New Works of St.Petersburg Composers Treating Biblical
Subjects
November 11, 2002
Composers' House Concert Hall in St.Petersburg, Russia
Reviewed by M.Zalivadny
Zalivadny
galeyev@prometey.kcn.ru
The multimedia concert entitled New Works of St.Petersburg Composers
Treating Biblical Subjects took place on November 11, 2002, at the Composers'
House concert hall in St.Petresburg, Russia. It was organized by the
St.Petersburg Composers' Union and the city's Jewish Communal Centre
and supported by the Joint Committee in the USA. Among the creative
bodies that had taken part in preparing the performance were the electronic
music studio of the Composers' Union and the Ayin video art studio of
the Jewish Centre.
Irrespective of the programme title, the compositions performed at the
concert were disposing towards appreciating them not as consecutive
interpretations of the biblical stories, but as self-dependent works
of art that included some of the biblical motifs and concepts. The first
of the compositions, Ecclesiastes Chapter One by Anatoly Korolyov
(for cello solo, electronics and visual image series) appeared as a
"poetic cinema" work creating a kind of plot-free contemporary
life panorama accompanied by the biblical text (in reading and print).
In this panorama, the "live" meditative" cello solo part
(performed by Taras Trepel) played an important unifying role, binding
up heterogeneous sound and visual elements into a single integrated
whole. The other two compositions, Banishing from Eden by Sophia Levkovskaya
(for chamber ensemble, electronics and visual images mainly,
projected photo portraits) and The Water of Meribah (based on an episode
from the book of Exodus) by Yuri Krasavin (for instrumental ensemble,
magnetic tape and "computer paintings") were for the most
part less convincing in applying electronic technologies and correlating
them to more traditional components of the music; however, in the climax
zone of the "Meribah" piece, highly-colored "abstract"
computer animation sequences produced an undoubtedly positive aesthetic
effect comparable to those known from light-and-music films (co-author
and performer of the visual part in all compositions: Maxim Ephros,
Ayin studio). As a result, the concert may with good reason be concluded
a serious step in mastering and propagating multimedia art possibilities,
especially among the musicians (as one may say in treating multimedia
subjects).
Mikhail S.Zalivadny, St.Petersburg