With a Song for Peace and Friendship!

The choral collective of the Gorky Choral Society has returned from Bulgaria, from the XVI International May Choir Competition named after Professor Georgi Dimitrov, “Varna-83”.

It brought home from this authoritative contest, as we reported, three top awards: First Prize and the gold medal in two categories, chamber choirs and mixed choirs, and a special prize of the Union of Composers of Bulgaria for the best performance of Bulgarian music. This is a very serious victory for the people of Gorky, who showed at the competition not only their skill but also reminded the European musical forum of the high culture and deep national traditions of Russian choral art, both folk and professional.

The leader and creator of the choir, Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR, associate professor of the Glinka Gorky Conservatory Lev Konstantinovich Sivukhin, spoke to our freelance correspondent.

- All the singers tried very hard and worked in a concentrated way, giving their maximum. \nThe organisers of the competition, our Bulgarian friends, showed attention, care and sincere friendliness, which also helped. \nIt was very difficult to compete, since many collectives, both Bulgarian and from other countries, are repeated laureates of various international competitions and have the corresponding performing experience. Interest in the competition was extremely great. There were so many listeners that it was difficult to work in the philharmonic hall, always full and lit by floodlights (all the concerts were broadcast by Bulgarian television and Intervision). Moreover, our collective had to perform twice at the end of the day’s programme. \nBut all this was compensated not only by high awards but also by the awareness of having fulfilled a civic and international duty.

Choral singing, as is well known, is the most democratic form of music-making, the most effective in achieving mutual understanding and uniting people. Now, when the task of uniting fighters for peace and for friendship between peoples is extremely urgent, choral art can and must be mobilised to the maximum in this direction. It is no accident that the motto of the Varna competition was the slogan “With a Song for Peace and Friendship!”.

Delegates of eleven countries competed for the prizes. Among them were choral collectives from Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Sweden, Turkey, Romania and the USSR (27 choirs in all). All performed the music of their own countries, folk songs and works by composers, as well as the Bulgarian songs required by the programme of the competition, and choruses of the Renaissance (the classics of choral music), romanticism and post-romanticism.

Both competition programmes of the Gorky singers (chamber and mixed) were received with warm approval, as were their appearances at the closing gala concert of the laureates and at the concerts after the competition.

We performed Russian songs, works by Taneyev and Rachmaninoff, as well as “The 9th of January” by D. Shostakovich, two choral miniatures by R. Shchedrin and Glinka’s “Glory!”. We learned with great satisfaction that the performance of the Bulgarian songs at the competition was the most successful. Incidentally, it is not so easy to find an exact match for the artistic image in performing music of another national tradition. The choir sang for the first time the patriotic Bulgarian works “Ballad of Shipka” by A. Karastoyanov and “Urvich” by P. Stainov, and the lyrical songs “Arise, My Mother” by F. Kutev and “Unhappy Love” by D. Hristov.

The Bulgarians themselves love to sing and know how to sing well (the country has 250 folk choral collectives). It is not for nothing that folk wisdom says that whoever sings is incapable of evil. One of the national holidays in this country, 24 May, “Day of Cyril and Methodius”, the founders of Bulgarian national culture and great enlighteners, also becomes a song festival.

The people of Gorky were fortunate to be witnesses and participants of this holiday.

The choral competition in Varna is authoritative also because its jury includes outstanding masters of choral art from various countries. It is headed by the rector of the Sofia State Conservatory, People’s Artist of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, Professor Dimitar Ruskov; from the Soviet Union the jury included the rector of the Latvian State Conservatory, People’s Artist of the Latvian SSR, Professor Imants Kokars.

After the competition some problems of contemporary choral art were discussed.

Among the vivid impressions of the stay in Bulgaria are the joy of meeting and friendly contacts both with colleagues from the choral collectives and with the numerous audiences in several cities.

Recorded by V. BLINOVA, “Gorkovsky Rabochy”, 11.06.1983