LYUDMILA ULITSKAYA
WINS BOOKER-2001
By V. Zherdeva
Writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya won Booker-2001, the most prestigious Russian
literary awards established in 1991. Her novel "Kukotsky's Case"
outstripped other nominees, among them Tatiana Tolstaya, Alexei Chudakov,
Alan Cherchesov and Anatoly Nayman.
She
rose to fame in the early 90s after publishing her story "Sonechka"
that brought her the Medici literary prize (France), followed by her novel
"Medea And Her Children". Both of them appeared on Booker's short
list of nominees in the 90s.
Ulitskaya took her triumph calmly. "The book came out last year",
she said. "And it took me 10 years to complete. In a sense "Kukotsky's
Case" is my past. Had I got a Booker in 1993, at the start of my writer's
career, I would've been awfully happy. Now - it's a pleasant event, but
it doesn't change anything in my life".
"Kukotsky's Case" shows us the life of a well-known doctor,
his family relationships, professional and personal dramas. It contains
the author's reminiscences about her childhood and youth. "A writer
uses his own experience", Ulitskaya said. "Some themes attract
and excite him. I spent a part of my life being a biologist, studying genetics
and scrutinizing various scientific problems. Today they are even more
topical than 30 years ago. "Kukotsky's Case" is a reminiscence
about my past".
Ulitskaya doesn't seek official recognition and doesn't enter any writers'
association or group, preferring her own independent position. "I
am not a racer running along my life-track, hoping to get a prize at the
end of the distance", she explained. "I don't place myself among
winners or losers. I am an observer."
Ulitskaya's books are distinguished by profound psychological depth.
She agrees with critics in that she represents the so-called "women's"
literature, saying that it's only natural to divide literature that way.
"I would find it hard to write a "men's" novel, because
I am a woman. The same with men - they have a different view of the world,"
Ulitskaya says. "The notion "women's literature" stems from
biological reality. I say it as a former geneticist".
WE ARE FROM ARKHANGELSK
(the Northern Russian Choir is 75)
By L. Roschina
In December one of Russia's oldest choirs - the Northern Russian Choir,
which this season celebrates its 75th birthday - presented a jubilee program
at Moscow's Tchaikovsky concert hall.
The
choir was founded in Arkhangelsk, northern Russia, in 1931 by the well-known
folk song collector Antonina Kolotilova. With time a small folk group of
rich-voiced peasant girls turned into a professional choir with its own
folk orchestra and dancing troupe. After Kolotilova's death in 1960 the
prominent folk music expert and professor Nina Meshko stepped in to direct
the choir.
"I was absolutely charmed by the north", Meshko said. "It's
consonant with my heart. Austerity, unobtrusiveness, no showing-off - everything
is top-class here. The same goes for music - stringency, loftiness, purity
and amazing dignity. When compared with classical music, it's closest to
Bach in its epic scale and profundity".
The
northern style of signing has its peculiarities. "Our manner of signing
is very old. It developed in the 11th-12th centuries in the Great Novgorod
principality and has preserved its softness and tender lyricism so typical
of northern art".
Throughout the past decades the choir's concert programs shaped into
fascinating shows. The current one is no
exception. It features songs sung Russian women used to sing during
traditional ceremonies of bidding farewell to young recruits who were leaving
their villages to serve in the army.
Critics note the choir's silvery and exquisite sound and the original
composition of its orchestra that boasts unique folk instruments such as
all sorts of pipes, whistles, wooden spoons and rattles of all sizes. All
these instruments are brilliantly used in the choir's jubilee program.
"I would like our songs to promote understanding between various
peoples and nationalities", Nina Meshko said. "When we go abroad,
we always include other peoples' songs into our repertoire, and we feel
that they bring our listeners closer together. Unity is what we all need
most today".
TO GIVE PEOPLE BEAUTY …WITH FOUR
HANDS
(30th anniversary of the piano duet of Elena Sorokina
and Alexander Bahchiev)
N.Jahontova
Four-handed playing the piano is a Russian old-time favorite form of
chamber music. In the 20th century such music groups still existed. Moreover
they became more effective because the pianists performing in duets were
sitting already at two pianos and the plays they performed were composed
specially for a grand concert stage. The pianists Elena Sorokina and Alexander
Bahchiev have revived a pleasant homely atmosphere of such music performances.
Only the form of this duet's playing could be called a "homely"
one. They both are the excellent virtuosos. Alexander Bahchiev is a laureate
of an international competition, professor of the Moscow conservatoire
and a former student of the famous Leo Oborin. Elena Sorokina is a subtle
musician as well as an excellent musicologist. Her commentary give the
duet's concerts a confidential atmosphere.
"There are a lot of forgotten pages, but there are dozens of them
in music", - Elena Sorokina says addressing the audience. - The music
plays are the most helpless aborning. They are not stones, pictures or
books that anyone can read. And that moment can be called a play's birth?
The famous composer Sofia Gubaidulina is quoted as saying "the music
play is regarded to be born only when it's burnt by a concert performance".
The duet of Sorokina and Bahchiev have revived numerous classic plays for
four hands sometimes making wonderful discoveries. For instance, one of
their recent concerts entitled "The Forgotten Pages of Music History"
was devoted to the music of the end of 18 and beginning of the 19 centuries
composed in Russia. Ludwig-Wilgelm Ferguson, the teacher of music and choral
singing as well as the professor of Lyceum in the Tzarskoje Sell near St.-Petersburg
was one of such composers. At that time the would-be great Russian poet
Alexander Pushkin and some other outstanding people were studying at the
Lyceum. Though Ferguson was teaching not only the Lyceum's students but
also, for example, Great Princess Anna Fjodorovna.
Sorokina and Bahchiev have the richest library of the music literature
for four hands and numerous books on arts at home. "We have been having
the enlightening activity since we were babies", - Elena Sorokina
jokes. - Studying at high-school I was performing with concerts commenting
them or reading lectures. In his youth Alexander was one of the first musicians
who was touring in the country with the so called "talks at the piano".
The audiences are wonderful in Moscow and some other Russian cities as
well as abroad, in the US, Canada, Germany".
It is a wonderful fact that Elena Sorokina and Alexander Bahchiev have
met in the Central music school once, then were studying together in the
Moscow Conservatoire where they are teaching at the moment. Noteworthy
Elena Sorokina is not only the professor of music but she is the head of
the history of Russian music's department, the Master of Arts, the member
of the Union of composers of Russia as well as the president of the All-Russian
Association of the piano duets sharing this post with Alexander Bahchiev.
With his assistance she has created a unique monograph on the history of
the piano duet's genre.
Elena Sorokina and Alexander Bahchiev are the great connoisseurs of
the genre of four- handed piano playing. They are on friendly terms with
some modern composers. An English author of wonderful blues compositions
Timothy Moore sends his works to the Russian duet. Many works are devoted
to them as, for instance, the Concert written recently by their close friend
the Moscow composer Efrem Podgaitz.
It is a great pleasure to get acquainted with this duet at a concert
as well as in life. While talking to them one can feel erudition, generosity
and a high spirituality of these musicians who give people the beauty…..
with four hands .
12.18.2001
BACK TO
MAIN PAGE
