People and events:

• ALEXANDROV SONG AND DANCE ENSEMBLE CELEBRATES ITS 75TH BIRTHDAY
• DIRECTOR MARK ZAKHAROV TURNS 70
• TRIBUTE TO ALEXANDER GALICH
• AN INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF EDITOR OF THE "ZNAMYA" MAGAZINE
• MOSCOW HOUSE OF MUSIC (a talk with Vladimir Spivakov)

ALEXANDROV SONG AND DANCE ENSEMBLE CELEBRATES ITS 75TH BIRTHDAY

By Olga Bugrova
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Russian Armed Forces' legendary Alexandrov song and dance ensemble and the 120th birth anniversary of its founder, the outstanding choir conductor and composer Alexander Alexandrov, the author of the Soviet and Russian anthem. What was a modest group at the beginning - 8 singers, a bayan player, a reciter and two dancers - gradually evolved into a brilliant ensemble with a huge choir and choreographic troupe - in all, about 200 performers. Its vast and versatile repertoire totaling about 2000 pieces ranges from folk and church music to choral classics by Russian and foreign composers, and, of course, army songs are widely represented, too, serious like "The Sacred War" and humorous like "Vasya-Vasilyok".
The ensemble's history is closely connected with the history of the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. During World War II, it traveled the entire frontline from north to south, entertaining Soviet troops - more than 1500 concerts over the war. Today it continues to perform in military garrisons and in separate army units, including in Chechnya. As one of the choir's singers remarked, "only those who remain faithful to their old-standing traditions deserve respect and have a future".
"We measure our work by the standards principles set up by Alexander Alexandrov and upheld by his son and successor Boris Alexandrov", says the ensemble's director, colonel Leonid Malev. "This is probably why the Red Army choir, as it is often dubbed abroad, is considered one of the strongest choirs in the world".
The Alexandrov ensemble is a unique school for young singers. The prominent Russian conductor and a long-time chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre Nikolai Golovanov once said: "Any singer from the Alexandrov choir would make an excellent soloist at the Bolshoi". The legendary choir was a "ticket to fame" for some domestic and foreign stars. The latter include the French singer Mireille Mathieu.
"In the 1960 we were touring France", recalls the ensemble's former director Dmitry Somov. "They told Boris Alexandrov there was a talented girl, very young, and perhaps he would allow her to perform with the choir. He met her in the morning and after an afternoon rehearsal she sang one song with the choir at a follow-up concert. The next morning she woke up famous".
"Golden Discs" of the French record firm "Champs Du Monde" and other international awards attest to the ensemble's worldwide recognition.

DIRECTOR MARK ZAKHAROV TURNS 70

The acclaimed Russian theatre director and moviemaker Mark Zakharov, unrivalled master of amazing stage effects, an ironic person with a paradoxical way of thinking and boundless fantasy, has turned 70. Over the last 3 decades he has been the artistic director of Lenkom, one of Moscow's most popular theatres. All of the performances on Lenkom's repertory gather full houses, even those that have been on for decades.
In different years Zakharov shocked the public with his innovative and off-standard approach to directing. His portrait won't be complete without such features as a will for success, intellectual sobriety enabling him to overcome ideological and other barriers, respect for his craft and focus on fashion. He was among the first in Russia to combine nostalgia for world culture with a thirst for the sensational, serious art with show business. Each of his premieres becomes a major event in Moscow's cultural life, among them his famous "Til" based on Charles de Coster's novel about Til Ulenspiegel, "The Star and Death of Joakin Murietta" based on verses by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and finally, the first Russian rock-opera "Juno and Avos" to music by Alexei Rybnykov with lyrics by Andrei Voznesensky.
Zakharov proved as successful in the movies as he was in the theatre. His films, among them screen adaptations of his theatre productions, won him the unfading love of a multi-million audience.
In the 90s, when everything around seemed to be falling apart, Zakharov not only managed to preserve his Lenkom, but turned out a whole bunch of premieres: "Funeral Prayer", "Royal Games", "Mystification", "The City of Millionaires", "Jester Balakirev", "The Executioner's Lament"…
Some young critics speculate that theatre as an art is already dead but so far no one has noticed it yet, even the experienced and pragmatic-minded Mark Zakharov.
"Well, contemporaries seem to be always displeased with their theatre, especially dramaturgy", Zakharov says. "They keep complaining that there are no good plays, no interesting productions, except just a few must-see events. But I don't agree with them… There was a time when the great Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Nemirovich-Danchenko and Vakhtangov, all worked simultaneously. Then the time of geniuses was gone. But decades later a new generation of directors burst in - Georgy Tovstonogov, Anatoly Efros, Oleg Yefremov, Yuri Lyubmov… There was a wave of bold experiments and discoveries in theatre esthetics. What about Petr Fomenko, Galina Volchek, Lev Dodin - a whole bunch of talented directors currently work in Moscow theatres. So I would put that unwise remark by a young critic to his juvenile cynicism rejecting everything that existed before. With years cynicism gives way to wisdom. As for theatre, it existed before and will exist forever. I am happy that my life is connected with the stage. It never bored me".

TRIBUTE TO ALEXANDER GALICH

By O. Bobrova
Poet Alexander Galich was buried at the cemetery of Saint Genevieve de Bois near Paris. A black grave-stone bears an inscription in Old Slavonic: "Blessed Are Those Exiled For Truth". On October 19th Galich, a dissident poet whose verses and songs, although never been published in Russia, had been known to millions, would have turned 85. He spoke truth about the former Soviet totalitarianism, a blatant, outright, painful truth… In 1974 he was deported from Russia and died in exile.
Galich was barred from official concerts. He sang half-legally in clubs, to small audiences, and in lots of other places, and the next day dozens of homemade tape recordings of the concert traveled to other cities and carbon copies of the lyrics were made secretly on rice-paper.
It all started during the political "thaw" of the 1960s when under Nikita Khrushchev people took in a gulp of freedom followed by a change of power and a new depression. "Then an extraordinary thing happened. Culture moved underground, to people's flats. They gathered in groups for what may be called spiritual rest. Those were not political gatherings, although they did give people an opportunity to exercise their right to spiritual freedom…", philosopher Lev Ventsov recalls. It was at one of those meetings that Galich first sang his satirical songs about the communist party nomenclature, and songs about Zoshchenko, Mandelshtam, Mikhoels and other writers, poets and actors - victims of Stalinist reprisals.
Galich was well over 40 back then. What made the well-known playwright and screenwriter abandon his successful career and step on a dissident path is still unclear.
1941. A youth studio in Moscow. Young actor Galich plays in a strikingly sincere and acute manner.
World War II. Galich volunteers to join the army but is rejected for health reasons. He and other actors perform in hospitals and trains for the wounded. Galich sees the inner side of the war.
The 40s and 50s. Galich is a playwright. He writes vaudevilles, calling them "lyrical rubbish", and "Matrosskaya Tishina" (the name of a Moscow prison) due to be premiered at a new studio in 1956 but cancelled after the dress rehearsal. Soviet cultural ideologists argued that the principal character in a Soviet play could not be a Jew. They refused to understand that his destiny resembled the destiny of Russians, Ukrainians and people of other nationalities in the 20s and 40s.
At present "Matrosskaya Tishina" is on at Oleg Tabakov's Theatre.
The 50s and 60s. Galich is the author of scripts to popular films "Faithful Friends", a comedy, and "On Seven Winds", a lyrical drama about World War II. In 1968 when Galich was performing his ballad "Dedicated to Pasternak" at a bard festival in Novosibirsk, 2000 listeners stood up in a gesture of solidarity with the author, respect for the famous writer and hatred for those who hunted him…
Excluded from the Writers' and Cinematographers' Unions, Galich was left without means of subsistence. But he never repented. "They took away my literary rights but they can't take away my duties - to compose and sing songs", he wrote in an open letter.
In 1974 Galich was forced to leave the Soviet Union. "I am packing my suits", he wrote in his autobiographic short novel "Dress Rehearsal". "I leave the Soviet Union but not Russia. My Russia will stay with me".
We could still hear him and his songs on Radio Liberty. "In the West he gave concerts and had his poems published, he gained recognition and respect, but no one who met him abroad could say he was happy. He didn't complain but his poems revealed profound nostalgia for the lost homeland", writer Yuri Nagibin recalled.
On December 15, 1977, Galich came on the air with his regular program. 4 days later he died from electric shock. In that last program he said: "Our land is amazingly rich. It has all elements of Mendeleev's periodic table in its depths, all except the one named "happiness". And I hope someone's hand will put it on Mendeleev's table because we have the right to happiness".

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF EDITOR OF THE "ZNAMYA" MAGAZINE

By V. Zherdeva
The jury of "Booker - Open Russia", Russia's most prestigious literary prize, has announced the names of six candidates, most of them little-known authors. The "Booker - Open Russia" prize was founded in 1992. Among its winners were Bulat Okudzhava, Georgy Vladimov, Vladimir Makanin and other writers, who gained fame long before Booker came to Russia.
It so happened that Sergei Chuprinin, chief editor of the "Znamya" literary magazine, became the "god father" of nearly a half of Russian Booker nominees. "Znamya" was the first to publish Mikhail Shishkin's Booker-2000-winning novel "The Capture of Izmail" and Vladimir Pelevin's "Omon Ra".
The Booker prize is much more than a mere assessment of a writer's professional skills.
"Literary prizes push book sales up. It's the same around the world", says Sergei Chuprinin. "A writer awarded a Goncourt, Pulitzer or Booker prize becomes rich and famous. His books come out in a great number of copies. Things are somewhat different in Russia. Our readers pay little attention to what critics say. So at present Russian literary prizes, including "Booker - Open Russia", are an internal corporative affair, yet absolutely necessary for Russia. They are extremely important to writers. The jury's decision sets certain landmarks for the literary community".
The experience of other countries shows that serious books with indisputable merits can successfully compete against "second grade" bestsellers that have flooded Russian book markets. But Russia seems to stand apart.
"A literary prize is not a means of introducing a writer into the market", Sergei Chuprinin explains. "Nor was it conceived to give novels of real value a commercial impetus. In Russia creative interests of the literary community clash with market needs. The majority of contemporary readers rely on aggressive advertising rather than real literary merits, when they choose some or other book".
And yet, it's possible to shape literary tastes, something in which "Znamya" has doubtless succeeded as it publishes only serious works.
"A "thick" literary magazine, just as a literary prize, is a means of cultivating a taste for good literature", Sergei Chuprinin went on. "Many readers share our view. These are the so-called "qualified readers". Thanks to them "serious" literature has survived as a genre".
Russia still ranks among the most reading nations of the world. But it's equally important how much they read and what they read. For writers as well as readers the "Booker - Open Russia" prize is a guiding star in the ocean of literature.

MOSCOW HOUSE OF MUSIC
(a talk with Vladimir Spivakov)

By L. Roschina
A new concert stage opened in Moscow this summer - Moscow House of Music. MHM President, maestro Vladimir Spivakov compares it with Lincoln Center in New York and Royal Festival Hall in London.
Moscow House of Music is a brilliantly designed architectural complex on Red Hills in downtown Moscow, on the bank of the river Moskva. The glass building with a treble clef on top of its cupola has three concert halls and a summer amphitheatre. Each of the halls is splendid in its own way. The largest, beige hall seats 1735. Its walls are paneled with Siberian larch - the best "acoustic" timber. The chamber hall in green and purple shades seats 530 and has a colonnade. The 500-seat theatre hall in violet shades is fitted out with up-to-date lighting and sound equipment and its stage and stalls can be transformed depending on a performance.
Vladimir Spivakov took a most active part in drawing up MHM's concert schedule. "The House is open to all who has something interesting to offer", he said. "But much still has to be done to make the public and performers to feel at home in these halls. Everything should "breath" here - the floor, the ceiling and the soul of each performer. We have invited outstanding musicians, for example, Claudio Abbado who will conduct the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra. I hope the invited conductors will have no problems with this orchestra, that there will be full understanding between conductors and musicians".
The National Philharmonic will perform at the 2nd Moscow international festival "Vladimir Spivakov Invites…" to be held in Moscow House of Music in November. The participants include chief conductor of the Paris Grand-Opera James Conlon and opera diva Jessie Norman. Vladimir Spivakov will give a solo concert.
Also on MHM's playbill this season are concerts by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and Russian pianists Mikhail Pletnev and Andrei Gavrilov. Boris Eifman's ballet troupe will premiere its new ballets. There will be concert cycles: "Moscow Virtuosos - 25" marking the 25th anniversary of the renowned chamber orchestra founded and directed by Vladimir Spivakov, "Legends And Muses" featuring the Musica Viva chamber orchestra directed by Alexander Rudin, and "Travel To Baroque" presenting Renaissance and early classical music performed on authentic instruments. The chamber hall will host concert series "Rebirth. Portraits" and "The Tribune for the Young" featuring young talented musicians.