29.09.2016
The music of Valery Gavrilin.
Ballet, folklore, pop.
On 15 October, the works of Valery Gavrilin will be performed in a chamber concert in the dress circle foyer. Our pianist and vocal coach Natalia Dudik, who created the concert programme, tells us about one of Russia’s most distinctive composers:
"Valery Gavrilin graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, and is rightfully considered to be one of the best representatives of the Leningrad school of composers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he is one of the most distinctive Russian composers of the 20th century.
"His music isn’t some kind of fabrication à la russe or a pale imitation. Valery Gavrilin was born in Vologda and travelled extensively in order to pursue his study of folk music. His Russian Notebook cycle confounds our expectations of what a Russian folk song should be. It includes a number of songs in the genre of lamentations. We are taking just one song from the cycle: ‘It All Started’. It’s a monologue of a young girl who has met a young man at a dance, but is then deserted by him. She sits at home, suffering. Things reach breaking point, and the singing becomes a tirade of invective and lamentation, in the earthiest Russian language. We’ll also be hearing several fragments from the Evening cycle. We have two new singers making appearances in these roles: Anna Buslidze and Irina Mikhailova, who joined our group of trainee artists this year. Irina has been trained in folk music, and so she has a firm grasp of this unique genre.
“Popular songs are another noteworthy strand of Valery Gavrilin’s work. Alexander Shakhov will sing his great wartime song, ‘Two Brothers’, which Eduard Khil brought to a wider audience. It was Khil, together with Lyudmila Senchina, who at the end of the 1970s persuaded Gavrilin, already a serious academic composer, to write the popular song ‘She’ll Be a Hit!’ At first the composer had doubts, but these proved unfounded. His song ‘The Joke’ was a winner at the ‘Song of ’79’ competition. It was a huge hit, which could be heard out of everyone’s radio — it was played as much as ‘Nightingale’s Grove’ and other popular songs of the era.
“One of the best-known of Gavrilin’s compositions is the music for the ballet Anyuta, which was also adapted for film. We have in our theatre a wonderful pianist, Alina Makhauri, who is a member of our orchestra. We will turn the clock back and play three pieces from this ballet. Not many people now remember that these compositions were originally completely individual pieces from the cycle 24 Sketches for the Piano.”
"Valery Gavrilin graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, and is rightfully considered to be one of the best representatives of the Leningrad school of composers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he is one of the most distinctive Russian composers of the 20th century.
"His music isn’t some kind of fabrication à la russe or a pale imitation. Valery Gavrilin was born in Vologda and travelled extensively in order to pursue his study of folk music. His Russian Notebook cycle confounds our expectations of what a Russian folk song should be. It includes a number of songs in the genre of lamentations. We are taking just one song from the cycle: ‘It All Started’. It’s a monologue of a young girl who has met a young man at a dance, but is then deserted by him. She sits at home, suffering. Things reach breaking point, and the singing becomes a tirade of invective and lamentation, in the earthiest Russian language. We’ll also be hearing several fragments from the Evening cycle. We have two new singers making appearances in these roles: Anna Buslidze and Irina Mikhailova, who joined our group of trainee artists this year. Irina has been trained in folk music, and so she has a firm grasp of this unique genre.
“Popular songs are another noteworthy strand of Valery Gavrilin’s work. Alexander Shakhov will sing his great wartime song, ‘Two Brothers’, which Eduard Khil brought to a wider audience. It was Khil, together with Lyudmila Senchina, who at the end of the 1970s persuaded Gavrilin, already a serious academic composer, to write the popular song ‘She’ll Be a Hit!’ At first the composer had doubts, but these proved unfounded. His song ‘The Joke’ was a winner at the ‘Song of ’79’ competition. It was a huge hit, which could be heard out of everyone’s radio — it was played as much as ‘Nightingale’s Grove’ and other popular songs of the era.
“One of the best-known of Gavrilin’s compositions is the music for the ballet Anyuta, which was also adapted for film. We have in our theatre a wonderful pianist, Alina Makhauri, who is a member of our orchestra. We will turn the clock back and play three pieces from this ballet. Not many people now remember that these compositions were originally completely individual pieces from the cycle 24 Sketches for the Piano.”
