Theme

Russian piano player Youri Egorov played the Sportief Holland Concert in the series of Amsterdam Business concerts of the Concertzender, the ABC series, in the IJsbreker on 25 January 1986. One of the works was Zes beelden voor piano opus 40 by Arno Babadzjanján from 1965. You will hear a beautiful Concertzender recording from the time we started.

Composer Vadim Salmanov (photo left) is especially known for his second symphony Song of the Forest which you will hear later in this broadcast. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1912 and started his music lessons with his father. First he studied geology but in 1935 he returned to music at the conservatory with Michail Gnesin. After finishing his studies he was sent to the front and stayed there for the remainder of the war. After 1945 and back at the conservatory he composed quartets and sonatas and many battle songs. He also belonged to the nomenclatura in the party and the composer’s union. His second violin sonata is from 1962.
The 22nd party conference took place in 1962 and it was possible to speak openly about the crimes of Stalin, Beria and entourage. In the arts two tendencies showed: on the one hand attempts to overcome the dogmas and enlarge the artistic possibilities what involved tolerance, liberalism and a limited dialogue with the leaders. On the other hand the Stalinist direction continued. By tradition literature played a prominent part. There was a clear sign of ‘thaw’ because a collection of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva could be published in 1961. And beside his novella The Thaw Ehrenburg’s memoirs People, Years, Life drew attention. As was established before the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitsj was a milestone in 1962. Similar tendencies could be seen in other arts. Meanwhile in the music world Tichon Chrennikov guarded gradual and only small adjustments. Nikita Khrushchev, just like Stalin, regarded the arts as his own domain and his ignorance and blunders gave party leaders enough space to successfully follow their own politics. Khrushchev’s preference for personal meetings also led to sensitive clashes like a meeting with Tvardovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Shostakovich and Yevtushenko at which the latter grabbed his chance to attack the head of state about his anti-Semitism.
In 1959 a tour of the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein with the Sacre du Printemps on the programme also announced different times.   Before that Glenn Gould came to visit with the works of Anton von Webern. And in September 1962 even Stravinsky himself would visit his homeland for the first time in half a century. The ‘shameless prophet of modernism of the bourgeois’ was permanently accompanied by famous musicians like Maria Yudina, Youri Shaporin, Gara Garayev, Karen Khachaturian and Kirill Kondrashin and by close relatives of Prokofiev’s first wife, of Rimsky-Korsakov and of the poet Balmont. Only Shostakovich was absent and seemed to systematically avoid a meeting. Was one in Moscow, the other in Leningrad and vice versa. Still there were three meetings and wild stories started to circulate about them. In 1961 Shostakovich orchestrated for Galina Vishnevskaya Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death which she sang during the concert in which she presented the Satires van Sasja Tsjorny to the world after the break. On the photo with Shostakovich and Rostropovich.

In 1960 Shostakovich wrote in a letter to Isaak Glikman: “I am very impressed by Weinberg’s violin concert. Outstanding performance of the communist violin player L.B. Kogan. It is a magnificent work. And I choose my words carefully.” ‘Communist violin player’ an allusion to Kogan’s warm ties with the regime. Weinberg started his most successful period as a composer with this work. Not just because he became a party member or was popular with the regime as an immigrant; most prominent musicians like Kogan would join the queue to perform his work on one of the most prestigious stages of the country. Today you will hear the Lithuanian violin player Ilja Grubert, a student of Kogan and winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1978 and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
As said before composer Vadim Salmanov is mostly known for his Symphony no 2, ‘Song of the Forest’, a composition from 1959. Yevgeni Mravinsky to whom he dedicated the 1st and 4th symphony put all four symphonies on record. So just listen to Salmanov’s Second Symphony performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Yevgeni Mravinsky. The idyllic parts are Song of the Forest, Call of Nature, At Sunset and And the Forest Sings.
As far as time permits Jean-Pierre Armengaud will play the Bagatelles of Edison Denisov from 1960.
1. Arno Babadzjanjan (Jerevan 22.1.1921 – 11.11.1983).
Six pictures for piano, opus 40 (1965).
Joeri Jegorov (Youri Egorov), piano (28.5.1954-16.4.1988).
Own recording Concertzender from the ‘Sportief Holland Concert’ in the IJsbreker Amsterdam on 25 January 1986.
2. Vadim Nikolayevich Salmanov (1912-1978).
Sonata for violin and piano no 2 (1962): 1) Allegro molto, 2) Andante, 3) Presto.
Gidon Kremer, violin, Maria Bondarenko, piano.
Brilliant Classics 8712.
 
3. Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906-1975).
Instrumentation cycle ‘Songs and Dances of Death’ van Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1891), without opus number (1962): 1) Slaapliedje, 2) Serenade, 3) Trepak, 4) De veldmaarschalk.
Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano, London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich.
EMI 0946 3 65008 2 9.
4. Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996).
Violin concert in G Minor opus 67 (1959): 1) Allegro molto, 2) Allegro animato, 3) Adagio, 4) Allegro risoluto.
Ilja Grubert, violin, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitri Jablonsky.
Naxos 8.557194.
5. Vadim Nikolayevich Salmanov (1912 – 1978).
Symphony no 2 in G Minor (1959): 1) Lied van het woud, 2) Roep van de natuur, 3) In het avondrood en 4) Het woud zingt.
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky.
IMLCD073/74.
6. Edison Vasilyevich Denisov (1929 – 1996).
Bagatellen opus 10 (1960).
Jean-Pierre Armengaud, piano.
MAN4888 HMCD 90.