The great Russian opera singer F. I. Chaliapin was well known for his extraordinary dramatic talent. Not only could he identify himself with the character he was representing, but he seemed to disappear in it. Thats why when the director Ivanov-Gai in 1915 decided to make the silent film "The Daughter of Pskov", he suggested that Chaliapin should play the part of Ivan the Terrible. Chaliapin agreed, it was his first screen appearance. Though Chaliapin had been playing this part on the stage for a long time with great success, he found it necessary that he should make a thorough study of the character of Ivan again. Chaliapin always insisted that historical material should be studied alongside with masterpieces of world art depicting the time and the character he was going to play.
And though Chaliapin came to play in the film with a clear conception of the character his first film experience turned out to be unpleasant. Chaliapin couldn't accept the peculiarities of film shooting which interfered with his acting. He couldn't understand why he was interrupted every time after having begun playing. "When I started to play, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing, everything was so true of life, I was just carried away, and suddenly a voice demanded that the acting should break off, because the sun was gone, and the scene was spoilt."
The film as a whole turned out to be a failure. There was no intelligent direction, no truly creative cast, the crowd scenes looked poor and thin. But the film still reflected the artistry of the great actor. The great realistic actor managed without partners, practically without a director, to play some scenes with great psychological insight. Every gesture, every look and movement was precise and perfect.
Chaliapin's second screen appearance took place eighteen years later in 1933 in France. The sixty-year-old singer appeared this time in a musical film (in two languages French and English) as Don Quixote ['don'kwiks9t] in the film of the same name. Despite the mediocrity of the film plot Chaliapin gave a colorful and convincing portrayal of Don Quixote.
ARTURO TOSCANINI
It is essential that every great conductor should have a quality of subordinating to his will not only the orchestra but the audience as well. This quality which is a mark of a really great personality was obvious in Toscanini's performances.
Many people were interested to know how he achieved such a high degree of perfection of his orchestra and many wished they were allowed to be present at his rehearsals. But only some of his most intimate friends were given this opportunity and they understood why Toscanini insisted that no other people should attend his rehearsals.
It is a pity no sculptor embodied in stone Toscanini at his rehearsals. He would have found in Toscanini a most wonderful model.
At the rehearsals Toscanini would begin very politely and quietly to make his conceptions clear, but then, dissatisfied with the orchestra playing, he grew disappointed. Feeling so he demanded the orchestra should stop playing so that he might explain what should be accented. And then in a few minutes he would again break the playing off. And again he would insist that every musician should try to penetrate into his inner vision which he conveyed by emotional, expressive and precise gestures and facial expressions.
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Passionately and every moment more passionately he begged, he gesticulated, he sang, he transformed himself into every instrument in order that the musicians might understand him properly.
However if the orchestra didn't reach his vision he began to suffer. He forgot all about politeness but he moved forward working on and on until the musicians gave way to his will.
Toscanini knew how to bring out the variety of music colours, how to stress the necessary accents, how to render the spirit of the work, as he belonged to music and music belonged to him.
Vocabulary:
accent n ; v
embody v ,
embodiment n ,
gesticulate v
obvious
penetrate v (into)
perfection n
precise
stress v
suffer v
suffering n
subordinate v (to)
temperament n
transform v ) (into)
to be interested to know
to break off ,
to give way to ,
it is a pity that ,
a most wonderful detail
to reach his vision .
Pronunciation Drill
[ei]: su'bordinate (v), 'penetrate, ges'ticulate, im'personate, con'vey, 'facial
[e]: ac'cent, 'temperament, 'gesture, 'penetrate, 'necessary, conception
[ə]: 'accent, ac'cent, 'temperament, 'personal, su'bordinate,
[i]: pre'cise, pre'cision, 'vision, em'body, em'bodyment, su'bordinate (adj)
[æ]: 'accent,,personality, 'passion
[]: 'audience, su'bordinate, 'orchestra
[]: 'properly, 'model,,oppor'tunity
Exercise 1.
Fill in the blanks with the words given below and translate the sentences:
temperament; to penetrate into; precise; to embody; encouragement; to subordinate; to transform; personality; conception; obviously; to bring out; to be interested; variety
1. It is essential that every musician in the orchestra... the inner vision of the conductor. 2. It is essential that the orchestra... to the conductor's will- 3. The conductor's gestures were emotional, expressive and....
4. He breaks off their playing to make his... clear.
5. Toscanini knew how... the variety of colours.
6. He... himself into every instrument in order that every musician... his idea precisely. 7. His facial expression showed inspiration and....
8. He was romantic by his....
9. The quality of subordinating the audiences to the conductor's will mark a really great...
10. His playing is marked by the... of colours.
11. His temperament was... romantic.
12. Many were... to know how he achieved such perfection in his orchestra playing.
Exercise 2. Correct the following statements, beginning your answer with the phrase "It's a pity that you have missed the point,"...
1. It is essential that conductors, stage-directors or film-directors shouldn't subordinate the players to their will.
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2. Toscanini felt flattered when all interested in his method of work attended his rehearsals.
3. He allowed any person to be present at his rehearsals if this person wasn't his close friend.
4. Nobody could understand why Toscanini insisted that only his most intimate friends should see him at work.
5. Toscanini was such a wonderful model for sculptors, that they made lots of his portraits.
6. Toscanini always came to the rehearsals in a bad mood, but satisfied with the orchestra playing immediately became happy.
7. He never stopped the orchestra playing as it knew very well what should be accented.
8. Toscanini's face was so unexpressive that he could explain and convey his understanding of musical piece they were rehearsing only in words.
9. Toscanini was far from being able to transform himself into every instrument, that's why his musicians never understood him properly.
10. Toscanini was such kind of a conductor who never suffers if the orchestra doesn't reach his vision.
11. If he saw that the orchestra couldn't reach his vision he gave up playing.
Exercise 3. Give full answers to the questions:
1. What is it essential that every great conductor should have?
2. Why did Toscanini insist that his rehearsals shouldn't be attended by people?
3. How would he begin his rehearsals?
4. When did he grow dissatisfied?
5. Why did he stop the playing of the orchestra so often?
6. How did he convey his inner vision?
7. What were his gestures and facial expressions?
8. Why do many people wish Toscanini had been used as a model by a sculptor?
9. How did he make the orchestra give way to his will?
10. Why did he begin to suffer while rehearsing?
11. How did he show his suffering?
12. How did the music sound when performed by Toscanini's orchestra?
Exercise4. Speak on the following topics:
1. Toscanini's qualities of a conductor.
2. Toscanini at rehearsals.
"Sviatoslav Richter at the piano"
(a part of the interview)
Yakov Milstein: "Your repertoire is really large. It's truly remarkable."
Sviatoslav Richter: "The fewer the better--isn't that right?"
(..Plenty of laughter...)
Y.M.: "No, that's not true! Is it because you believe in all of these pieces?"
S.R.: "Yes, I do. Believing is essential to my performance. That's most important."
Y.M.: "How so? What it means is your power to digest."
S.R.: "No, I'm in no mood to play what's bad. All the same, the pieces that I do like to play, I like to perform. How would I perform it..."
Y.M.: "But you like to play many pieces."
S.R.: "Yes, there are many pieces that interest me. Is it greediness, do you think?"
Y.M.: "No such thing!"
S.R.: "There are people who like the piece, there are those who say 'this is good, this is bad'...in everything there's something good."
Y.M.: "Yes."
S.R.: "In saying this I don't mean that the entire work is good necessarily...the problem is not the school or the style...the most important thing is the work as a whole. The most talented person is involved. In the arts what is important above all is how one employs the talent; participation is everything."
Y.M.: "What is your most recent performance trend? Is it the classical or modern style? You play few pieces from the mid-romantic period. Will you tell me about this?"
S.R.: "I've played a few pieces from the romantic period...I've gotten tired of it. My performances of these works are not outstanding. They are to be played from the point of view of emotional expression. I find it especially difficult to perform these works. In performing modern and classical pieces, the intellect is the most important element. But in romantic style, the physical and powerful aspects are important. The great majority of the people unneccessarily think that it is only because of this that the piece is difficult. For me in this sense, it is impossible to perform these pieces. So, the young people are misled, and what is actually the difficult part gets ignored and is seen as unneccessarily. The public demand is an intensity which surpasses this. Also, the public is always the right judge."
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to digest ,
greediness
to involve
to employ . ,
trend
mislead ( misled )
to surpass ,
judge
Cellist and Conductor
( a part of the interview with Mstislav Rostropovich)
We carry out a divine service with our music
Born in 1927, the son of a cellist and a pianist, Rostropovich took in music with his mothers milk, so to speak. As a child, he received a thorough education on both piano and cello, until, in accordance with his fathers wishes, he concentrated entirely on the violincello. He debuted as a soloist when he was only 13 years of ageat the advanced age of 14, following the early death of his father, he had to concern himself with supporting his familyand, owing to his outstanding accomplishments, within three years he entered the renowned Moscow Music Conservatory. He immediately began a meteoric career as the leading cellist of the former Soviet Union, which very quickly led him abroad. At the beginning of the 1960s, he conducted his first public concert, together with his friend, the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and in 1968 he premiered a sensational musically new production of Tchaikovskys opera Eugene Onegin at the world-renowned Bolshoi Theater, in which his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, held the position of Primadonna assoluta.
At the time of this interview, Mstislav Rostropovich was on tour, concertizing as both cellist and conductor on the occasion of his 70th birthday. At the end of November 1997, two of these Jubilee concerts took place with the Vienna Philharmonic, in the concert hall of the tradition-rich Vienna Music Association. There, on November 20, Mr. Rostropovich was interviewed for Fidelio, and its German-language sister publication Ibykus, by Hartmut Cramer.
Fidelio: Mr. Rostropovich, for nearly forty years, youthe world-famous cellisthave also experienced an equally great career as a conductor. Does this mean that you became a conductor without ever having properly learned conducting?
Rostropovich: Of course not. Ill tell you how my conducting career came about.
Since my youth, it was my dream to become a conductor and not a cellist. When I was somewhere between eight and nine years old, my father, who also was a cellistby the way, he played much better cello than Iplayed often in the orchestra at a resort during the summer; I believe he did that only so that wehis wife and two childrenmight have a vacation, since we simply had no money for normal vacations.
Unfortunately, my father died of a heart attack when he was very young; that was 1942, and he was just 50 years old. He was an unusually strong personality, and always said: If the people need me, then they will come to me. He was that certain of his abilityand yet, no one came.
Fidelio: Was he very much embittered when he died?
Rostropovich: Yes, he was. I believe that my father, where he is now, must be very pleased that God has enabled me to have so beautiful an artistic life, because he had no luck in his. He was as musically gifted as I, he was highly gifted. He could play the pianoan entire orchestral score, in fact, by heart, he composed...
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Fidelio:... Your father was a pianist too, not just your mother?
Rostropovich: Oh, my father was the best pianist in the family. He played Chopins entire piano oeuvre, by heart; all the ballades, the études, sonatas, the concertos, all. And detailed study of a full score, this I learned from my father. So too, the ability to play a piece by heart after having played it through only two or three times. But the prima vistato play at first sight, to sight-read, in that, my father held complete sway. That he did like no one else. When I put together my first piano concertI was then a good 13 years old, and a year later my father diedhe took the score and sight-read the entire concert. It was inconceivable, but true. That was my father and first teacher.
Now, because our family was very poor, my father accepted a position every summer in a small resort orchestra; that was in southern Russia, in Zaporozhye, and also in Slavyansk. It was there in Slavyansk, in 1940, that I played as a soloist with an orchestra for the first timeit was the cello concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Fidelio: And with that began, at 13 years of age, your career as a cellist?
Rostropovich: Yes. Before, my father had always taken me to rehearsalseven the concerts in Zaporozhye. I was at every rehearsal and sat in the orchestra, somewhere between the first and second violins, and listened. The people were very nice to me; I learned a lot. I had already composed my first piece at age four (which my father preserved in its entirety!).
From the start, the conductors fascinated me a great deal. One of the first taught me transposition, at age six or seven; that is, reading the clarinet voice, the brass instruments, and so on. And, from that time on, I dreamt of becoming a conductor. Up until age 13, I would conduct old recordings; for example, the symphonies of Tchaikovsky. But, my father insisted that I become a cellist, and he also taught me. So I became a cellist, and not a conductorbut I never gave up my old dream. At first, in fact, I had no time for it, and also I wanted to finish up my musical education quickly. As a rule, students come to the Conservatory at age 18, and study there for five years. Now, I had difficulties with the final examination for the first term; of course not with cello playing, but in the theoretical division...
Fidelio:... Music theory, harmony?...
Rostropovich:... No, nowith that I had no problem. But we were also tested on Marxism-Leninism, the history of workers movements, and so forth; and about these I really knew nothing at all. Butmy father had been dead over a year, I had to provide for my family, for my mother and older sisterso I mastered all these requirements during the next year, so that it went better at the end of the term. I could do the cello playing anyway, of course, which my father had taught me. And, naturally, I perfected my technique at the Conservatory, broadened the repertoire, improved intonation still further; in all modesty, I can say, that I played very well in the examination at the end of the second term. I had sought out the most difficult things from the literaturepieces by Paganini, for exampleand played them absolutely cleanly and technically perfectly.
Fidelio: So, you were what Mozart called a solid cellist?
Rostropovich: Yes, one could say that. The professors were so pleased, that they promoted me at once from the second year to the fifth and last; so I had to study at the Moscow Conservatory for only two years, instead of five. By then I had completed nineteen years of study, and stood ready to begin a great career as a cellist. Yet, at the same timeand this quite seriouslyI immediately began a career as a conductor.
thorough ,
in accordance with
owing to
accomplishment
resort
embitter ,
hold sway
inconceivable ,
entirety
to insist
to fascinate
