The Eighth Festival

On 28 June the 13th festival “Contemporary Music”, dedicated to the Olympics-80, opens in our city. As is traditional, its concerts, to be held on the music stage on the Volga embankment, will present works by Soviet and foreign composers. The artistic director of the Gorky State Philharmonic, A. N. Yagutova, tells us about it.

I would like to begin the story of this traditional musical festival with the words of A. I. Khachaturian, which referred to the First “Contemporary Music” Festival in Gorky. In one of his speeches he said: “I am not afraid to call the Festival one of the most remarkable events in the musical life of our country. Gorky, a city of great historical and cultural traditions, a working, labouring city, has today devoted itself to music. In this I see the banner of our time.”

That was in the summer of 1962: the first music festival in our country, which began numerous celebrations of this kind. For five days the music of Soviet and contemporary foreign composers sounded, and exciting meetings of Gorky music lovers with A. Khachaturian, D. Kabalevsky and T. Khrennikov took place. The inspiring success of the first festival aroused in its participants and listeners an ardent wish to continue what had been begun and to make the musical festival in Gorky a tradition.

In February 1964 the second festival took place, devoted entirely to the work of D. D. Shostakovich. Concert practice had never known anything like it: the music of no contemporary composer had ever been heard on such a scale. The second festival gave listeners the opportunity to become acquainted with the work of the greatest master of our time and to hear works in all his main genres performed by outstanding Soviet musicians.

Each subsequent Gorky “Contemporary Music” festival was distinguished by a particular thematic profile. The third, held on the eve of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of October, was dedicated to the music of all the Union republics; the fourth to the work of composers of the socialist countries of Europe; the fifth to the 750th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod–Gorky.

In October 1974, during the plenum of the board of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR and the board of the All-Union Choral Society, the concerts of the sixth festival took place under the motto “The Image of Contemporaries in the Work of Russian Composers”.

In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution the seventh festival of contemporary music was organised in Gorky, devoted to the work of composers who laid the foundations of Soviet musical culture: Glière, Myaskovsky, Shaporin, Prokofiev, Shebalin and Shostakovich.

Each festival not only acquainted listeners with new examples of contemporary music but also became a kind of parade of Soviet performing art.

The 13th festival of contemporary music is dedicated to the 22nd Olympic Games. The music of composers of the countries taking part in the Olympics and of the Olympic cities of the USSR is the theme of the coming festival. As in previous years, the concert programme is extremely interesting and rich in premieres. Its basis is four symphony concerts (26 June, 2, 4 and 6 July). Here we shall hear quite a few new works and composers’ names. For the first time in our city orchestral works will be heard by Theodorakis (Greece), Nielsen (Denmark), Kozina (Yugoslavia), Mun Gen On (DPRK), Braga Santos (Portugal), Chávez (Mexico), Mantici (Cuba), Fela Sowande (Nigeria), Ganchinsumla (Mongolia) and many others.

The festival concerts will present the work of composers from 24 countries of Europe, Asia, America and Africa. In addition, the festival programme includes new works by composers of the 5 cities of the Soviet Union that are hosting the 22nd Olympics.

Premieres for the people of Gorky will be: the “Estonian Suite” by the Tallinn composer Auster, “Festive Music for Balalaika, Spoons and Symphony Orchestra” by the Leningrader S. Slonimsky, the orchestral piece “Emblem” by the Minsk composer I. Luchenok, the overture “Youth” by A. Pakhmutova, a work by the Moscow composers S. Tomin and A. Tchaikovsky, and by the Kyivan Shtogaryanko.

Among the festival participants is the symphony orchestra of the Gorky Philharmonic, on whose podium will appear People’s Artist of the RSFSR I. Gusman, I. Nesterov, E. Khachaturian, Honoured Art Worker V. Barsov, and the conductors A. Skulsky and E. Tsirlin; soloists include the well-known Moscow violinist I. Bochkova, a participant in the cultural programme of the Olympics-80, the Leningrad performer, laureate of international competitions M. Danilov, and others.

In addition to the symphony concerts, the festival programme includes performances by two amateur collectives of our city who are to take part in the cultural programme of the Moscow Olympics. On 3 July on the music stage on the Volga embankment there will be a concert by the laureate of the First All-Union Festival of Amateur Creativity, the Russian Folk Instruments Orchestra of the “Pobeda” House of Culture, led by N. Voronin. \nAnd on 5 July listeners will become acquainted with the programme of the laureate of the All-Union competition of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the male vocal ensemble of the F. E. Dzerzhinsky House of Culture, conducted by Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR L. Sivukhin.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of such an event as the 13th “Contemporary Music” festival promises to be. For this festival is for professional musicians and music lovers alike. It will not only be an important milestone on the way to broadening the musical horizons of the Gorky listener but will also be a kind of musical expression of the international policy of our state.