People and events:

• INTERVIEW WITH CONDUCTOR FUAT MANSUROV
• RUSSIAN NOBILITY TODAY
• KUSKOVO 

INTERVIEW WITH CONDUCTOR FUAT MANSUROV

L.Roshina
The renowned Russian conductor Fuat Mansurov worked 37 years in Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and had many operatic and ballet premiers. He had a total of 40 performances in his wide-ranging repertoire as a conductor, including classics of the 20th century - Sergei Prokofiev's "Semyon Kotko", Rodion Shedrin's "Dead Souls", Aram Khachaturian's "Spartak", Valeri Gavrilin's "Anuta" and Boris Asafiev's "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", as well as 19-century foreign masterpieces, like Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", Gounod's "Faust", Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride".
Fuat Mansurov who is now above 70, is a man of curious destiny and wonderful personal attractiveness. He is high, stately, with gray hair offhandedly shoved back. Maestro Mansurov can get into contact with any audience without embarrassment, demonstrating his extensive knowledge and brilliant intellect.
Fuat Mansurov says he speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Tatarian, Kirghiz and Russian languages. His native language is Kazakh, he studied in a Kazakh school and later graduated from Kazakh University in Alma-Ata. He has been studying foreign languages all his lifetime, trying to read at least a page on each, otherwise he feels "empty".
Mr. Mansurov still continues to train his memory as he used to train his muscles - he has master degrees in alpinism and skating sports. He participated in rescue expeditions heading for tops of Tien Shan and Pamirs and hardening his character. For many years Fuat Mansurov played chess and kept in mind all his games. He believes his sportive toughness taught him how to be staunch and concentrate in difficult life and creative situations. Being a young man he studied painting. Ever since he has accurately defined considerable art things as a man who visited many countries and knows rules of fine arts.
One of his passions is love of literature and, first and the foremost, Russia's prominent Russian classic poet Alexander Pushkin whose poems Mansurov declaims by heart.
Having fundamental capabilities, Fuat Mansurov mastered not only music, but also mathematics. He studied in Kazakh conservatoire and the physical and math department of Alma-Ata University, where afterwards he taught during several years. At the age of 21 Mansurov became the conductor of the Kazakh folk instruments orchestra and then the leading conductor of the Kazakh Opera and Ballet Theatre. Being a well-known musician at home, he entered Moscow Conservatoire where continued to advance his mastery in the class of symphonic conducting headed by Professor Leo Ginzburg. Undoubtedly, the musical life of Moscow in early 60-s largely impacted his artistic growing up. He heard the world's best orchestras, including those conducted by Gerbert Von Karaian, Leonard Berstein, Lorin Maase and other "stars" who toured Moscow at the time. A meeting with Paris Conservatoire's Professor Igor Markevich who held a six-month conducting seminar in Russia left a particular imprint on his career. At the time Fuat Mansurov made a final choice between math and music by preferring the latter. He recollects how he met with Professor Markevich who immediately perplexed him by a question - "Do you really want to be a conductor?" Fuat Mansurov responded: "Of course". And the Professor told him: "I beseech you - learn your work by heart!" This became Fuat Mansuriov's rule. He studies operatic and symphonic scores by heart. All these huge volumes full of notes! What separates a professional conductor from an amateur is a capability to repeat precisely an original version. All composers demand this. If one has a capability to look "under veil" of notes, he or she is a grand master, Conductor Mansurov believes.
Mr. Mansurov is a welcome guest at any Russia's opera house or symphonic orchestra. He is also often invited to tour foreign countries. He has no language bar, let it be Finland, Yugoslavia, Argentina or Slovenia. Anywhere his rehearsals are held easily and in homely atmosphere. Besides the Bolshoi Theatre he is the main conductor of the symphonic orchestra in the Tatar capital, Kazan, and permanently performs in the opera theatre in the city. He features concerts in Russia's biggest cities, including Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Saratov and Ufa. Several years ago he was invited to stage a series of operatic performances in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. The project ran away with Mr. Mansurov to such an extent that he became not only the operas' conductor and producer, but also as a brilliant director and scene and costume designer.
Fuat Mansurov views conductor as a key figure in music. All impulses in music pass through him to link the audience with orchestra or visa versa. He says conductors must be highly expressive and descriptive in music. To this end, a conductor has a wide range of movements, mimics and plastics - all these must be attuned to the music performed at the moment. Furthermore, the profession of conductor, Mr. Mansurov says, demands the highest level of inner discipline.
Photo: from site MTCC

RUSSIAN NOBILITY TODAY

By N.Yakhontova
The 5th International conference of the nobility, an event that would have been unthinkable fifteen years ago, was held recently in the village of Golitsyno outside Moscow, a family estate of the Golitsyn noble dynasty. The first report on the conference's opening day was made by Prince Andrei Golitsyn, a Moscow artist and descendant of the famous family, who talked about nobility and the present day. Other reports focused on Russia's development, prospects for further ties with compatriots and their importance in the world of today, continuity, Russian emigration and the modern Russian culture.
Of the million two hundred thousand nobles who lived in Russia before the October Revolution a major part left the country and many of those who stayed were subjected to reprisals. A class that was widely believed to be the carrier of Russian spirituality and culture ceased to exist. But in 1990, at the crest of democratic changes in society, there appeared a Union of descendants of Russian noblemen, commonly known as the Noble Assembly. Today the Assembly has about 10 thousand members, who represent Russia, other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and foreign countries. It has affiliates in different cities across Russia and abroad and for several years now the post of marshal of the nobility, which existed in the old days, has been held by Andrei Golitsyn.
Membership in the Union was given to those who proved their noble origin. And the Union has a heraldic service to help membership hopefuls restore their family trees. From the very beginning the Union set up a Department for ties with compatriots abroad. The head of the Department is Oxana Konstantinova, who herself comes of a noble family.
"The mission of Russian emigration is special, - Oxana Konstantinova says. - Even though they left Russia, the Russian nobles and their descendants have managed to preserve their language, culture and religion and stay Russian in their hearts. This was a human feat, a feat of morality and spirituality. Many of Russians living abroad are attracted to their historical Motherland and would like to have a double citizenship. I'm sure we'll find a solution to the problem".
The 5th International conference was attended by representatives of Russian diasporas in the United States, France, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria, Switzerland. Professor Nikolai Rzhevsky of New York University, a connoisseur of Russian literature and descendant of an old aristocratic family, said the following:
The United States has no strong organization to protect and support Russian Americans, even though there is the so-called "Congress of Russian Americans". Russian emigre societies should establish special relations with Russian authorities, because we, Russians, living abroad, can do a lot to boost the image of Russia. At the moment we rely on personal contacts mainly. Naturally, I welcome back the nobility, the Noble Assembly. Politically, the mission of the nobility became meaningless in the 19th century, but the historical and cultural aspects of it are very significant and should have a continuation. Moreover, for me, dissemination of culture inherited from generations of nobles constitutes the future of Russia.
Curiously enough, the formation of the Union of descendants of the Russian nobility caused other classes of old Russia to revive too. Among guests to the conference were representatives of the merchants and Cossacks, as well as government officials.
"I'm happy I've been invited. I appreciate the work of the Noble Assembly and I think that it can do a lot of good, - said Nikolai Tsvetnov, Professor of Medicine from Norway. - But the Assembly's functions have to be revised to the effect that it should exercise more influence on the young. The value of the Noble Assembly in the eyes of ordinary people has to be increased".
"Value", however, does not imply "privileges". Present-day nobility wants no privileges. It wants to stand at the head of patriotic movement in Russia and surround itself with a healthy part of society, people of dignity and honor, who think of their Motherland first.
 

KUSKOVO

The palace, estate and other museums of the suburbs of Moscow have closed their June-through-August festival of music.
This year's festival is the 13th of its kind. It was devoted to the memory of Count Boris Sheremetev who was a comrade-in-arms of Peter the Great's and whose name rings a bell in numerous episodes of the military history of Russia. Boris Sheremetev was of an old and noble lineage and one of the places he inherited from his father was called Kuskovo. Thanks to efforts by several generations of the Sheremetevs, that place turned, in the 18th century, into a luxurious suburban residence, one of the best in Russia. Both Moskovites and people from other parts of Russia and foreign lands are very fond of this very special estate museum, and it is in the majestic Dancing Hall of its palace that the most interesting events of this year's festival of music were held.
"Kuskovo" embraces several masterpieces of late Baroque and classical style in architecture. What has been lovingly restored to its initial condition is this: a spacious palace, the Italian, Swiss and Dutch chalets, a church, a stonewall greenhouse, a fairytale grotto, a cozy "hermitage," lots of garden pavilions and sculptures, and a "poultry yard" where rare birds were once kept. A French-style park has been partially restored: there used to be a complicated system of small ponds and a carefully planned maze there and water used to run in cascades from one pond to another, and the building of an outdoor theater used to stand on top of a high hill. The Kuskovo theater company was, by the way, considered to be the best of the serf companies of late 18th century Russia. Some of you may have heard of highly gifted serf actress Praskoviye Zhemchugova. Count Nikolai Sheremetev fell in love with that girl and made her his wedded wife and Countess Sheremetev but their love story has no happy end: the Russian Cinderella died at an early age.
Musical festivals of our days are but an echo of the impressive celebrations that were held at Kuskovo for multitudes of highly positioned guests. The Sheremetevs used to invite as many as 30,000 people to their garden parties, and even Empress Catherine the Great honored these with her presence. Count Nikolai was the most ingenious brain behind the celebrations. And, he was as keen as anyone on technological innovations. Machinery for conveying dinner to the upper floor of Kuskovo's Hermitage pavilion, where confidential meetings took place, was the first of its kind in Russia. Kuskovo celebrations combined music and stage action. They featured operas, ballets, folk shows and choral arrangements. A serf orchestra played music by contemporary Russian and foreign composers. Count Nikolai took part in those concerts: he was a brilliant cello player.
No garden party would have been complete without such entertainments as merry-go-rounds, boat rides and, naturally, nighttime fireworks. On special occasions "naval parades" were held at Kuskovo. And, the most remarkable thing is that the Sheremetevs thought in terms of education as well as entertainment. Their serf musicians, stage actors, painters and architects were not self-taught people. The Sheremetevs saw to it that talented serfs get proper schooling. Moreover: highly learned men-of-the-world who visited them would invariably find something they had never seen at Kuskovo: now a painting by an Italian master in the Italian chalet, now a curious piece of European ceramics in the Hermitage pavilion, now the newest book on dramaturgy in the copious library of the palace.
The summer festivals of nowadays are, of course, much more modest events. But they deserve credit as attempts to return to life a very special and praiseworthy culture of entertainment. They give rare pleasure to connoisseurs while educating neophytes.