| Moscow House of Music opens its season After all the city's music venues officially opened in September, today the ambitious House of Music will open the season with a concert in memory of conductor Kirill Kondrashin with music by Mahler, Shostakovich and Mozart. A slight delay in the work of the halls in the Red Hills is caused by a large-scale project that has not yet provoked a strong reaction in the music world. The success or failure of the new MMDM enterprise - the organ of the Klais and Glatter-Goetz companies that was just built in the Svetlanov Hall (it was installed all summer, it is now being “intonated”, the first “voice test” of the instrument was recently carried out) - will manifest itself Later. When titled organists begin to play on the stage, which has become famous for its expensive and high-status events, complete with imperfect acoustics. And when it becomes more or less clear how the appearance of the organ affected the acoustic parameters of the hall. So far there is no consensus on this matter, but the management of MMDM hopes that the organ will not only add weight to the programs and variety of aesthetics, but will also improve the situation with acoustics. According to the deputy general director of the House of Music, Ivan Popov, they are still hoping to tweak something else and ultimately do without the use of electronics. And now MMDM is building its programs without making allowances for the imperfections of the hall, in winter it plans to hold the inauguration of the organ (what the ceremony will look like is not yet known) and in March 2005 an extensive organ festival with the participation of the most famous organists in the world.
In addition to the organ festival, a new monographic festival of the House of Music is planned for the 2004/05 season. If last season conceptual efforts concentrated on Mozart (the project turned out to be extraordinary, with noticeable features of sophistication and touches of populism), now MMDM will focus on Brahms, whose work, as stated in the press release, “serves as a Mecca for performers and art critics and invariably evokes public interest." Perhaps this definition contains a hint that, in comparison with “Mozartiana” (it was almost the first event at the new site, and the audience was negligible), the Brahms festival will attract crowds of pilgrims.
One way or another, Brahms's subtle, twilight and majestic work will appear in a respectably wide format. The festival will open on January 20 with a “German Requiem” from the Fedoseevsky Bolshoi Orchestra, and will close with, you guessed it, a concert by the base group of the MMDM National Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Spivakov as a soloist (February 4). It is still a mystery who will become the hero of the Brahmsian “recital”. Since the beginning of summer, it has been known that negotiations are underway with Pletnev, Kissin, Bashmet, Repin. There is still no new information.
But it is known that the long-announced tour of Roberto Alagna - one of the first tenors in the world, not counting the great pensioners who sang at MMDM - will not take place. The reason is the unstable situation in Russia. However, MMDM made it clear that the management of that side already had problems. At the same time, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Fedoseev, the Hungarian National Orchestra, Paris Opera conductor James Conlon and others decided not to change their plans and will appear at the House of Music.
According to Ivan Popov, this season will be more eventful than the previous one - in the subscription package more attention is paid to symphonic music, there is a lot of authenticity, young people are not ignored, and children's subscriptions are generally selling well. Another area of concert activity is also gaining popularity - the jazz series (they begin tomorrow with the Classic meets Cuba concert with the participation of European and Cuban stars) promise to be, perhaps, not as conceptual as “European Jazz - 21st Century” last season, but they can pass with great resonance.
The season opening program in the Red Hills is multi-layered, like the outlines of the future. Today Vladimir Spivakov is playing Mahler's First Symphony at the NPR console, but there is another attraction for the public - a young European star, laureate of the prestigious ARD competition (Munich) Tatyana Vasilyeva in Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto. The programs of the Chamber Hall will be opened tomorrow by the Borodin Quartet. And today the popular actor Dmitry Pevtsov will sing in the Theater Hall. The breadth of views and intensity of activity of the managers of MMDM are evident, who no longer just dreams of creating competition with the Big Factory or the Philharmonic, but inventively works with a fresh and highly diverse audience. Yulia BEDEROVA |
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