THE PORTRAIT OF A MASTER
the 77-th birth anniversary of Andrei Eshpai
On May 15 the well-known Russian composer Andrei Eshpai turned 75.
Congratulating Andrei Eshpai on his 75-th birthday, President Vladimir
Putin noted that he had inherited and brilliantly developed wonderful traditions
of domestic music culture. This is true. Eshpai's teachers at the Moscow
Conservatory were the outstanding Russian composers Nikolai Moskovsky,
Aram Khachaturian and the renowned pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky.
Speaking about Eshpai Aram Khachutian once said: "Sincerity is
one of his main traits. His music has the elegance and finess revealing
an exquisite taste." Mstislav Rostropovich echoed: "He is a wonderful
person, a wonderful musician and in general a jolly good fellow".
There isn't a genre in which Andrei Eshpai hasn't tried his hand at.
He wrote concertos for violin, fleute, oboe, cello, saxophone and piano.
An excellent pianist, he often performed the piano parts himself.
Eshpai's ballet "The Angara" was put on at Moscow's Bolshoi
Theatre by the famous choreographer Yuri Grigorovich with Vladimir Vasiliev,
Bolshoi's leading ballet dancer and now its artistic director, dancing
the main part. "The Angara" is a poetic story about the life
of young workers building a giant electric power station on the river Angara
in Siberia. It's one the few ballets of artistic value devoted to modern
life.
The roots of Eshpai's musical career lie in his family. His Third Symphony
is dedicated to the memory of his father. It is based on folk tunes of
the Mari people inhabiting the Volga region. Eshpai's father Yakov was
one of the first Mari to become a professional composer and researcher
of folk music. Eshpai's mother was a Russian, a school teacher by profession.
She knew lots of songs and sang with a local choir. Both Russian and Mari
languages were spoken in the family, and both Russian and Mari songs were
sung. One of Eshpai's most heartfelt compositions is a symphonic poem entitled
"The Highland and Valley Songs of the Mari". Says Andrei Eshpai:
"Folklore is a perfection, a masterpiece in which each note has been
verified and each unnecessary word struck out in the course of historical
development. Does a perfection need polishing? Of course, not. On the other
hand, I know my native toung and my folklore. So why can't I speak my native
language in my own words?"
On May 9 Russia celebrated the 55-th anniversary of the victory over
Hitler fascism in World War II. Andrei Eshpai is a war veteran. He fought
his way from the Visla to Berlin serving first in an infantry battalion
and than in a reconnaissance platoon. He was just 20 when the war ended.
"Who wasn't there will never understand how it feels", Eshpai
used to say. It was during the war that he made up his mind to become a
composer. His well-known song "The Muscovites" is tribute to
youths who were the same age as himself when they went to war but who never
returned.
"For an artist to emerge three things are necessary", - says
Eshpai. "Talent, skills and tears. Living inside every composer is
a great composition that hasn't been written yet, but must be written"
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