Mikhail Fikhtengolts. About the reasonable, good and eternal

About reasonable, good and eternal
What does the current music season have in store for us?

Mikhail Fikhtengolts

Date of publication: September 5, 2000

Despite the fact that Knowledge Day has already passed, the younger generation has headed to school and everyone seems to have begun to fulfill their official duties, our musical entertainers are not yet itching to make public their plans for the upcoming musical season. So don’t expect any announcements for the whole year, there won’t be any. There will be only a limited number of events, selected in accordance with the complete arbitrariness of the author.

Eternal is the most important of the three words stated in the title. It implies that it will not escape us under any circumstances. For some reason, the Russian National Orchestra was thinking about the eternal in September. The program of the orchestra's two season-opening concerts is simply teeming with eternal values ​​- here is Shostakovich's Ninth with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (September 7), and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony with Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto (September 8). The hit sits on the hit and drives the hit. However, what is melancholy for a music critic is joy for a simple listener. Go and listen to the RNO in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. Conducted by Vladimir Spivakov, soloist Nikolai Lugansky.

As the climate cools, the repertoire framework of RNO will expand. On November 25, Dmitry Liss and Natalya Gutman, together with the orchestra, will present an exquisite program - a Cello Concerto by Darius Milhaud, one of the members of the famous French Six, and as many as four symphonic meditations for the Messiaen orchestra under the general title “Ascension”. Milhaud's lightness and grace balance the insanity of Messiaen's opus. But it seems to me that the most interesting concert of the orchestra until the end of the year will take place on November 20. The preacher of new music, American Michael Tilson Thomas, with one wave of his hand, will draw the entire creative path of Stravinsky - from the pagan “Rite of Spring”, through the sophisticated neoclassical “Apollo Musagete” to the military stride of “Symphony in Three Movements”.

Having written so much about the RNO, it is impossible to ignore Vladimir Fedoseev and his Big Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps the group's most interesting project of the season fits entirely into their First Public Symphony Subscription. It's called "Viennese Music at the Turn of the Century" and brings together Beethoven and Mahler. Thus, at the opening of the season, the team will perform “five” each - Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto (soloist - Bulgarian Galina Vracheva) and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. It will be interesting how Fedoseev, who has never previously been criticized for excessive intellectualism, will voice Mahler’s enormity.

In the fall, the BSO will perform the lighter and more digestible Fourth Symphony under the direction of Nikolai Alekseev (October 14). In the final movement, where Mahler ordered the soprano to sing in a child's voice, the child will be portrayed by the languid and sensual Tatyana Kuindzhi.

By the way, fans of vocals will not be bored. Musical Theater named after. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko will open the season with a premiere on September 21. Alexander Titel staged Prokofiev's not so often performed "Duenna" (alternative title: "Betrothal in a Monastery"). The leading roles seem to be occupied by everyone's favorites - Khibla Gerzmava, Vyacheslav Voinarovsky, Roman Muravitsky, Andrey Baturkin. Come, you won't regret it.

"New Opera" decided to be advanced in all respects. In early November (the exact date is to be determined), she releases an insane delight - the opera "Hamlet" by the French composer Ambroise Thomas. You don't know who Toma is? That's right, I don't know either. As the recently published encyclopedic dictionary "Opera" states, Thoma "along with Gounod, is one of the creators of the genre of lyrical opera. [...] Thoma's music is characterized by melodicism, bright theatricality, accompanied, however, by a certain touch of banality." Oh how. In the finale of Hamlet, as expected, everyone dies, but the opera ends with a joyful chorus praising the new monarch, the late Hamlet. Many directors are embarrassed by this absurdity and the choir is withdrawn from circulation, ending the tragedy with the death of Hamlet near Ophelia’s body. It is not yet clear what director Valeriu Raku will do with the hero and the crowd. The main thing is not to be trivial.

Verdi's Rigoletto, which the Novaya Opera is going to stage in December, is not at all banal... although the stately Dmitry Hvorostovsky, who makes Russian women breathe unevenly, does not fit well with the image of the evil Mantuan hunchback. He would have liked the role of the Duke, but he took Rigoletto. And why did Verdi write the role of the Duke for a tenor and not a baritone?

In terms of repertoire novelties, Helikon-Opera surpassed everyone. By the end of the year, its playbill will be replenished with three (!) new performances. First there will be a small version of Pergolesi’s “The Maid and Mistress” (October 24), then a stage version of Bach’s “Peasant Cantata” (November 8). And on December 14, Mozart's lush tropical opus - "The Abduction from the Seraglio" - will burst out in full force. The opera is staged by music critic Alexey Parin, so no comments. Just Parin.

For those who prefer to skim the cream off, there are concerts by opera stars. Until the end of the year you can listen to the wonderful Maria Guleghina with arias by Verdi (December 26) and Jose Carreras himself (September 23, the program includes a hodgepodge of Italian songs) - true, under a microphone, in the State Kremlin Palace, with the Bolshoi Theater orchestra, but who promised it would be easy? But everyone will fit in the hall.

No one will fit anywhere except at the “December Evenings” at the Pushkin Museum. Once again, old-timers will stand in line in the cold and write numbers on their hands, so that later they can come to the museum and shout “Bravo!” vile hoarse voices. My eyes wouldn't see it. However, you can avoid the crush and waste of nerves by pretending to be a portrait or landscape - and listen to the sweet-voiced Barbara Bonney and the countertenor Michael Chance, who often visits Russia. They say that at some point the Polish contralto Ewa Podleszcz will come to Moscow with Handel arias, but I can’t say exactly when.

For the Baroque, since we are already talking about countertenors and Handel, it is better to go to St. Petersburg, to the festival of early music (October 3 - November 5). Great event. Thanks to the British Council and Musica Petropolitana. This year the German flutist Bernard Boehm, the crazy Italian orchestra Il Giardino Armonico, the aforementioned Michael Chance, the great and terrible harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, the American instrumental ensemble Anonimous 4, Orlando Consort and many other prominent authenticists will come there. Moscow will only have a piece of this luxurious pie left in the form of the French “Limoges Baroque Ensemble” with its leader, cellist Christopher Quan. We only have a Bach festival, but adherents of the academic style of performing antiquity rule the roost there. In particular, at the closing of the festival, Helmut Rilling will conduct the “Christmas Oratorio”. Critics don't really like him, but the public does. To experience the beauty of this paradox, go to the Great Hall of the Conservatory on December 15th.

From ancient music to modern music - one step. We have here in stock the ever-green Moscow Autumn and the promising Moscow Forum. I don’t know the programs yet, but when I find out, I’ll definitely share them. Far, far away, in March, the RNO will perform Leonid Desyatnikov’s anxiously awaited opus “The Holy Winter,” which was promised to us long ago (adherents of postmodernism rejoice!).

It’s good that there are so many cultural centers in Moscow, each of which offers something different. Be sure to take a closer look at the poster of the French Cultural Center - you can always find something interesting there, and not only in terms of music... While I was writing about antiquity, a paper came out of the fax announcing the Second International Festival of Japanese Music (10 -September 19). This is where the legends of deep antiquity and the trends of the present day come together! The names of the programs speak for themselves - “Lute and Sword”, “The Sound of Pine on Sumie”, “Festival of Scarlet Leaves”, “Praise of the Shadow”. The culmination will come at the Dom center on November 14. The press release says in black and white - “The Hidden Heart of the Moon,” a 24-hour meditation on the Japanese shakuhachi flute." This is all serious. If you are a thrill-seeker, then do not forget to take a pillow and a toothbrush with you to the “House.” 24 hours is no joke. I hope there are no casualties.

And a few more recommendations. When you come to a boring concert at the Great Conservatory, buy the Kultura newspaper and rent binoculars - in the end, you will be able to quickly take your clothes back by skipping the line. When heading to the Entreprise of the Moscow Union of Musicians, do not forget to dress warmly - it is always cold there. Eat at home before the performance at Stasik - the buffet there is poor and expensive. Don't listen to bad musicians and always - hear, always - read the poster in "RZh".