"THE SONGS OF WAR AND VICTORY"
DEDICATION TO SVYATOSLAV RICHTER
RUSSIAN CULTURE FESTIVAL IN BRUSSELS
In late March the Moscow-based Tribuna publishing firm released a new book
entitled "The Songs of War and Victory". Timed to the 60th anniversary
of victory over Hitler fascism, the book is a real treat to war veterans
and all who hold dear our history, culture and songs.
Last June the Tribuna newspaper began publishing the texts of wartime songs,
how they were written and reminiscences by war veterans. Later, they were
brought together in a single edition supplemented with unique photographs
and a CD featuring 20 most popular songs of wartime and postwar years,
including the famous "Sacred War" composed by Alexander Alexandrov to lyrics
by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach.
The book contains 99 songs with comment and recollections by people of
different ages and professions. "I was 13 when my father was killed on
the front in 1942," writes the 1952 Olympic gymnastics champion Valentin
Muratov. "The tragic news made me reassess the meaning of the song 'Sacred
War' often played on the radio. I realized that a holiday would come to
our home too, if each of us struggled to do everything for the front, for
Victory! So I came to the factory where my father worked as a tool-dresser
and took up his place at the lathe. During night air raids on Moscow we
climbed the roof and put out incendiary bombs. That was our contribution
to Victory."
Marshal Georgy Zhukov called "Sacred War" an immortal song.
The President of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences General Makhmud
Gareyev, who along with other veterans had been invited to attend the book's
presentation, said: "This is a noble cause, and we all must help this project.
These songs must not be forgotten. In all times, songs occupied an important
place in the army, on the front. Trumpets, drums and songs - no army could
ever do without them. Songs composed during the Great Patriotic War were
a kind of weapon because they kept troops' morale up. When preparations
were being carried out for the Red Square Victory Parade in May 1945, Stalin
suggested that every army should prepare a song and perform at the parade."
Speaking at the presentation, the veteran pilot and Hero of the Soviet
Union Major General Sergei Kramarenko said: "On December 31, 1942 we sat
in a dugout, listening to composer Marc Fradkin singing his songs. One
of them was "Officers' Waltz". Of those officers I was the only one who
survived. My fellow pilots were killed. This book will be a tribute to
them. We thank the Tribuna editorial board all who worked on this book
for this wonderful initiative. And let me say that the Russian Heroes'
Association and the Living Memory fund will release a CD called "Front
Songs" shortly."
"We've had a very interesting meeting today. This selection of poems by
war veterans is deeply moving," said Navy Admiral Alexei Sorokin. "I served
in the infantry from 1941 to 1945 and then joined the Navy. These songs
we still remember helped endure the hardships of the war and inspired us
to fight on."
The Tribuna chief editor and the book's initiator Oleg Kuzin unveiled further
plans - to publish an anthology of songs about war that would comprise
all songs that are still remembered and can be restored from the point
of view of music and text. "While those who sang them or heard them in
the trenches are still alive, this can be cone," he said.
DEDICATION TO SVYATOSLAV RICHTER
March 20 marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian
pianist Svyatoslav Richter (1915-1997). His genius ranks along with such
20th-century giants as Marcel Proust, Pablo Picasso and Benjamin Britten,
all very much admired by Richter. Apart from numerous CDs, there are also
some publications, among them the recently-published memoirs and the pianist's
diaries, that give us a better insight into what kind of a musician he
was.
Richter once confessed: "I would like to have my own sign, a sign by which
people could recognize me. This would be a combination of arts invented
by God." Many things combined in Richter's extraordinary personality to
give him powerful creative energy. He was a good painter and had a gift
for acting, playwriting and directing. His only movie part is that of Ferenc
Liszt in the film "Mikhail Glinka". But all who happened to attend his
famous home theatricals were struck by his remarkable impersonations.
As for combining arts, Richter suggested a wonderful way of doing this
- the December Evenings festivals were music, painting and theatre are
interconnected. "To enable music to penetrate the listener's soul, it needs
some theatrical effects, which the formal 'dryness' of a concert hall obviously
lacks," Richter used to say.
His brilliant interpretations of piano pieces show how skilful he was in
combining various art forms. Once, when he was working on a piece by Debussy,
Richter remarked: "I am dance-playing Debussy's music like a ballet dancer."
Or, here is another of his expressions: "It is easy to see music. I have
a movie theater of my own, where I show movies with my fingers." Often,
he judged music using sculpture terms, for example, "a hard piece of stone"
- about Shostakovich's sonata for violin and piano. In one of Schubert's
sonatas he reproduced the Biblical story of Genesis. "One hand creates
seas, while the other creates mountains," Richter used to say. The most
amazing thing about Richter's play is that it makes you visualize music,
imagining a sculptor carving a statue or a light toe-dance or a little
angel who is just learning to fly and has bumped into a rock and broke
his wing as in Chopin's 4th scherzo.
Richter dreamt of playing nonstop for 24 hours on end at least once in
his life and he even drew up a detailed plan this music marathon: "I will
look in the window and choose what to play next depending on the position
of the Sun, the density of clouds, the interplay of light and shade." Speaking
about Tchaikovsky's music, he said it should be played at noon and at sunset.
Often, he drew a comparison between some piece of music and some literary
episode. For instance, he said that Rachmaninoff's 3rd study (Opus 39)
reminded him of the horse race scene from Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina".
"I need everything… or nothing," Richter once said. "I have insatiable
lust for music."
Richter's enormous repertoire numbered about 900 pieces ranging from Bach
to Shostakovich, which he performed during his 55-year-long concert career.
He created an entire "encyclopedia of musical images" and it would seem
that there were no problems that his genius would be unable solve. Yet,
as Richter himself admitted, he was defeated by Mozart: "I see Mozart flinging
himself between shade and light but can't grasp him. The more I try, the
more he escapes." When a musician admits he was defeated by a composer,
it's hard to believe, especially if this musician is Richter.
Among composers requiring the spontaneity of emotions, Richter singled
out Edvard Grieg. "I love Grieg's concerto, its austerity, masculinity,
the cold freshness of northern wind and complete absence of sugariness."
04/21/2005
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