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1970
             
With unprecedented pomp and circumstance, the whole country is celebrating the centennial birthday of its first Communist leader, Vladimir Lenin. Cities and villages across the land are decked out with portraits of a smiling Lenin, bronze and gypsum busts of unheard-of-before proportions and gigantic monuments with the great chief's all-too-familiar, half-raised, arm pointing in the right direction. Every achievement, from milk yields to musical victories are dedicated to Lenin's centennial anniversary…
Naturally enough, the Russian musicians were literally obligated to win every single international competition that came their way that year, above all Moscow's very own Tchaikovsky competition that was held in June bringing together more than 200 young performers from 32 countries. Russia fielded a formidable lineup of seasoned contestants with a history of victories already won at other prestigious international competitions. They all lived up to expectations pinned on them sweeping gold medals in every category.
Ruling supreme in the piano department was Vladimir Krainev, a proud winner of the Vian da Mota competition in Lisbon. Highly driven and brilliant, he impressed the jury and the audience with his extensive sound palette.
Moscow conservatory student Gidon Kremer was creating a big stir in the violin contest. The winner of the previous year's Paganini competition in Genoa, Kremer boasted almost mystical virtuosity which invited immediate parallels with the great Paganini himself.
Leading the pack in the cello department is Mstislav Rostropovich's favorite David Geringas whose mastery is well worth the respect of one the greatest cellists alive…
The singers' section is so star-studded that they have to divide the first prize among the Bolshoi Theater's Tamara Sinyavskaya whose amazingly beautiful contralto won her the Grand Prix of the previous year's competition in Varvier, Belgium and the Bolshoi's operatic diva Yelena Obraztsova who, only a few months later, followed up her success winning the top award of the Francisco Vinas competition in Barcelona…
Another gold medal goes to the Leningrad-based bass Yevgeny Nesterenko, the winner of a national Lenin Anniversary competition in Moscow….
The Russian theaters unveil a series of revolution-themed new productions dedicated to Vladimir Lenin's centennial birthday. Not to be outdone, the Bolshoi Theater, a role model for all, takes up the Simeon Kotko opera by Sergei Prokofyev set in the years immediately following the 1917 October revolution. Prokofyev's music is too good, however, to make for yet another politically-correct boy-meets-a-machinegun bore. The result is an opera about love even the bloodiest of revolutions can't break. Life with its joys and sorrows proves stronger that the ever-raging struggle for power.
The opera premiered in the spring and in the fall the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet started a three-month tour of the United States.
The coveted Lenin Prize goes to the producers of Aram Khachaturian's opera Spartacus: choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Bolshoi ballet dancers Yekaterina Maksimova, Vladimir Vasilyev and Maris Liyepa.
Another proud recipient of the Lenin Prize is Lyudmila Zykina, the first Russian folk singer to win this high award. Her tender and a bit melancholic voice is coming from just about every radio, record player and tape-recorder in the country…
The State Prize - the country's second most prestigious award - goes to composer Boris Tchaikovsky. Just like his great 19th century namesake, Boris Tchaikovsky specializes in symphony and chamber music. His writing manner is typically Russian, with wide strokes of slow-moving melodicism and inner sadness coming through the tragic expressiveness of the larger music forms…
In the summer, the International Society for Music Education of Children holds a conference in Moscow where the composer Dmitry Kabalevsky briefs the world's leading music educators and cultural celebrities on the system of high school music education in Russia. The foreign guests take a great deal of interest in the young Russian musicians studying at specialized schools for musically-endowed children.
Shortly after the conference, a new children's choir is set up under the State Radio Committee, led by seasoned choirmaster Viktor Popov. He adds a whole new esthetics to the traditional Russian art form. The young singers are contagiously joyful, even mischievous belting out a repertoire of funny children's songs.
Before long, the Big Children's Choir turns into a virtual sound factory consisting of a multitude of smaller choirs - from pre-teens to graduation-age students , each one a natural in his own right…
The Bremen Musicians becomes the best-loved animated cartoon of the year. Composer Gennady Gladkov breathed new vigor into the Grimm Brothers' classical fairy tale with popular actor and singer Oleg Anofriyev brilliantly performing all the parts. The songs immediately catch on with the public .
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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