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Moscow was celebrating its 850th birthday. Long before the celebration began, the whole city was already bristling with colorful posters and streamers and St.George was in every shop window hitting the terrible dragon with his spear. During the first weekend of September, the city turned into one big concert hall with folk bands, rock outfits, ballet dancers, jugglers and clowns trading off throughout the day performing on the city's many open air stands. Military bands were marching down the streets, wind orchestras playing in the parks, a laser show opening on the Vorobyovy Hills and a thousands-strong choir singing on the steps of the newly built Cathedral of Christ the Savior…
The main show was unfolding in Red Square, right under the Kremlin wall. Moving around large crowds of extras, the famous film-maker Andron Konchalovsky recreated scenes from the city's distant and not so distant past. Musicians of every hue were taking part in the larger-than-life show, but the sheer magnitude of the date laid most of the emphasis on classical music. The Russian Symphony Orchestra, conducted this time by Valery Gergiyev, spent the whole night on stage...
Guests from all around the world had flocked in to enjoy the celebration. The great Spanish operatic diva Montserrat Caballe was giving a fund raising concert in the Conservatory Big Hall to benefit disabled Russian children. Joined on stage by her daughter, Montserrat Marti, Caballe sings the World Prayer…
Pop music stars, including the Muscovites darling, French singer Patricia Caas, had gathered in the Kremlin Concert Hall for a performance that lasted for a record 4 hours!
The great cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich was marking his 70th birthday. Well, not exactly so, however, because the maestro had marked his jubilee in Paris two months before that, hailed by kings and presidents. The Moscow celebration was a lower key function, though, but Rostropovich was given the world's biggest artistic award aptly called Gloria which in Russian sounds as Slava, short for Mstislav… Which means that the bash held that night in the Conservatory Big Hall was really a big one… Happily, the number of verbal valedictories was kept to the minimum and musical greetings kept flowing in, some of them making the audience double up with laughter. At one moment there came out on stage several Rostropoviches. Those were in fact young cellists, all made up to look like the great maestro. The young men sat in a line and, lowering their heads and flashing Rostropovch's trademark bald spot, started playing a piece the great cellist wrote when he was about their age…
The Slava-Gloria award set forth a scholarship Mstislav Rostropovich had instituted for Russian conservatory and college students. The maestro named each scholarship after one of his teachers or fellow musicians - Prokofyev, Shostakovich, Oistrakh, Gilels and others. The first Rostropovich scholarships were awarded to 20 young musicians.
The Firebird concert company held The World's Golden Voices in Moscow festival sponsored by Philip Morris known for supporting major cultural events in Russia. The organizers were out to bring together world famous Russian singers now performing at the planet's most prestigious venues, including a one-man night offered by the famous Russian baritone Dmitry Khvorostovsky…
Hailing from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Dmitry Khvorostovsky owed his quick popularity to a string of successful performances at competitions and an award-winning debut in London. He is now one of the finest baritone singers in the world.
In September they held the second Rakhmaninoff competition bringing together pianists and vocalists from Japan, China, Korea and, of course, Russia. The Grand Prix was supposed to be awarded to the best pianist. During a news conference the jury chairman announces the winner's name - Karen Korniyenko. When they were closing the competition just an hour later, however, Karen was only handed the first prize. The jury later said the surprise decision had been prompted by Rakhmaninoff's grandson - Alexander Conuse. Brokenhearted as he was by that sudden change of wind, the winner still managed to collect himself offering an inspiringly stirring performance during the competition's closing concert…
August 1 was the last day in the life of one of the greatest pianists of all time, Svyatoslav Richter. Richter was equaled to his outstanding precursors Anton Rubinstein and Sergei Rakhmaninoff…
A powerhouse and a genius, always on the lookout for new talent, Richter organized a number of festivals in Europe and Russia, among them the famous December Nights art and music festival. He also sponsored a many young talents, including, among others, Oleg Kagan, Yuri Bashmet and Natalya Gutman.
During his ebbing years the aging and ailing Richter was much surprised to realize how poor he really was no matter how hard he had been working all his life. Small wander, since the Soviet authorities were taking away 90 percent of the performers' earnings leaving them high and dry without enough money to buy decent medicines. Richter's friends raised the money needed for an operation, but it was too late now…
The Tchaikovsky Big Symphony Orchestra offered very affordable season tickets to their concerts and low paid teachers, doctors and students could now come over and enjoy the masterful interpretations of classical music made by the orchestra's conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev and other famous conductors for just a fraction of the real cost…
The Moscow Chamber Choir was marking its 25th anniversary and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia bestowed upon choirmaster Vladimir Minin a top religious award for his masterful performance of Russian church music.
In Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga the 7 year-old prodigy, Galina Avdonina, receives a special scholarship for her outstanding compositional skills. The scholarship was named after the composer Mikael Tariverdiyev who was the first to appreciate Galina's larger-than-life talent…
 
THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY is prepared for you by Olga Fyodorova.


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