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Interview of Yuriy Butsko to Galina Snitovskaya: “To give all my work, my life, to Russia”

Writer's picture: Ilia KononovIlia Kononov

Musical Life. 1999. No. 4. P. 11-13


(Variant in the newspaper "Center". 1992. No. 15)



– I came into music at the turn of the fifties and sixties, suddenly realizing that this was my business, although after school I entered the history department of the pedagogical institute. I wanted to be an archaeologist. I graduated from the music school, and then, in 1961, I was accepted to the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the composer S.A. Balasanyan. I was twenty-three years old.


– And did you write a lot during your student years?


- Quite a few, including the mono-opera "Notes of a Madman" based on Gogol. And for this "crime" there was a punishment: I was suspended from classes for two months. But great musicians resolutely stood up for me: pianists M. Grinberg and M. Yudina, conductor K. Kondrashin, theorist, professor T. Müller, D. Shostakovich called and took the score. I was returned to my native walls. And by 1968, when I finished my postgraduate studies, more than twenty works had been written.


– Even then, professionals showed interest in your music; it was performed by conductors D. Kitaenko and G. Rozhdestvensky, singer G. Pisarenko. You became a topic of conversation among young people outside the conservatory.


– It was the time of the “thaw”. People believed in the possibility of radical changes after Stalin. We gathered in the Lenin Library, the Mayakovsky Museum, the clubs of Moscow State University and the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, discussed political life, hoping for a bright future. But the state once again began to fight dissent. In response, a dissident movement began. I was not openly involved in politics. I firmly decided: I will not let myself rot, I need to reject politics. I will say more about music. I do not want and will not participate in parties of any kind. Only music.


– But listeners still felt protest and opposition to the dominant ideology in your music .


- And I perceived all this very acutely, because I have never accepted and will never accept the suppression and destruction of everything living: dissent and dissent. And what of my music did you listen to?


- Unfortunately, not everything, but a lot. I listened to "Notes of a Madman." At first it seemed strange to me that you decided to sort of move away from Gogol in the finale. But then, I think, I understood the idea: it is not Poprishchin who is mad, but an ugly, marginal society chained in stone and imperial iron. And the little man is full of love: for beauty, for a woman, for Russia. The music attracted me with its lyricism, melodiousness, piercing humanity.


– The first public performance of “Notes” took place seven years after it was written, in a version for voice and piano. The performers were the serious and subtle musician Maria Grinberg and the first-class singer Sergei Yakovenko. Much later, the opera was brought to the concert stage by conductor Kirill Kondrashin. It was performed in Moscow on the stage of the Tchaikovsky Hall and in other cities.


– I listened to a recording of the opera “White Nights” by Dostoevsky. In the music I heard the cry of a weary soul, the response of a loving heart. Was this opera staged?


– It was ready for television. They were going to release a television play, but the censors banned the showing. And soon a record was released with the voices of G. Pisarenko and A. Mishchevsky. Their singing, their state of mind then perfectly expressed my idea. The stage production of the opera was carried out in Dresden in the 1968/1969 season by director Harry Kupfer. Wonderful performers sang, especially the tenor, a singer with an extraordinary voice. The performance was received very well. The opera score and piano score were published in Dresden. I was happy. It seemed to me that I lived like Wagner – the whole city at my feet. In my joy, I bought complete works of Mozart and Bach, filled four containers with literature and sent them to Moscow. They are still running. But at home, the opera never received a stage embodiment.


- What is creativity for you? Can I ask such a "global" question?


– My thoughts are always directed to Russia, its nature, literature, music and religion. And to give it all my work, my life, working in different genres: music, theater, cinema… The words “homeland”, “fatherland” are connected for me with two concepts: ethnic and moral-ethical affiliation. And if no one is free to choose a language, temperament, then the choice of a moral-ethical code is to a large extent a conscious action. The moral rightness and honesty of an artist are proven by his whole life.


– It seems to me that in your work there is a desire to defend the honor and dignity of man, to awaken his conscience. The sources of your work evoke understanding and a response in the soul: ancient Russian art, Russian classics, folklore.


– Indeed, folk music is the basis of many of my works. And here the main thing for me is not the calculated, “profitable” exploitation of the folk, not the external signs of the national – these are only “passport data” – but loyalty to the ethical and philosophical ideals of the people. I traveled across Russian lands, especially in the North, in expeditions to the Arkhangelsk region. I recorded ancient Russian chants. And I perceived this art as a symbol of hope for the revival of the Russian ethnic group. This is a seed that fell into the ground and must sprout, give its shoots. Folk cries and lamentations, znamenny chants, psalmody…


– I am familiar with your cantata “Wedding Songs”…


- The cantata is written for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir and symphony orchestra, consists of six parts, not connected by a common plot, but I, insofar as I am capable, connected them with internal logic into a single compositional whole. In the recording [under the direction of G.N. Rozhdestvensky] the female part is performed by Lyudmila Belobragina, very accurately, in my understanding.


- I was struck by the high spiritual mood of the composition, the Russian spiritual fervor. Is the philosophical basis of your work the religious Christian tradition?


– I guess you could say that. I had to pay an exorbitant price for my convictions – the spiritual Christian focus of my compositions caused the authorities to reject my music from listeners. For many decades, people were told that spiritual life, and especially religious life, was harmful to them. But I wrote. I will name some of my compositions. The symphony-suite “Old Russian Painting”, “Lament” – the Second Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, dedicated to the memory of Fomaida Zaleskaya from Kargopol, an Old Believer, the keeper of the Old Russian singing tradition. The Second Cello Concerto on a Gospel Theme [“Ricercar”]. The oratorio “The Tale of the Pugachev Rebellion” and much more.


– Please, a few words about the “Polyphonic Concert”.


– I wrote this opus back in 1969, but it was rarely performed. The music is based on themes of znamenny rospev – ancient Russian monophonic singing. The goal is to give examples of various ways of developing authentic ancient themes, taken in precise modern transcriptions.


– Don’t you think that in our time people especially need Russian classical music?


– I bow before Russian classics. The principles and traditions of the Russian national school of composition are sacred to me. I love not only music, but also much of the literature and painting of the “golden” and “silver” ages of Russian culture.


- I understood this when I listened to your vocal cycle based on the poems of Vladislav Khodasevich performed by the singer Anatoly Sokolovsky. I felt the tragedy of man, his protest against the injustice of fate.


– To be honest, I didn’t know a singer in Moscow who could devote himself to his work so much and experiment so boldly, while remaining within the framework of great traditions and the magnificent vocal school he received. Anatoly Sokolovsky was the exponent of musical intonation, without which my artistic ideas might not have been realized. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us.


– The “Silver” Age is also reflected in your mono-opera “From the Artist’s Letters”…


- I wanted to tell you about my admiration for the original, bright talent of Konstantin Korovin. He was not only an outstanding artist, a friend and comrade of Vrubel, Serov, Chaliapin, but also an excellent writer and storyteller. His autobiographical book formed the basis for the libretto of the mono-opera.


– Listening to her, I thought about how unbearably an artist suffers from misunderstanding, rejection of his work. And about the fact that a great artist is always an exponent of the national and at the same time international principle.


I am glad that you have understood the main idea of the opera absolutely correctly. The artist in exile is an inexhaustible and always tragic theme.


- For a long time you were "not allowed to travel abroad", your art, to put it mildly, was not promoted. But now something has changed? Your works can be heard in concert halls, at "Moscow Autumn".


– Of the many things I have written, only a small part is heard. Three components make the fate of an artist happy: natural talent, the opportunity to work, that is, to create your own works, and, finally, access to people. It is not for me to judge the first, but the latter – access to the listener – is always tragically lacking for me. I experience a deficit of publicity, I continue to be an “inconvenient” composer.


– However, I remember very well the success of Hamlet and your music for it at the Taganka Theatre.


– I have worked a lot for this theatre, and for others too. I was first invited to the play “Pugachev”, later there were works of different styles. I did not immediately agree to start “Hamlet”. I was confused by a number of circumstances: the film “Hamlet” with wonderful music by Shostakovich had just been released – I was weighed down by the weight of associations. And yet, with the help of Vysotsky, I managed to overcome my doubts. I wrote the music quickly – rehearsals were already underway to a recorded orchestral soundtrack. I worked both in film and for television.


– I know about another area of your work – teaching .


- I taught at the Moscow Conservatory for six years in the composition department. But every time during the discussion of works in the famous thirty-fifth class with a portrait of Shostakovich, battles were played out, often far from music. And now I teach a class on instrumentation and reading scores.


I understand that you don’t want to get involved in politics in music; many consider you an ascetic, immersed only in work…

– I am close to Korovin’s credo: “I love simple things: art, friendship, the sun.”


– You celebrated your sixtieth birthday and thirty years of creative activity. What did you wish for yourself during these days?


– I want people to listen to my music...

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