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By N. Yakhontova

The world is full of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart these days. World-wide celebrations are underway marking the 250th anniversary of his birth - the birth of a composer genius whose name has become a symbol of Music itself. This country has long embraced Mozart's personality and his creations.
One of the more brilliant publications dedicated to Mozart's life and creativity is the fundamental research by Russian diplomat Georgi Chicherin, who asserted that Mozart was by far a 20th century composer than one belonging to the 18th or 19th centuries. The profoundness and tragic pathos made his music less popular among his contemporaries but paved the way for it into the future", Chicherin wrote.
Georgi Chicherin, who came up with his book on Mozart in 1930, was a man of encyclopedic knowledge. He was proficient in a dozen languages, closely familiar with the world's history, literature jurisprudence and applied himself to various works on economy. At the same time he was good at the piano and enjoyed reading about musical theory and history. In the early 20th century this man became involved in revolutionary ideas. Chicherin became People's Commissar of the Soviet Foreign Ministry in the first Bolshevik government. Politics seemed to have taken up all of his time. But, surprisingly at the time, Chicherin began writing essays on Mozart. "For me", Chicherin wrote, "Mozart was a friend and comrade of all my life. I lived my life with him, the most complex and refined of all composers, who reached the pinnacle of world history, at the cross-roads of historical currents and influences".
Georgi Chicherin's book is a most entertaining essay, written by a true professional, who was closely acquainted with Mozart's scores and intimately familiar with all nuances of the Genius's life. "The mysteriousness of his personality", Chichetin asserted, countenanced by a powdered wig and by his "sunny" garrulity and by pseudo-Italian "lightness, are in rapport with the mysteriousness of his music, which opened up bright new vistas. Mozart is far-away cosmic space and divine forces".
Mozart's compositions became a staple repertory of many renowned Russian performers of different generations. Some of the world-acclaimed interpreters of the great composer's works were Emil Gillels, Svyatoslav Richter, Vladimir Krainev, violinists David Oistrach, Gidon Kremer, and conductors - Yevgeni Mravinski and Rudolf Barshai. All of these maestros frequently referred to the incredible difficulty in performing Mozart's music.
"So few notes and so much thought…", Svyatoslav Richter wrote, "what is Mozart's secret? No answer to come by".
And David Oistrach refected: "I believe that Mozart music's simplicity is misleading. His compositions present a performer with nothing to hide behind: neither behind the texture, which is transparent like mountain crystal, nor behind the buildup of passions, which came later with the romanticists. Here a violinist is laid out on a platter with all his or her merits and shortcomings".
Over the past two and a half centuries, the world has accumulated certain traditions in performing Mozart's works, although each epoch makes its own corrections of the established traditions. Occasionally, the accepted esthetics are changed by a performer's strong personality, making the public take a fresh look at any particular rule of thumb composition. In Russia of the 20th century such strong personality was embodied in the pianist Maria Yudina. She played many pieces in her own way. But her interpretations usually sounded quite convincing to her listeners.
Maria Yudina was once said to be performing a concert over the radio, playing Mozart. She played in her usual extraordinary style. And Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin himself heard the concert and her performance. And he demanded a record of her performance. Nobody dared tell the tyrant that it was a live broadcast and there was no recording available. The very same night Yudina was summoned to a recording studio where just a single record was made.
Unbelievably, Mozart's posterity does not know for sure what the music genius looked like. All the veritable death masks taken of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were found to have been smashed to smithereens. Only a few portraits are preserved and none of them is like the other. Therefore the world heard with trepidation the news of discovery of a hitherto unknown image of the genius. In 1944, the Moscow museum of musical culture received a small portrait of Mozart, which was passed on to some people by chance during World War Two. Nothing is known about its origin or even about its authorship. After a few years of research it was found out that the portrait was painted by a well-known artist of the 18th century - Joseph Grassi. It was probably created in 1785 at the time when Mozart was not yet 30 years old. The composer is depicted en face, while most of his portraits were made in profile.
This piece of art gained particular international prominence in 1991 - the year of the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, when for a whole month the Moscow portrait of Mozart was displayed in the Mozart House in Salzburg next to the latest portrait painted by artist Joseph Lange.
Mozart's life portrait, preserved in Moscow, is full of youth and affection. While examining it, one is remind of the words of Dmitri Shostakovich - the Russian music classic of the 20th century: "Mozart is the youth of music, this is an eternally young spring bearing to humanity the joy of springtime of rejuvenation and harmony of soul".
All researchers of the great composer's creativity, however, justifiably assert that Mozart never thought he was creating "for eternity" and therefore so frequently created his works for precisely this purpose. All of his compositions extol Love, which in the end is the very foundation of our Universe.

ANNA PAVLOVA - A SYMBOL OF BALLET ART

N.Yakhontova

February 12 marked the 125th anniversary since the birth of the great Russian ballet-dancer Anna Pavlova.
She was referred to as "a divine dancer", "symbol of the ballet art", "an outstanding personality of the two centuries" and "a living legend". These are only some of the epithets made in reference to Anna Pavlova, whose creativity indeed made a whole epoch in ballet. The ballerina merely referred to herself as "a nun of art". Although she hated to talk about herself, millions did and in the early 20th century her statuettes were sold all over Russia. Fate gave the legendary artiste a mere 50 years to live. Twenty years out of her life she spent traveling all over the world. Her travels took her to India, China, Japan, Australia, Egypt, Mexico, Burma, Singapore, the Java Island, New Zealand, many countries in Europe and in the Americas. Her biographers counted 44 countries where Anna Pavlova went on concert tours, first with the troupe of the renowned ballet entrepreneur Sergei Dyagilev and then with her own company.
Anna Pavlova was born a feeble child. But her mother carefully preserved her frail life and she triumphed…
The girl grew up near St. Petersburg. The northern nature with its timid beauty, its enigmatic summer white nights, fine drizzling autumn rain and long winter nights taught her to become a dreamer.
She was 9 years old when she first found herself in a theater to watch a matinee performance of "The Sleeping Beauty". The crystal chandeliers, velvet furnishings, gilded loges, luxurious heavy curtain captivated her, while music and dance held her enthralled.
There were many children in the hall. Scores of young girls, returning home, kept saying: "When I grow up I will dance like princess Aurora". But young Anna Pavlova was the only one who kept her word.
Anna Pavlova was enrolled at the St. Petersburg School of Choreography. A daily routine set in with its days - one like another: early to rise when it was still dark, washing with ice-cold water, morning prayers, weak tea with a roll followed by a class in ballet techniques: batiman, plie … The exercises were repeated on one leg and the other - 8, 16, 32 times over. Jumps, glides, stances, scores, perhaps hundreds of times. Anna was an assiduous learner but she had it more hard-going than many other girls. "You, dear child, don't have enough strength", her instructors would say, "we should tell the doctor to prescribe some fish oil for you". And indeed, she lacked stamina. But then she was full of will power and tenacity. Her desire and ability to work at the time were amazing.
Only four years after her ballet school graduation, Anna Pavlova reached the rank of the prima soloist of the ballet at the Mariinski Theater in St. Petersburg and she danced in almost every performance. But she learned her art all her life from Pavel Gerdt - one of the best ballet dancers of St. Petersburg's stage, Ceccetti - a renowned Italian dancer, ballet master and teacher, from brilliant ballerina Beretta and choreographer Petipain and from the up-and-coming ballet master Mikhail Fokin. It was with Fokin that she created the phenomenal act of "The Dying Swan" that the name of Anna Pavlova was indelibly associated with throughout the world.
St. Petersburg, December 1907. Mikhail Fokin is dabbing softly on the piano. Ms. Pavlova is practicing her exercises. "What is it?" she exclaims. "Saint Sans, "Swan", "Animals' Carnival". Her eyes lit up and Fokin immediately took note. The ballerina made a few soft movements by her hands and then rose on her tip-toes' and sailed past the mirror. The ballet master walked by, whispering her next movements. The immortal "Dying Swan" was conceptualized within half an hour.
Contemporaries have retained many memories of Anna Pavlova. Icedora Duncan, who visited St. Petersburg in the winter of 1904 recollected her encounter with the Russian dancer.
"I was given a box-seat in order to see Pavlova in a ravishing ballet -"Giselle" . Although her dance movements were contrary to my own artistic and human feelings, I couldn't help breaking into a hearty applause for Ms. Pavlova. After dinner Pavlova danced again to please her friends. Although we parted at 5 a.m. , she invited me to come over this very morning by 9:30, if I wanted to see her practice. I came three years late and found her in a lace dress standing by the practice board doing her work. For three hours on end I sat transfixed and amazed watching Pavlova's fascinating agility. She seemed elastic and steely. Her beautiful face assumed an martyr's expression but not for once did she stop practicing."
And this is what another famous ballerina, Maya Plisetzkaya, said more than a hundred years later. "Now it is difficult to watch old ballet films, thinking what was so amazing? But true art is never touched by decay. Great canvasses, music and true artistry remain intact. And even those poor-quality films show that Anna Pavlova was a great ballerina and artiste. Next generations of ballet dancers have assimilated her influence, schooling and her class, which are indispensable as the alphabet.
Pavlova's appearance did not meet the old accepted standards and was a far cry from the looks of plump and sturdy virtuosos, who were than in vogue. She had a small head, fine neckline and a frail torso, but also possessed elongated bodily proportions and amazingly slender legs with a steep uplift. But her distinction was not only in her exterior. The 20th century ballet began essentially with the onset of Anna Pavlova's stage career. Paradoxically, she never sought innovation, preferring proven classics to experimental dancing. But intuitively she unveiled new paths in ballet. She wanted to try everything knowing that everything would turn out fine and the way she wanted it. She subjugated all of her life to ballet and it was not by chance that she dubbed herself "a nun of art". She was versatile and multi-faceted: a bacchanal, Sulfide, Colombina, Carmen the Gypsy, and her roles followed one after another in an endless chain of up to 8-9 performances a week. She was also comfortable with both the older classical ballet and latest reformist enactments. But one role of hers was always invariable: her entrance to acknowledge an endless applause.
Anna Pavlova starred in the "Russian Seasons" staged by Sergei Dyagilev in Paris and London in the 1910s of the last century. Alas, those successful performances led to the withdrawal of the great Russian dancer from her native land - Russia, which she never since revisited.
On January 20, 1931 the great Anna Pavlova missed her performance for the first time ever. She didn't show up at the stage in The Hague and the news of it flashed around the world. By midnight she opened her eyes and was barely able to raise her hand, as if she wanted to cross herself. On January 23 she passed away. Her last gesture, her final gasp and words were: "Please, get ready my 'Swan's' dress…"

Ever since then each January a portrait of Anna Pavlova in The Hague's oldest hotel is invariably adorned with freshly cut flowers - a special sort of white tulips named for her - "Anna Pavlova". Those white tulips resemble swans with their wings down.



YOUNG WINNERS OF THE "TRIUMPH" PRIZE

At the end of January winners of the "Triumph" contest held in Moscow received their top prizes. This is a nation-wide distinction in literature and the arts, which was awarded in Russia 14 times. Together with the moguls of national arts, the "Triumph" prize also went to 20 young figures of culture, including documentary film director Alexandre Rastorguyev and pianist Asia Korepanova.
Alexandre Rastorguyev comes from the city of Rostov-on- the Don in the south of Russia. Many of his films were awarded top distinctions at prestigious contests. His film "Maudy Thursday", made in 2003 received in Leipzig a Jury Prize and a distinction from German television as "an outstanding East European film". This documentary deals with the acute theme of our times - the events in Chechnya. The author showed in the film a 'peaceful' day in the life of Russian soldiers. The film reveals what these young people talk, think and laugh about, who could get killed at any moment.
The film "Mommies" by Rastorguyev, which was awarded the Laurel branch at a documentary film contest in Moscow and a Grand-prix in Yekaterinburg, depicts the most important sacrament of human life - the birth of a human being. The director had to acquire certain medical knowledge and even spend considerable time in a nursery home. Alexandre considers himself as representing a radical side in documentary films, which show human life in its full dimension without embellishing it and occasionally showing hard realities of life.
The director believes that a documentary maker has a right to make a film on any subject of our realities. But the chief character of his films is and will be man himself.

By E. Karpova

Asia Korepanova is not just any musician. She is a person endowed in many cultural spheres , but the choice of her main profession was determined by life itself. "My mother is a pianist and my father is a composer", she said. "The musical environment for me was absolutely inherent and no question ever arose what I was going to do. I was born in Izhevsk in the Republic of Udmurtia. My fourth year in school I was enlisted in the Moscow Central Music School for endowed children. While in school, I was fortunate enough to go to concerts by Eliso Virsaladze, which produced an immense impression on me. My greatest dream came true: I went on to study at the Moscow Conservatoire under the tutorship of professor Virsaladze. When you come to a new instructor, you need to expect to undergo a "perestroika" (restructuring) of sorts. There are lots of details and new ideas that need to be absorbed, you need to become 'involved' in order to feel yourself naturally. And at a certain point you come to realize that now is the time to go onstage."
While learning the profession of a pianist, Asia Korepanova made much headway in music composition. She also does painting and verse writing. Recently she released her own collection of verses and graphics. She also performs her own musical pieces.
Apart from her artistic creativity, Asia Korepanova also went in for horse-riding, dauntlessly surmounting 1.5 meter barriers. She never dropped off a horse, although there were some risky situations. But at some point Asia decided not to risk her main career and spare her hands. Incidentally, Asia first went onstage as a pianist at the age of 6. At 12 she played at a famed Rakhamaninov music festival in Nizhny Novgorod. On several occasions she performed with the Russian Symphony Orchestry under the direction of Mark Gorenstein and with a chamber orchestra "Moscow Virtuosos" directed by Vladimir Spivakov. She also played abroad. "I went to virtually every European country, went on concert tours to France, Germany, Slovenia" Asia Korepanova said. "I visited the Czech Republic, Greece, Germany and took part in Vladimir Spivakov's festival in the French city of Colmare. India and Kuwait were also on my itinerary".
The pianist's repertoire includes piano Concerts. She believes that working on them requires a special, broad-minded approach. "While working on some major compositions, I'm in the habit of perusing all creations of a composer in point. I look through, read and study not just the music but also his letters and recollections in order to gain an all-around perception of the composer. I'm firmly convinced that if you are involved with music, you need not just to know of it, you need to 'breathe it in'.

By L. Roschina

  02/16/2006

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