Rodion Shchedrin: Autobiographical MemoriesSchott Music, 2. apr 2014 - 286 pages Rodion Shchedrin is internationally recognized as the pre-eminent contemporary composer of the Russian modern school. His autobiography looks back over an eventful life and provides a variety of stimulating insights behind the facade of the international music scene. Along the way Shchedrin elaborates highly personal views on the political situation and many other aspects of life in the former Soviet Union, turning an unsparing eye on the machinery of ideological repression exerted on artists as they struggled to interpret and conform to the constantly mutating diktats of the regime. A wealth of anecdotes and humorous observations offer the reader glimpses of the author's essentially sanguine and life-enhancing disposition. |
Contents
Return to Moscow | |
The choral institute | |
Conservatoire | |
The world around | |
In search of folkmusic | |
Three successes | |
Who is a composer? | |
How I found myself occupying Shostakovichs chair | |
Perestroika years | |
The tale of the twelve months | |
Lolita | |
Only apple trees with apples on them have stones thrown at them | |
Working with Lorin Maazel | |
September 2001 and Mariss Jansons | |
Cinematic myths and the death of my father | |
Maya Plisetskaya | |
Some sinners and saints | |
First opera | |
Were there musical dissidents in the former Soviet union? | |
Establishment composers | |
Carmen suite | |
Poetoria the Prague spring and the Lenin oratorio | |
Dead Souls | |
Instrumental concertos | |
The sealed angel in Berlin | |
Working days high days and holidays | |
Why Munich? | |
Boyarinya Morozova | |
Post scriptum | |
List of compositions | |
Index | |
Common terms and phrases
Aleksin Alexander Andrey Artistic Director asked audience Avvakum ballet Bolshoy Theatre Boris Brik Carmen Suite cello Central Committee Chastushki choir choreographer chorus Communist composer's composition Culture dacha Dead Souls Denisov Dmitry everything famous father Festival film Flier going hall hear heard instrument invited Khachaturian Kirov Theatre later Leningrad libretto listened Little Hump-backed Horse living Lolita Lorin Maazel Maazel Mariss Mariss Jansons Maya Plisetskaya Maya's Mayakovsky Mikhail Mikhailovich Moscow Conservatoire Munich musicians never Nikolay Nikolayevich opera organisation Party performance Philharmonic pianist Piano Concerto piece played poet Poetoria premiere Principal Conductor production programme Prokofiev Radio recording rehearsal Rodion Shchedrin Rostropovich Rozhdestvensky Russian Schnittke score Shaporin Shostakovich sing singers Slava solo soloists Sonata songs Soviet St Petersburg stage Stalin story string Sveshnikov symphony orchestra Tchaikovsky telephone told took Union of Composers USSR violin Vladimir voice wanted word write wrote Yevgeny Yury