On the eve of the 65th MI Glinka we continue to talk about the participants of past years. And in this regard, the Moscow Conservatory is one of the long-standing and permanent partners. Its students and teachers have participated in almost all festivals for many years. And last year they did not even come alone – with colleagues from the Russian Academy of Music Gnesins …
authentic music
The program “Voices of Russia”, prepared by students and professors of the country’s leading musical universities, as part of the 64th MI Glinka sounded in two places at once: at the Smolensk Philharmonic and in the estate-museum of the composer’s homeland.
“We formed this program together,” explained Svyatoslav GOLUBENKO, vice-rector of the Gnessin Academy of Music. – And each university tried to show its most advantageous side. Therefore, we have included in the concert program our best forces – the folk ensemble and Maxim Pavlov, and the conservatory – the chamber choir and its soloists.
The two halls were perceived by the artists in different ways – after all, the stage space plays an important role. Although in each of them they managed to conquer the audience, who probably remembered these concerts for a long time.
“Smolensk has a big hall, a big stage with excellent acoustics,” said Natalya MOROZOVA, professor at the Gnessin Academy of Music. – There is a feeling of a kind of complete vacation, in which the whole city participates. And in Novospasskoye there is a special atmosphere: there was a feeling of a personal bedroom vacation. As if you were arriving home or visiting good friends. And it’s an incredible feeling for performers and listeners.
- In fact, there is another wonderful feeling from these concerts, – added Svyatoslav Golubenko. – When musicians from the academic management and folklore artists unite on the same stage, it’s always good. Especially when folk music is not replaced by pop music, but sounds in its original, authentic form – from the very roots. And when in academic music the performers don’t invent anything superfluous. There was such a sense of authenticity to all the works that were being performed, which I think is very important.
old acquaintances
The Moscow Conservatory was responsible for the academic part of the program.
“In general, we have a very long history of successful cooperation with the Smolensk Philharmonic,” said Yaroslava KABALEVSKAYA, deputy rector of the Moscow Conservatory. – Since 2004, we have participated in the Glinka Festival every year, and it has become a wonderful tradition for us and our students. The Smolensk audience already knows our chamber choir quite well, although over the years its composition has changed more than once. The guys always look forward to these performances. And when the pandemic turned out to be a forced break, we all suffered a lot.
The Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir was established by conductor Boris Tevlin on the initiative of Professor Alexander Sokolov in December 1994. The main creative direction of this team is the performance of works by domestic contemporary artists and foreigners. And since it is made up exclusively of young people, it is traditional for him “the audacity of the pioneers, the desire to know the unknown, the extreme dynamism, the freshness and the openness of view to the surrounding musical world” – according to the right definition of Oleg Galakhov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Union of Composers of Moscow.
- When choosing a program for these concerts in Smolensk and Novospasskoye, it was important to us that the works were not performed here during our performance in recent years, – explained choirmaster Taras YASENKOV. – We wanted to show something new and not repeat what the Smolensk audience had already heard during our previous performances. This was perhaps the main selection criterion in the preparation of the program.
The magnificent performance of the choir was harmoniously complemented by soloists from the conservatory: Yulia Kupriyanova (piano), Valeria Rubleva (mezzo-soprano), Anastasia Tabankova (oboe) and Nikolai Ageev (saxophone).
Magic tunes
The folk ensemble of the Russian Academy of Music Gnessin performed songs from the village of Zavgorodny, Kharkiv region.
“This program is unusual in terms of musical content and genre,” explained Konstantin Nekrasov, head of the ensemble. – And it was interesting for us, first of all, from the point of view of working with sound, because any folk material is always something new. Also, the songs we performed, in my opinion, are just magical.
Songs from the village of Zavgorodny are the graduation work of one of the members of the ensemble, Evgeny ROMANOV, whose roots come from there.
- The village was formed under Catherine II, when immigrants from the provinces of Kursk, Orel and Kaluga began to live there, – said Evgeny Romanov. – That is, Russians from three different provinces have been assembling their traditional tunes into a common music for several centuries. Plus the Ukrainian environment, which also had some influence on this process. Probably, hence the magic music feeling. Moreover, the basis of his performance is the tradition of virtuoso singing.
Such wide melismatics, complex melodic chants that require some technique and very serious skills. We therefore chose this program not only for its specific sound, but also for the opportunity for professional growth.
It should be noted that for the Folk Ensemble of the Russian Academy of Music Gnessin, authenticity is characteristic not only in the performance of folk songs, but also in the costumes in which the performers go on stage. In this case, it was real sets, sewn in the village of Zavgorodny at the beginning of the last century.
“Headwear deserves special attention,” Evgeny Romanov continued. “Because they were made at least a century before clothes. In other words, they are over two hundred years old. According to Konstantin Nekrasov, the Smolensk Philharmonic was the second to perform songs from the village of Zavgorodny. The first was Omsk. However, we did not manage without firsts. So, the residents of Smolensk heard the first performance of the song “Women sowed flax.”
With a song for life
The premiere on the stage of the Smolensk Philharmonic was the performance of the singer, composer, professor of the Gnessin Academy of Music Maxim PAVLOV. As critics note, “his unique voice – clear, airy, but at the same time deep and penetrating into the heart of every listener, delights and plunges into a kind and bright world”. Hailing from the hinterland of Belarusian Polesie, he literally grew up with a folk song in his heart. It is no coincidence that she is the one who has become decisive in her work.
“It’s a great honor for me to be here and to perform on the same stage with very different, but extremely talented people,” said Maxim Pavlov. – I saw with what surprise and what joy the room reacted today. We don’t want any other reward for ourselves. As Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka said, music is created by the people, and we composers only arrange it. Indeed, everything has already been created. And all is said. You just need to come out, smile, fall in love with those people who are sitting in the auditorium and say thank you for the opportunity to sing.
Maxim Pavlov is absolutely convinced that music is designed to unite people, to bring them together and not to divide them in any way. The Voice of Russia program itself is a vivid confirmation of this.
“Everything is already so mixed up that you will never recognize where the Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian folk song is,” Maxim Pavlov continued. – I am glad that the choir also performed songs by composers of very different nationalities today. And today it turned out not just a holiday, but a kind of anointing – a gathering of people who love others, love music and art. Not just performers who came on stage to run like entertainer clowns gathered here – we give something for the soul. And this land, the cradle of the great Glinka, was created with the aim of uniting people, of teaching them to get along…
