RODION SHCHEDRIN – KING OF A MODERN ORCHESTRA
Great music should be available to a large audience – under this motto the great composer of the second half of the 20th century and modernity Rodion Shchedrin creates. None of his contemporaries managed to so widely develop in his work the themes of his native country. Almost all his ballets and operas are written on the plots of prominent writers – Chekhov, Gogol, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Leskov, and professional musicians call Shchedrin the king of the modern orchestra.
Since childhood, next to the great
The creative fate of the composer has developed under the influence of the family. His father – Konstantin Shchedrin – had an absolute ear and unique ability to memorize the kompozitor Rodion Shchedrinmuzyka after the first listening. Once this talent was noticed by the famous actress Vera Pashennaya who came to his native Tula region. She paid for the guy to move to Moscow, where he entered the conservatory. Thus began the creative Shchedrin dynasty.
Rodion Shchedrin was born on December 16, 1932 and was surrounded by music from infancy. He enthusiastically listened to his father play the violin. In 1941, the boy was sent to a music school at the Moscow Conservatory, but then the war broke out and many educational institutions simply closed. At the end of the year, the family was evacuated to Kuibyshev (now Samara), where he happened to meet the great Dmitry Shostakovich. Young Rodion was fortunate enough to attend the dress rehearsal of the famous Seventh Symphony of the composer. And all thanks to the fact that Shchedrin’s father worked as executive secretary in the evacuated Composers’ Union under the leadership of Dmitry Shostakovich. By the way, he often helped Shchedrin to solve household problems that arose.
The first steps in the composition
At the first opportunity Shchedrin returned to Moscow and again sent his son to a music school. And when the boys’ choir school opened in the capital, its first director, the famous choirmaster Alexander Sveshnikov invited Konstantin Shchedrin to teach history and theory of music. He in turn asked composer Rodion Shchedrin to accept Rodion at the school. The young man had excellent hearing and a wonderful voice, so there were no problems with admission.
Students were not taught to write music, but their high preparation allowed them to try their strength in a musical composition. Alexander Sveshnikov encouraged his students and allowed him to immediately perform his compositions. Pupils had the opportunity to meet with the most prominent musicians of the time – Richter, Kozlovsky, Shostakovich, Gilels, Flier and Ginsburg.
Piano teachers deliberately asked to learn works of high complexity. Due to this, after graduating from college, Rodion had a program that was worthy of a real concert pianist.
Rich student experience
In 1950, Rodion Shchedrin entered simultaneously at two faculties of the Moscow Conservatory. Professor Yakov Flier was involved in the piano, and Professor Yury Shaporin led a theoretical and composer class. composer In 1950, Rodin Shchedrin entered two faculties of the Moscow Conservatory at the same time. During his studies, the novice musician mastered the high art of pianist and significantly enriched his musical knowledge. Rodion so trusted Yakov Flier that he always made him the first listener of the composed works not only in his student years, but also later.
Shchedrin intensively developed in the conservatory and his incredible interest in folklore. He succeeded in his amazingly original way of using folk musical elements, organically intertwining them with his own compositional finds. Critics have repeatedly noted that in this synthesis he has no equal.
Rodion Shchedrin took place as a composer as a student after creating his first concert for the composer Rodion Shchedrin-piano. In the conservatory, this work was considered too “formalistic”, but the student was lucky – one of the professors advised the Composers Union to include this concert in the program of the next party plenum. Rodion brilliantly performed his composition, and soon received a letter in which he was informed that he – a student of the 4th year of the Conservatory – was admitted to the Composers’ Union. This happened even without submitting an application.
Composer and ballerina
1958 became the most romantic and truly life-changing in the life of Rodion Shchedrin. He created a family with ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. They first met composer Rodion Shchedrinza several years before, when the French cinema star Gerard Philippe came to Moscow. Then he visited the house of Lily Brik and met with the creative intelligentsia, among whom were Maya and Rodion. Finally Shchedrin and Plisetskaya coined the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse”. In 1958, he decided to put the Bolshoi Theater. There Rodion was able to see Maya at the rehearsal. Plisetskaya was already quite a famous person, so she was under the supervision of the KGB. State security officers constantly monitored Shchedrin’s beloved, but no agents could ever separate them. Unfortunately, there were no children in their family.
