Theme

Aleksandr Solchenitsyn (at the right on the picture and on the left Mstislav Rostropovich, with whom he stayed for quite a while) was released from the Gulag after the ‘secret speech’ of Khrushchev in 1956. In 1960, he approached Aleksandr Tvardovsky, poet and chief editor of the magazine ‘Novi Mir’ (New World) with his novel ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’, the first work on the Gulag Archipelago. Khrushchev himself gave permission to publish the work in the magazine in 1962 and as an additional comment he placed the quote (in the introduction). The work immediately became a bestseller and, together with three other works of the author, it became mandatory teaching material at school. They would be his last publications in the Soviet Union until 1990. 

In the same period Dmitri Sjostakovich chose for the first time since ages for the great-satiric tone with his Satires on the text of Sacha Tchorny (photo on the right), dedicated to Galina Vishnevskaya. Even though the work was subtitled ‘Pictures from the Past’, the texts were perfect for the current situation, the Soviet power system and its useless ideology. The audience already understood the message straight away during the delayed premiere, so Vishnevskaya and her accompanist and husband Rostropovich repeated the performance twice at that occasion. Afterwards the work was forbidden.  

A small sidestep to Armenia, with two works on themes of the Armenian folk music by Sergei Aslamazyan, co-founder of the Komitas Quartet, and then Sinfonietta by Aleksandr Arutjunjan from 1966, performed by the Kaukasus Chamber Orchestra by conductor Uwe Berkemer.

Over 2400 kilometres to the North, at the European side of the Ural Mountains, we arrive in Mari El, place of birth of composer Andrei Eshpai (picture on the right). The Mari are Finnish Ugric people. Eshpai was born in 1925 in Kosmodemyansk, a fortress established by Tsar Ivan IV in 1552 after the victory on the Tatars of Kazan. The fortress protected the people against Tatar attacks at the border. Eshpai was a war veteran who had been honoured multiple times. After the war he studied piano in Moscow at Vladimir Sofronitsky and also composition at Rakov, Myaskovsky, Golubev and Khachaturian. To his first symphony in 1959 he added a poem line from Vladimir Mayakovsky as an inscription: “we snatch joy from the coming days.”
The requiem that Mieczyslaw Weinberg composed between 1965 and 1967 was at least for a part a direct response to the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, highly recommended to him by their mutual friend Dmitri Shostakovich. In atheist Soviet Union, such kind of work was above all a tribute to military heroes and a lament to the horrors of the war. Berlioz and Verdi already paved the way in this secular point of view; Weinberg joins a proven romantic tradition. The timeless horrors of war and the eternal blessings of peace do not only pass when we look at the used poems of Dmitri Kedrin, Federico García Lorca, Sara Teasdale and Michail Dudin but also in Munetoshi Fukagawa’s poems, used earlier by Weinberg in his cantata Hiroshima opus 92. Despite all this, Weinberg’s Requiem was kept in a desk drawer until 13 years after his death and only in 2009 its premiere was held by Thomas Sanderling.
In the time left, Isabel Bayrakdarian will sing songs from the Armenian priest/ composer Vardapet Komitas.  
1. Dmitri Dmitrijevitsj Sjostakovitsj (1906 – 1975).
Five satires opus 109 (1961) on lyrics of Aleksandr Michajlovitsj Glikberg (‘Sasja Tsjorny’) (Odessa 13.10.1880 – Lavandou, France, 5.7.1932): 1) To a critic, 2) Spring feeling, 3) The offspring, 4) The misunderstanding, 5) Kreutzer-sonata.
Galina Visjnevskaja, soprano, Mstislav Rostropovitsj, piano.
EMI 0946 3 65008 2 9.
2. Sergej Zacharovitsj Aslamazjan (27.1.1897 – 1978).
From 14 works referring to themes of the Armenian folk music: a) Habernan, and b) Alai Luches.
3. Aleksandr Grigori Aroetjoenjan (Jerevan 23.9.1920 – 28.3.2012).
Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1966): 1) Prelude, 2) Arioso, 3) Intermezzo – Pizzicato, 4) Finale.
Kaukasus Chamber Orchestra led by Uwe Berkemer.
Naxos 8.570324.
4. Andrej Jakovlevitsj Esjpaj (Kosmodemjansk 15.5.1925).
Symphony no. 1 in es minor (1959): 1) Lento maestoso, 2) Allegro vivace festivo.
USSR Grand State Symphony Orchestra led by Konstantin Ivanov.
Albany TROY 367.
5. Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996).
Requiem for soprano, boys choir, choir and orchestra opus 96 (1965-1967): 1) Bread and Iron, 2) And then…, 3) Gentle rain will come, 4) Hiroshima five line Stanzas, 5) People were walking…, and 6) Sow the seeds. 
Elena Kelessidi, soprano, Wiener Sängerknaben, Prague Philharmonic Choir and Wiener Symphoniker led by Vladimir Fedoséjev.
Bregenzer Festspiele ORF – NEOS 11127.
6. Vardapet Komitas – Sogomón Gevórkovitsj Sogomonján (1869-1935).
1) Dzirani Dzar (the apricot tree), 2) Groong (Crane).
Isabel Bajrakdarjan, soprano, Armenian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra led by Edoeard Toptsjjan.
Nonesuch 7559-79910-5.