“Ring Out, Our Song!”

As we have already reported, from 25 to 27 November the 14th plenum of the board of the Upper Volga organisation of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR, devoted to composers’ songwriting, was held in the city of Gorky. Today we tell about the concerts and the discussion of the plenum.

Dedicated to the Young

One of the three concerts of the plenum was devoted entirely to pioneer and Komsomol songs. It took place on Sunday afternoon in the Great Hall of the House of Culture of Trade Workers. The participants in the first half of this concert were two children’s collectives: the senior choir of the V. P. Chkalov Palace of Pioneers, led by R. Yarulin, and the laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, the Gorky Boys’ Choir Chapel, with artistic director and conductor, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR L. Sivukhin. In the second half the participants of the people’s opera studio of the Ya. M. Sverdlov House of Culture performed, led by V. N. Shirokov, together with the composers who wrote the songs, A. Nesterov, G. Komrakov and A. Burdov, as accompanists.

The first thing one wants to say about this concert is joyful satisfaction at the large number of truly good songs, both among the quite new ones and among those long and firmly established in the concert repertoire.

The entire programme of the boys’ chapel delighted with its brightness, depth and variety. There were wonderful serious songs: “The Eternal Flame” by G. Komrakov to words by V. Ryabtsev and “Tell Us, Young Sailor”, music by L. Sivukhin to words by V. Shamshurin. In them a deep dramatic theme is expressed strictly, with restraint and at the same time with great warmth, the national through the individually personal. Both songs are simple but not standard, easy to remember and long retained in the memory. Full of charm are G. Komrakov’s song to words by A. Pentin, “Maples and Poplars”, and A. Burdov’s to words by V. Polovinkin, “The Merry Brook”. Merry spirit and humour pervade B. Getselev’s songs to words by S. Marshak, “Boys and Girls”, I. Rosenstein’s “A Walk” to words by V. Orlov, and the wonderful song by B. Blagovidov to words by V. Polovinkin, “A Song About the Boys of the Chapel”, which does not age, like the chapel boys themselves.

Among the new works one should note the cantata “The Merry Wind” by V. Chelnokov (Yaroslavl) and the song “Sunsets, Sunsets” by A. Burdov to words by V. Shamshurin.

It is gratifying that in this important concert professionals and amateur performers worked side by side. True, amateur artists such as Honoured Worker of Culture of the RSFSR, Candidate of Technical Sciences V. Znyshev, or B. Zhuravlev, laureate of the 1st All-Union Festival of Students’ Artistic Creativity, are hardly inferior to professionals. A pleasant impression also remained from the performances of the other studio members, V. Pavlova, V. Lebedeva and V. Lebedev. If we take into account the enormous wealth of songwriting as a whole, then Gorky composers, especially in creating songs for children and young people, occupy one of the leading places in the RSFSR both in skill and in intensity. This, and the good contacts between composers and performing collectives, were spoken of with satisfaction at the discussion of the plenum.

Section “Musical Wednesday”

Gorky, newspaper “Leninskaya Smena”, 22 November 1978