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