A Feast of Russian Arts

The strong and impressive Russian theme at this year's Edinburgh Festival commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

The festival opened on August 9 with three giant compa­nies, the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Leningrad's Gorky Drama Theatre, and the spectacular young traditional folk music and dance group Siverko, from the arctic city of Arkhangelsk.

Other musicians in the first week included the Bolshoi Sextet, and the final week sees the arrival of the Shostakovich Quartet.

The first of the four programmes by the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, in an Usher Hall draped with garlands, was a fascinating demonstration of Russian tone quality and Russian interpretation. After the two national anthems the rustling, atmospheric opening movement of the suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's Invisible City of Kitezh, with some particularly expressive strands of oboe tone, was sufficiently promising to make the thought of even a familiar piece of Tchaikovsky seem exciting.

Nobody, at any rate, could have called the Rimsky familiar. Though it was performed in an arrangement by Maximilian Steinberg, this did not prevent the brazen battle scene, with its ferocious side-drum, from being a sensational display of Russian strength, or the woodwind passages in other movements from being an exquisite display of Russian sweetness.

The account of the symphony was quite remarkable. It was played with thrilling velocity (yet with sufficient breathing-space where Tchaikovsky asked for it), with beautifully charac­terized woodwind, keenly defined textures and a penchant for highlighting inner parts, especially if they happened to involve the horns. The conductor, Mark Ermler was more in his ele­ment in Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony.

Whether or not one actually liked the horn tune was beside the point. It was authentically Russian, and though, at the start of the slow movement, it sounded like an amplified saxophone, its eloquence was not to be gainsaid. In small details — such as the effect of the cellos and basses doing entirely different things at points in the finale — just as in the symphony's grand design, this was a stunning performance and perhaps, after all, a Festival event.

What one did expect and received was a performance of massive vocal integrity and a grand convincing enunciation of the music by Irina Arkhipova, with a recurring arm move­ment — hand stretched towards the audience.

In the event, the curtains of the Playhouse Theatre opened to reveal a company that were the epitome of everything we have come to expect from a Russian folk dance group — vast numbers, and endless variety of colourful and beautifully-embroided costumes, and — most important of all — boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm. The musicians, all extreme­ly accomplished, performed on zither and some remarkable va­rieties of shawm.

It all finished with the entire company lined up in front of the stage singing Auld Lang Syne — a characteristically warm­hearted gesture to end a programme that was irresistibly good-natured, impeccably presented, skillfully performed, entertain­ing and enjoyable — and which left the audience clamouring insatiably for more.

(From: " The Scotsman, " August 11, 1987)

Task 4. Answer the questions on the text:

1) What music was performed at the festival?

2) What musical instruments were engaged?

3) What made the festival authentically Russian?

4) Would you like to visit such a festival? Why (not)?

Task 5. Prepare a glossary based on Task 1 and Task 3. Include all the underlined active vocabulary units in it.

— SPEAKING