| The dense streams of academic music in the “Culture” broadcast network seem immense. And it impresses. The channel easily allows itself something that no other channel dares to do: a musical excerpt can sound independently, without voice-over text, for more than a few seconds in a row.
A more attentive look identifies in this stream cycles, sections, series of “talk shows”, “reviews”, “broadcasts”, etc. The structure expresses the presence of the channel’s author’s view of art and its functioning. Since the musical broadcast of “Culture” has a structure, and a rather sophisticated one, it means that it also has its own version of art. In this version, the flow of musical sounds is divided into archives, “timeless” (since still virtually unknown) Western material, and current local philharmonic usage.
The TV viewer can find the exquisite “Historical Concerts” section with absolutely rare material (like, for example, the Vienna Philharmonic with Bernstein or the Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti). She appears quite rarely. Under the old-fashioned title “Hour of Music” and under the heading “Collected Performances” flows an impressive part of modern philharmonic life, and the most selective one at that. If you haven’t been to the concert of Vadim Repin and Boris Berezovsky (by the way, expensive European stars of the new generation, bound by contracts with the world’s best companies and rarely visiting Moscow), then in a month their exquisite program will be at your service on “Culture”. The channel writes about all important local festivals, events, concerts - from the stormy “Vladimir Spivakov invites” to the quiet “Alexander the Third Bridge”.
A separate number of “Culture” programs - live broadcasts. Their selection is impressive and beautiful. There is a lot here that is difficult to get into the concert hall. Opening of the festival by Vladimir Fedoseev with Mirella Freni and Nikolai Gyaurov, Temirkanov, Kremer in honor of Yuri Lyubimov - please. Gala concert at the Bolshoi Theater in honor of the opening of the Rodion Shchedrin Festival - no problem. Visiting "Boris Godunov" of the Bolshoi Theater in Pskov at the walls of the Svyatogorsk Monastery - please. However, the channel does not broadcast live broadcasts either from St. Petersburg or, say, from visiting performances of the Mariinsky Theater in Vyborg. At Kultura, the consumer deals primarily with Moscow musical life.
Another strong point of Kultura's broadcasting is the availability of Western material. We will see the recent London concert in honor of the Queen and the Vatican concert. Video and television versions of famous opera productions regularly take the breath away of music lovers. The 1994 Western series “Famous Arias” (mini-films of 10-15 minutes, dedicated to one opera aria performed by a world star with her own commentary) is an absolute gem. But most of all this rare material is not new, and the circle of performers represents the global mainstream of a respectable age, known to the local consumer. And neither Harnoncourt, nor Gardiner, nor Bartolli can be found on “Culture”. There are practically no non-mainstream musical practices here at all - such as “historical” performance or music of the 20th century. The broadcasting structure does not provide for them their own place. In other words, the “Culture” view of culture does not distinguish between them.
“Culture” perfectly notices the main thing and gently separates it from the additional. The breadth of coverage is exciting, although most of the concert recordings are not fundamentally different in spirit and in the style of filming and presentation from the style of musical broadcasting of the Soviet era. He verbalizes and concretizes his observations of life in the headings “Ticket to the Bolshoi”, “The Tsar’s Box”, and in anniversary portrait films. Musicologist Artem Vargaftik now stands for Irakli Andronikov and Svyatoslav Belza. His “Scores” are informative and decorative, and in the talk show, as in all the channel’s policies, there is a little more ritual than relevance.
The whole essence of the channel’s author’s view of the realities of art tends towards the virtuosic minuet, which brings it closer to other state producers and distributors of culture: the Bolshoi Theater or the Philharmonic. It is amazing how persistently these institutions pursue their surprisingly uniform, “conservative-progressive” strategic positions. This new minuet is conceived in order to certainly walk along the edge, in no case to cause damage to traditions (they are, apparently, so fragile that they are infringed by every little thing), not to disturb the conservative consciousness, but at the same time to give progress to those who crave it. It would seem that such a Pull-Push cannot walk anywhere. But it turns out that the idea of liberal conservatism in culture and the ability to interpret reality in this virtuoso spirit are in good demand and can produce good results. And the music broadcast of “Culture” is one of the most successful examples. Yulia BEDEROVA
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