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People and events:
publication
of his debut works "Colleagues", "Apples from Morocco"
and "Star Ticket" in the popular Youth magazine. Quite soon he
became a cult writer and the youth's idol. In the early 80s he published
"The Island of Crimea", an alternative-style novel criticizing
the Soviet regime, and then emigrated to the United States. He now lives
in France, penning new novels that come out in Russia. "Voltairiens
and Voltairiennes", a "vintage" novel as the author himself
defined it, is based on the correspondence of the Russian Empress Catherine
II and French philosopher Voltaire. Stylized after an 18th-century novel,
it combines elements of adventure story, comedy and philosophic essay.
The action takes place in 1764, yet the author draws clear parallels with
the present-day reality. Most historical and philosophic disputes between
the characters focus on the creation of a civic, democratic society. Of
the more than 60 writers contesting Booker-Open Russia, 6 ended on the
so-called "short list" of candidates. These also included Lyudmila
Petrushevskaya ("Number One, Or In the Gardens of Other Opportunities"),
Oleg Zayonchovsky ("Sergeyev and Town"), Anatoly Kurchatkin ("The
Sun Was Shining"), Marta Petrova ("Scribbler's Corno") and
Alexei Slapovsky ("The Quality of Life"). "Aksyonov is doubtless
an outstanding writer and one of major contemporary authors, at least in
the Russian literature," said the head of the Booker-Open Russia jury,
writer Vladimir Voynovich. "He has never received any prizes, although
he has long deserved some. However, the jury was maximum objective. We
didn't take into account the age or generation factors, we simply chose
the best novel, and decided that it should be Aksyonov's. This is indeed
a major work, many-faceted and full of merits. It has an interesting language
and humor, abounds in philosophic ideas and is, in fact, very versatile
and very rich." The young Russian writer Andrei Gerasimov representing
the "neo-sentimental" trend got a Student Booker for his novel
"Rachel". The Student Book was established in 2004 and its jury
consists of students and post-graduate students of Russian universities,
winners of the "best essay about a contemporary Russian novel"
competition. 
Organized
by the renowned violinist and conductor Sergey Stadler, the Moscow contest
is a "younger brother" of a popular competition of the same name
conducted in Paganini's home city of Genoa. "Violin is traditionally
associated with Paganini. But Russia, too, gave the world a host of talented
violinists, some of them winners of the Genoa competition. Considering
its reputation of a "violin" capital, Moscow simply couldn't
do without a violin competition of such rank," Studler said in an
interview. "A competition requires maximum concentration of a performer,"
said Maxim Vengerov, president of the Violin Art Fund sponsoring the Moscow
Paganini competition. "Some musician reach the peak of their mastership
at the age of 14 and others at 50! One needs courage and will-power to
be able to concentrate on winning. If you are weak and timid, you will
never get a statute of Paganini, the competition's prize. There were no
age restrictions except one: all participants must be older than 14. Tatiana
Shalaginova, who made it to the competition's final, turned 14 in September.
Although still a teenager, she has a successful concert experience in Russia
and abroad. The
third
prize was shared between the 19-year-old Yekaterina Frolova from St. Petersburg,
laureate of several international competitions, first-prizewinner of the
Shpor competition in Germany and winner of the Hope prize at the Moscow
Tchaikovsky competition, and the 19-year-old British violinist James Lee,
student of London's Royal College with a concert experience in Europe,
the United States, Canada and Israel. The first prize and a statute of
Paganini with a gold fiddlestick was awarded to the Korean musician Hyuk
Chju Kwun, and the Grand Prix went to Alyona Bayeva, both students of the
Moscow Conservatory in the class of professor Eduard Grach. "It was
a very interesting competition, and the professional level was very high,"
Grach said. "It gathers momentum, and the next one promises to be
even more interesting. As for my pupils, they are both wonderful musicians.
Each of them will grace any international competition. Alyona won the Wieniawski
competition in Warsaw when she was 16, and Hyuk Chju Kwun won the prestigious
Nilsen competition in Denmark this year. I allowed them to contest "at
home", so to say. As a result, they each occupied their own niches.
They are absolutely different, but that's how it should be. A talented
performer must rouse the audience, make people listen to him. These two
violinists have all it needs to become most sought-after, top-class musicians."
"Paganini's famous violin is Genoa," Stadler said. "But
here in Russia, we, too, have a legendary instrument - a Stradivari violin
that once belonged to Henryk Wieniawsky, who was a violin professor at
Russia's first conservatory. Being allowed to play for a year is a very
important prize."
Konstantin
Yuon and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin), a member of the Tretyakov Gallery's Trusteeship
Council, and one of the most exhibited painters, Serov was a highly authoritative
figure in the late 19th-early 20th cent. Russian art. Although his works
were often displayed at exhibitions propagating different esthetic views,
he remained faithful to his own style. Says art critic and director of
the Tretyakov Gallery Lidia Ivovleva: "Some of Serov's works, especially
from provincial museums, have never been exhibited in Moscow, for example,
a romantic portrait of Grand Princess Xenia Alexandrovna from the Pskov
museum, a somewhat gloomy portrait of Savva Mamontov, a well-known industrialist
and art patron, from the Tula museum, with a tinge of tiredness and disappointment
in Mamontov's outward accomplishment, and also "A Lady in a Light-Colored
Hat" from a private collection, painted in an impressionist manner."
The exhibition offers a fine selection of drawings and watercolors by Serov,
and is supplemented with photos of him, his family and friends, as well
as letters and other materials. Each work has an annotation telling about
the characters depicted on it and how and when it was created. The exhibition
will last until January 30.
