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1966
             
…200 young musicians from 36 countries all around the world were in Moscow taking part in the Third Tchaikovsky International competition. The 16 year-old Moscow pianist Grigory Sokolov caused a big sensation winning the gold medal. Grigory was more than just a well-trained whiz kid, he was an amazingly profound intellectual whose subsequent triumphs at the world's most prestigious venues proved the jury made the right decision giving him the gold award.
Moscow Conservatory graduate Viktor Tretyakov led the pack in the violin department. The 20 year old Siberian had only recently come to Moscow where the famed Professor Yuri Yankelevich did much to make him the star he now was…
It was the first time singers were also taking part in the Tchaikovsky competition, and the gold medals went to Jane Marsh of the United States and Russia's very own Vladimir Atlantov who eventually earned the title of one of the world's "golden tenors".
In the fall they were holding Russia's second national competition of conductors. The winners of the previous one, held 20 years earlier, were now famous all and one of them, Kirill Kondrashin, was presiding over the jury of that year's event.
From day one, the pack was led by Leningrad Conservatory postgraduate Yuri Temirkanov. A native of the Caucasus mountains, Yuri had moved to Leningrad as a 12-year-old boy. Starting out on the viola, he then tried his hand in conducting. Temirkanov's formidable performance at the national competition was the beginning of his quick ascension to international stardom…
A few years later Yuri Temirkanov was already one of the most popular conductors around leading the best symphony and operatic orchestras.
On September 22 there was an unusual commotion happening in front of the Conservatory Big Hall in Moscow. People were desperately asking for extra tickets and their lucky owners were forced to brave several police cordons to get through. People resplendent in full church attire could be seen walking slowly in, much to the surprise of the passers-by weaned on no-nonsense Bolshevik atheism.
People had every reason to be exited that evening because, after nearly half a century-long oblivion, the Russian church music, once considered the cornerstone of this country's musical heritage, was finally making a comeback, largely thanks to the outstanding choirmaster Alexander Yurlov.
It took someone with Yurlov's stature to make the long-purged church music happening again. The great conductor had spent much time and effort convincing party and ministry bureaucrats that without church music Russian culture would never be whole again.
In Leningrad, the Kirov Opera company had come up with a second production of Rimsky-Korsakov's charming The Tsar's Bride with Ivan the Terrible's young bride, Marfa, sung by Galina Kovalyova, fresh from a conservatory in her native city of Saratov, on the Volga. The proud owner of an amazingly beautiful voice, Galina was now making her debut at one of Russia's foremost theaters.
Galina Kovalyova followed up her very credible first performance in The Tsar's Bride, with equally eye-opening performances in Leningrad and elsewhere in Europe…
Meanwhile, guitarist Alexei Kuznetsov was fast rising over the Russian jazz music horizon. Small wonder too, since he seemed to have amply inherited his talent and his love for the instrument from his father - the formidable Alexei Kuznetsov, one of the pioneers of jazz guitar playing in Russia.
Elegant and tasteful, Alexei Kuznetsov Jr. quickly endeared himself to the jazz buffs and soon after he was already a household name at the numerous jazz festivals…
Meanwhile, composer Yuri Saulsky was busy setting up an all-star big band boasting the country's best young and already seasoned musicians, all eager to change the world…
"It was a very romantic strap in our life," Yuri Saulsky recalls. The musicians thought the new band's format was just the ticket only to realize that the singers were really not as good as the instrumentalists and that the lineup was too big making guest tours a logistical nightmare. Four years later the band, called VIO-66, fell apart leaving very good memories in its wake…
The impact made by the Fab Four had not been lost on Russia which now literally teemed with Beatles-lookalikes rocking hard at every school and in every courtyard across the nation. The authorities were working flat out trying unsuccessfully to fend off what they called "alien influence". Finally unable to turn the clock back, the powers that be grudgingly allowed this country's first professional pop band, The Singing Hearts, to perform officially…
The floodgates of pent-up youthful energy literally broke loose and hundreds of Singing Hearts copycats stormed onto the country's bandstands with only the most exacting connoisseurs able to differentiate between the real McCoy and its numerous lookalikes…
While all these four- and five-man bands were twisting the night away, a new big name started coming out of the woodwork, a composer destined to become a leading pop music authority for decades to come. David Tukhmanov's very first attempt at songwriting, was immediately taken up by several leading singers and became an overnight hit.
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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