"Gifts and Prayers" and Music from the Golden Age of Russia

This past Tuesday, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music held an ensemble concert inspired by our current exhibition on 19th century objects from Russia titled “Gifts and Prayers: The Romanovs and Their Subjects.” The concert program, “Music from the Golden Age of Russian Culture,” focuses on Russian music from that same period and examines another side of art from the era of Romanov rule. Some highlights of the concert include:

Scherzo in A flat Major by Alexander Borodin

 

Just as some of the gifts given and received during the House of Romanov included enameled miniatures, it turns out music can have miniatures too. Clocking in at three minutes when played at the correct tempo, this vivacious and lively piece belies Alexander Borodin's own interesting background. Borodin, who was a bright youth with a passion for both the sciences and the arts, was denied access to higher education because he was born out of wedlock to a Georgian prince and a commoner. Eventually, through the help of his mother and stepfather, Borodin enrolled at the academy of medicine in Saint Petersburg.

Sonata for Violin I: Allegro by Mikhail Glinka

Glinka is known for his particularly Russian brand of classical music, and his works were performed often during the Romanov Tercentenary in 1913, which celebrated the rule of the Romanov dynasty. Under the rule of Nicholas I, Glinka's “The Life of a Tsar” became the national opera of Russia.

The last highlight is “Ya li v pole da ne travushka bila (Were I a blade of grass)” from Seven Romances Op. 47 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, sung here by Polish soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara. This sorrowful and graceful piece takes its words from a poem published in 1870 by Ivan Surikov, titled “Little-Russian Melody.”

The Russian Art World

Although Russia was virtually free of art censorship in the late 80’s and 90’s, it has more recently become quick to dismiss and destroy pollitical and dissident art. The Russian art pax ended in 1998, 

When the artist Avdei Ter-Oganian was charged with breaking a prerevolutionary law against provoking religious tension, reactivated just for this case, after he used Orthodox Christian icons in a performance. Faced with a jail term, he fled to the Czech Republic, where he was granted political asylum.

Since then, artists and curators have been under attack by Russian governmental authorities. One case featured in ARTnews centers on two curators on trial for inciting religious hatred. 

They have been accused of breaking a law passed in 1996 against inciting religious hatred. Andrei Erofeev, the critic, scholar, and former head of the Tretyakov Gallery’s department of current trends, and Yuri Samodurov, the former director of the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center, face fines and/or prison terms of up to five years if they are convicted.

 Apparently, one of the witnesses at trial proclaimed that the pieces featuring Christian worshippers praying to Mickey Mouse catalyzed his wife’s premature death. “Such blasphemy took away her will to live,” He said. An orthodox priest also spoke up, calling Erofeev a “servant of Satan." Erofeev and Samodurov aren’t alone in these cultural and societal “crimes." Young artists are stirring up the media and the government with a new wave of actionism, a movement based on political provocation. One group of young people have riled up the local authorities by performing “Monstrations”—flash-mob street parties carrying messages like “Where am I?”, “Return me to Mars!” and “Pigs are humans too." The artists have been charged with mass disturbances, arson, and defacement of private property, all of which they have denied. ARTnews delves into other contemporary cases involving taboo messages leading to jail time and arrests.

 It seems that the only person who has time to make statements connected to art is Prime Minister Putin. Visiting the gallery of the nationalist painter Ilya Glazunov in June, the former president advised the 79-year-old realist to lengthen Prince Oleg’s sword in a painting of the medieval princes Oleg and Igor. Putin thought the sword looked more like a knife for cutting sausage. Glazunov said he would take the prime minister’s suggestion.