Mikhail Aizenberg St. Petersburg: Pushkin Foundation, 1999 There are authors who have become “part of speech” in the most literal and everyday sense of these words. “But it’s still a shabby canteen,” one of the leisurely conversation suddenly drops. “Where the half-liter is walking under the table...”, another one picks up understandingly.

Yaroslav Sedov (Photo: Natalya Loginova ) Great Hall of the Conservatory Moscow In his youth, Vladimir Fedoseev conducted the premieres of new works by Shostakovich and Sviridov, classics of Russian music of the twentieth century. Now the conductor himself is called a living classic. Wanting to confirm his reputation, Fedoseev tries to turn each of his major Moscow concerts into a historical event.