Nikolai Dobronravov, singer Iosif Kobzon and several other young musicians crossed the whole country to entertain the builders of new giant hydroelectric power stations in Siberia. Deeply impressed by what they saw there, Pakhmutova and Dobronravov teamed up to write many new songs…
The songs Pakhmutova and Dobronravov wrote about Siberia and its people were hugely popular in this country during the Sixties and Seventies .
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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