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1965
             
In 1965 they opened in Moscow the world's first Children's Music Theater, the brainchild of the famous director Natalya Sats who had successfully been working with the kids since the 1920s when she arranged for a musical theater for children to be opened in Moscow.
During the 1930s Natalya Sats also tried her hand in opera production in Germany and Argentina. However, as is usually the case with bigger-than-average people in totalitarian countries, she was eventually labeled by Stalin's henchmen as "an enemy of the people" and had to spend years behind bars. But even there she kept thinking about establishing a system of esthetic, primarily musical, upbringing of children. Now, decades on, Natalya's longtime dream was finally coming true…
The joyous and colorful performances offered by the new theater were widely popular and, soon after, the company got a palatial venue on the Vorobyovy Hills in Moscow. The very moment the young spectators came in, they immersed themselves in the wondrous, fairy-tale-like, atmosphere of the new theater…
Not to be outdone, Leningrad inaugurated two music festivals all its own. One, the Leningrad Music Spring, gave prominence to young composers, mainly local ones. The festival is still very popular and has since gained an international status.
The White Nights festival is more diverse and more about classical music aimed at the many tourists descending on the city in June to admire the awesome beauty of the white nights.
Opening the first White Nights event, wholly devoted to the 20th century Russian classic, Sergei Prokofyev, was the Leningrad Philharmonic orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky.
A few months later, the orchestra headed for Austria for what critics in Vienna described as a series of triumphal performances.
As usual, on April 22, the birthday of Russia's first Communist leader, Vladimir Lenin, the nominees were announced for the country's most coveted Lenin Prize. Featuring in the list of prominent scientists, doctors and cultural celebrities was the 40 year-old violinist Leonid Kogan, the pride and glory of this country, the winner of the most high-profile international competitions and a welcome guest at the world's most prestigious concert venues.
"Leonid Kogan's interpretations carry the charm only the greatest masters can offer," eulogized the French…
"His mindboggling runs make one's heart beat like crazy…" the American critics echoed in…
"Leonid Kogan is a supernova of the musical universe…" enthused the equally-impressed Germans.
The State Symphony Orchestra was marking its 30th anniversary. Originally set up as a model outfit, it boasted the finest musicians getting the highest salaries and going to the most prestigious world tours others could only dream about. Shortly before the jubilee, the government replaced the chief conductor giving the job to the 36 year-old Yevgeny Svetlanov who had previously headed the Bolshoi orchestra. Svetlanov immediately asserted his preference for Russian music embarking on an ambitious project to record just about every popular Russian symphony and also many pieces which had long been gathering dust in the archives resulting in a whopping 600 hours of running time in all. The unparalleled and very arduous effort took Svetlanov more than 30 years to complete.
Another leading orchestra - the Moscow Philharmonic under the expert baton of Kirill Kondrashin, was touring the United States. In New York the Russians played twelve straight nights - an all-time record - jam-packing the venerable Carnegie Hall each time offering a different program.
At the Lincoln Center, meanwhile, they were staging Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades opera - the first Russian-language presentation of the timeless classic which had only been played there in German about fifty years before. The leading parts were performed by Bolshoi's singers with Liza's part sung by the young Russian soprano Tamara Milashkina.
"The voice of this Russian singer is simply irresistible," raved The Lincoln Star newspaper, "There is something seductively charming and dramatically high-strung in there…'
Just as the Russian musicians were conquering the West, performing celebrities from all over the world were returning the favor converging on Moscow, Leningrad and other major Russian cities with Violinists Genrik Schering and Isaak Stern, conductor Charles Munch, pianist Van Cliburn, the Julliard string quartet and the Cleveland symphony orchestra led by George Sall all coming in May alone. East-West cultural exchanges were expanding fast…
Young Russian musicians were going strong with the 19-year-old Oleg Kagan emerging victorious from the prestigious Jean Sibelius violin competition in Finland, his colleague Viktor Pikaizen winning the Paganini competition in Genoa, and pianist Alexei Lyubimov bowing out with the Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro winning kudos for Russia's school of piano playing…
In Russia, Bulat Okudzhava releases the first album of his songs. The poet and bard with a quiet and a little sad voice sings about eternal things like friendship, love, honor and dignity. Okudzhava's songs immediately catch on with the people, with students singing them in dorms and intellectuals humming them with friends during the long winter nights… These songs don't sit well with the party ideologues though, but Josef Stalin has long been dead now and so the Communist watchdogs simply have to live with Okudzhava's dissent-inspiring songs.
Bulat Okudzhava inspired several generations of Russians who flocked in to his concerts to listen in and sing along with the songs which have since gained truly national acceptance…
The young Russian jazzmen were increasingly coming out from behind, most notably the 25 year-old pianist Igor Bril. Fresh from Moscow's Gnessins Music College, where he played Mozart's Concerto during his graduation exams, he was now tickling the ivories with similar inspiration presenting his own jazz improvisations…
"Igor Bril is a pianist by the grace of God," a prominent critic wrote in 1965. "The poetry of piano playing and the beauty of the sounds he extracts from his instrument are two things he was born with…"
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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