What distinguishes a symphony orchestra 1922. Persimfans

17.03.2019

To the 100th anniversary October revolution Moscow orchestra Persimfans and Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra prepared concert program, following the principles of the historical Persimfance, a group of musicians founded in 1922 without a conductor. The concert of the ensembles of the sister cities of Moscow and Düsseldorf will take place on December 14, 2017 in the Concert Hall named after. P. I. Tchaikovsky of the Moscow Philharmonic.

After two concerts, which two ensembles played with great success in October at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, a return visit is planned: more than 60 musicians from Moscow and 20 from Düsseldorf will present in the Moscow Concert Hall. P.I. Tchaikovsky program created in accordance with the principles of the historical Persimfans. It included works played by the former Persimfans - which had a noticeable impact on the Russian avant-garde during the revolution. Thus, through the joint performance of works that have grown out of the common European musical tradition, in anniversary year The October Revolution will recreate a long forgotten aspect of the European avant-garde. At the same time, you will feel a fresh creativity denies the hierarchy in music, it will be tested for relevance to today's context.

In 2008, the Moscow musician Pyotr Aidu, the grandson of one of the musicians who stood at the origins of the historical Persimfans, gave the ensemble a second birth - absolutely in the spirit of its predecessor. Musicians current membership understand their activities as the revival of the utopias of the European avant-garde destroyed by the dictatorships of the 20th century. In an incredibly intensive rehearsal process, without the participation of a conductor, interpretations of works are born that would be impossible within the framework of the daily activities of an ordinary symphony orchestra. The accompanying huge responsibility of each individual musician and the need for constant communication between musicians lead to unique results that throw a musical bridge to the art of theater and performance.
The Ensemble defines itself primarily as an art group that, along with concerts, carries out interactive sound installations and projects in the field of theater and multimedia. Persimfans' projects - the interactive sound installation "Reconstruction of Noise" (2012) and the theatrical and multimedia stage project "Reconstruction of Utopia" - had big success with the public and critics in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Perm, Berlin and other cities. These projects have received many awards, in particular, the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize in 2014.

Experimental sound art can be heard and seen at the concert on December 14th. Musicians from Germany and Russia - on the principle of Persimfans, playing without a conductor - have developed an interesting concert program for this joint project.

One of the most interesting and innovative projects of the heyday Soviet culture was Persimfans - First symphony ensemble. It was founded in Moscow in 1922 and, in consonance with the ideals of the Russian revolution, performed music, abandoning the authoritative figure of the conductor, who was interpreted as a symbol of absolute power. During the performance, the musicians of the orchestra, whose repertoire included both classical and contemporary works, sat in a circle to maintain eye contact with each other - required condition for a well-coordinated game without a conductor. During its heyday, the ensemble gave more than 70 concerts a season, and although they all took place in Moscow, Persimfans gained world fame and was considered the best orchestra of its time. Orchestras without a conductor, following his model, began to appear not only in the USSR, but also abroad, including in Germany. In 1932, the idealistic project fell victim to Stalin's cultural repressions.

And today, the revived orchestra without a conductor has been and remains one of the most interesting musical groups ours. And his programs are bright and "revolutionary".

Photo by Ira POLAR

In Moscow in the hall. Tchaikovsky hosted another project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, and the headline of his concerts was the review of the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin about the Beethoven Appassionata Sonata he listened to - “inhuman music”.

"Persimfans" (First Symphony Ensemble), an orchestra without a conductor, was organized in Moscow in 1922 and became one of the most remarkable phenomena cultural life Soviet Russia. The team gave up to seventy concerts per season. Having never performed outside of Moscow, Persimfans gained worldwide fame as one of the best symphony ensembles of that time. In his likeness, orchestras without a conductor were organized not only in the USSR, but also abroad - in the USA and Germany. Some time later, there were decades of forced interruption in the activities of Persimfans.

Its revival began in 2008 at the initiative of Petr Aidu, pianist and composer, teacher at the Faculty of Historical and Contemporary Performance of the Moscow Conservatory. His interests are wide - from baroque to contemporary music. He was also interested in Persimfans. In one of the interviews, Aidu spoke about glorious history orchestra without a conductor and that he was deliberately excluded from history Soviet music like many cultural and scientific phenomena in Stalin era. "I was then looking for new form playing music and found that we need to continue it,” recalls Aidu. “Persimfans should exist as a Bolshoi theater, a conservatory. This is our Moscow one, it was located on the territory of the Moscow Conservatory, and its base was the Great Hall.”

Demonstration of the achievements of Persimfans recent years became his a joint project with the Düsseldorf Tonhalle. The United Symphony Ensemble of two sister cities - Moscow and Düsseldorf gave three concerts. On October 7 and 8, Moscow musicians teamed up with the artists of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and on December 14, the third concert was held in the Hall. P. Tchaikovsky. In Moscow, Dusseldorfers joined our musicians. The only concert in the capital was organized by the Apriori Arts agency in partnership with the Helikon Artists agency and the directorate of Tonhalle Dusseldorf with the active support of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, the German Foreign Ministry and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Rarely included in the concert program performed works written in the 20s of the twentieth century. in post-revolutionary Germany and the USSR, as well as classical music: works by Beethoven and Mozart. We started with Mozart. The chamber ensemble of Persimfans performed the Overture to the opera The Magic Flute. At this time, frames from the life of Soviet people which were in no way compatible with Mozart's music. Why were they needed? But one could not look at them, but only listen to the beautiful music of the Austrian genius. The orchestra played wonderfully. This was followed by Alexander Mosolov's Quartet No. 1 and the rather interesting symphonic rhapsody October by Joseph Schillinger, skillfully filled with the motives of revolutionary songs.

The second branch also began with the classics. Beethoven's Egmont Overture was played. It was Egmont that became the main center of the concert. Bright dramatic tension and perfect sound engineering immediately captured the audience, bursting into thunderous applause. The Overture was followed by Edmund Meisel's music for Sergei Eisenstein's film The Battleship Potemkin. This is where the footage of the film was more than appropriate. The film organically merged with the music, and looked and listened perfectly. Then there were two melody recitations by Julius Meitus "Blows of the Communard" and "On the Death of Ilyich." His evening is over symphonic suite"On the Dneprostroy" - a cheerful, enthusiastic picture of the working days of Soviet workers.

The concert program "Inhuman Music" of the resurgent Persimfans seemed ambiguous. One got the impression that so far only musicians are interested in its existence, and not listeners at all. It was too long ago. Today, both in Russia and in the world, the conductor's orchestra reigns. The audience goes to the conductors. On the past concert gathered far from a full Hall of them. Tchaikovsky, and after the break, its ranks thinned out significantly, although a number of numbers, as I already wrote, were received enthusiastically. There are several lines in the program of the evening that “under the auspices of Persimfans, cultural studies are being carried out, exhibitions are being organized and theatrical performances. Persimfans today is a universal combination of arts. Fine, but this is only on the sidelines of the musicians. As for the broad masses, who in the twenties of the last century enjoyed the concerts of Persimfans, today they are far from his art, and they hardly need it. But for students of musical institutions, this is interesting and obviously necessary. We wish them success in this direction. Maybe we'll get something interesting.

First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council

symphony orchestra without a conductor. Honored Collective of the Republic (1927). Organized in 1922 on the initiative of Professor L.M. Zeitlin. Persimfans included orchestra members Bolshoi Theater, professors and students of the conservatory. The work of Persimfans was headed by an artistic council from among its members. From 1925 Persimfans gave weekly subscription concerts. Pianists K.N. Igumnov, G.G. Neuhaus, A.B. Goldenweiser, V.V. Sofronitsky, vocalists A.V. Nezhdanova, N.A. Obukhova, I.S. Kozlovsky, and foreign performers. Persimfans performed in the largest Moscow concert halls, in workers' clubs and houses of culture, at factories and factories. The Board in 1926-29 published the magazine "Persimfans" with a circulation of 1.7 thousand copies. Ceased to exist in 1932.

Literature: Zukker A., ​​Five years of Persimfans, M., 1927.


Moscow. Encyclopedic reference book. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia. 1992 .

See what the "First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council" is in other dictionaries:

    The First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council, symphony. orchestra without a conductor. Honored Collective of the Republic (1927). Organized in 1922 on the initiative of Professor Mosk. Conservatory L. M. Zeitlin. P. the first in the history of music. lawsuit va symph. orchestra without ... ... Music Encyclopedia

    The first symphony ensemble of the Moscow City Council, the Simferopol orchestra without a conductor. Founded in 1922 on the initiative of Professor L. M. Zeitlin of the Moscow Conservatory; existed until 1932. Honored Collective of the Republic (1927). As part of P. ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    - (The First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council), a symphony orchestra without a conductor. Worked in 1922 32 (organizer L. M. Zeitlin). Honored Collective of the Republic (1927). * * * PERSIMFANS PERSIMFANS (The First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council), ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (short for the First Symphony Ensemble, also the First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council) an orchestra that existed in Moscow from 1922 to 1932. hallmark this orchestra was the absence of a conductor in it. First performance ... ... Wikipedia

    - (The First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council) a symphony orchestra without a conductor. Worked in 1922 32 (organizer L. M. Zeitlin). Honored Collective of the Republic (1927) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    Concert of Persimfans in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. Moscow. Persimfans The first symphony ensemble, a symphony orchestra without a conductor. Honored Collective of the Republic (1927). Organized in 1922 on the initiative of Professor L.M. Zeitlin. Part… … Moscow (encyclopedia)

Persimfans at a concert in KZCh. Photo - Ira Polyarnaya

Persimfans - or the First Symphony Ensemble, an orchestra without a conductor, was created in 1922.

Accepted revolutionary ideas musicians of the young free, as it seemed then, the Land of the Soviets, united in a team where "each orchestra listens to the other and to everyone in general."

During the ten years of its existence, until 1932, the orchestra managed to become the Honored Collective of the Republic in 1927.

The musicians gave more than 70 concerts during the season, the stars of those years performed as soloists with him: J. Szigeti, K. Cecchi, V. S. Horowitz, S. S. Prokofiev, A. B. Goldenweiser, K. N. Igumnov, G. G. Neugauz, M. V. Yudina, V. V. Sofronitsky, M. B. Polyakin, A. V. Nezhdanova, N. A. Obukhova, V. V. Barsova, etc.

In the mid-1930s, against the backdrop of a growing "cult of personality", the orchestra without a conductor seemed suspiciously free, and was disbanded.

The revival of Persimfans took place in 2008 thanks to business efforts and personal charm, which attracted associates, Petr Aida and Grigory Krotenko.

Persimfans of the 21st century is a team of the best musicians from symphony and opera orchestras in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm and other Russian cities. "Last of the Mohicans" enthusiasts ready to free time, often asking for time off at the main job, rehearse for the sake of interest, for the sake of new music and joys of co-creation on an equal footing.

The composition of the performers is updated every time by about a third, and each upcoming concert is fraught with the question - will it work out this time?


Peter Aidu. Photo - Ira Polyarnaya

But not only it turns out, it becomes an Event in the cultural life of the capital.

Evening Persimfans, held in the Concert Hall. P. I. Tchaikovsky on December 14, 2017, was special. For the first time, our musicians teamed up with the artists Düsseldorfer Symphoniker on October 7 and 8 in concert hall Düsseldorf Tonhalle.

Now 18 German colleagues, mostly wind players of the famous German school, fewer string players, took their places at the consoles in Persimfance.

The organizer of the concert in Moscow is the Apriori Arts agency represented by independent producer Elena Kharakidzyan in partnership with the German agency Helikon Artists and the directorate of Tonhalle Düsseldorf with the support of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, the German Foreign Ministry and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Well, how can one not remember about the "German trace" in the events of October 1917!

By the way, as it became known at the briefing before the start, neither the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, nor the Committee for Culture of the city of Moscow, expressing their interest in the Russian-German event in words, did not provide real support.

The concert program is essentially a performance that combines music, cinema, elements of a parody of the revolutionary agitation theater. Here, everything, down to the “each in his own” suits of the orchestra players, with a predominance of white, scarlet and orange, made sense.

Seems like an academic start. Mozart. Overture to The Magic Flute. And right there small print: "in the processing of 1930 for cinema, clubs and schools." An ensemble of about 10 people came out, led by Petr Aidu at the piano and an instrument or two from the group, harmoniously and cheerfully began long-familiar passages. But the video!

The talented work of multimedia artist Platon Infante, who cut the chronicle of the early 20th century and Dziga Vertov's film footage. Getting marching, laughing, building new life black and white long-dead little men in the tempo of Mozart's rhythm, in his dialectical essence is simply amazing. As the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs said Soviet Republic Georgy Chicherin: "I had a revolution and Mozart"

"An example of abstruse sound poetry of a representative of Dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, expressionism"

– according to Wikipedia. It seems that the musicians liked the rhythmic roll call of different German words, phrases, sounds, slowing down and speeding them up, like group training, a kind of foolish warm-up before the main one. Grigory Krotenko's falsetto solos evoked a constant smile.

"Product of the era" is curious to listen to once. Would cut it in half.

And what a respite for hearing was the next Quartet No. 1, op. 24 by Alexander Mosolov. Beautiful and pure, unlike anyone else, the music of a composer who in the twenties stood on a par with Shostakovich.

Subsequently, his unique gift was broken for eight years in camps under the article "enemy of the people." Violinists Evgeny Subbotin, Asya Sorshneva, Sergei Poltavsky on viola and cellist Olga Dyomina heartily performed this kind of Requiem for a lost generation.


Alexei Vorobyov and Persimfans. Photo - Ira Polyarnaya

After the chamber-intimate Quartet in the semi-darkness, there is again a contrast. Came out full squad orchestra already with instruments, everyone is waiting. Through the aisle in the parterre, to applause, He rose - V. I. Lenin himself!

With a picture gesture, he shook hands with the first violin, with the same vertical palm he gave a sign to the oboe - “la” for tuning.

Ilyich, to the approving laughter in the hall and on the stage, went to his place, turning out to be double bassist Alexei Vorobyov. Mustache and beard with a wedge, a three-piece suit, a speckled tie and the right cap - a stage image.

"Soviet and American composer, music teacher and musicologist, primarily known for his system musical composition Schillinger".

Born in Kharkov, studied in St. Petersburg, after 1929 lived in the USA, buried in New York in 1943.

Sincerely and seriously, Schillinger wrote the rhapsody "October" in 1927, almost on the eve of emigration, or a moment of mockery of Soviet folklore was present in the plan, but the interweaving of “You fell a victim”, “International”, “Boldly, comrades, in step” and especially tart “Lead, Budyonny, we are bolder into battle” paired with “Fried Chicken” for more than 15 minutes delivered middle-older generation, who still remembers these songs, exquisite fun.

Enough already, it's time for the code - suddenly there was a fugato individual groups, by all means. And for dessert: “We are blacksmiths, and our spirit is young” plus “Our locomotive, fly forward!”

The score is written in a complex, rich manner. And after all, they did not disperse without a conductor! Enough active heading, a bow of the accompanists of the groups led by the first violin Marina Katarzhnova.

The orchestra class bores and skeptics could check in after intermission. Beethoven. Egmont Overture. The regular dish of the symphony-cognitive season tickets. And already " business card» new Persimfans.

It was impossible to find fault, everything was in place - the power and purity of the wind instruments, the monolithic strings, the nuances, the final acceleration, the feeling of the free flight of Beethoven's melody.


Grigory Krotenko. Photo - Ira Polyarnaya

After late classic- the forerunner of the romanticism of Beethoven, beloved by Lenin for " inhuman music, another discovery. The chamber composition of the orchestra, reinforced with heavy brass and percussion compared to the Magic Flute, played original music Edmund Meisel for the 1926 Berlin premiere of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.

We were presented with the 5th and 6th acts of the film with the author's markup of the score. From a picture of riot control brutal tsarist army and the Cossacks in Odessa in 1905, through a riot on the ship, ending with the passage without shots of the Potemkin through the admiral's squadron.

The shots of a falling stroller with a baby or raising a red flag on the mast of a rebellious armadillo, worn out to a textbook, looked like for the first time.

Graphically strict, strong in its lapidarity, Meisel's music, sounding here and now, with an imitation of cannon volleys, confirmed that the movie "Battleship Potemkin" was not accidentally recognized as a world-class masterpiece. What big plans!

What editing and dynamics, in the complete absence of technical tricks at the time. And let the Eisenstein script from historical truth The events of 1905 in Odessa are further than Goethe's drama "Egmont" from the fate of a real count from the 16th century, who lived on the eve of the bourgeois revolution in the Netherlands - "I will shed tears over fiction."

And how else, if in the yard on December 14 - the date of the Decembrist Uprising. The failed exit to the Senate Square of conspiring nobles and potential regicides or “young navigators of the future storm”, as we were told in childhood?

Having amused the incorrigible romantics, the program of the evening sobered up with a couple of ernicheskie numbers on the verge of a skit. Julius Meitus, best known for his post-war opera The Young Guard, deftly wrote "Danish" compositions in his youth.

“Blows of the Communard” is an extended monologue for a singer and piano in a tragic style. But the pathos of the opus turned into a mockery, thanks to the peculiar vocals of Grigory Krotenko.

Double-bass virtuoso, gifted music journalist and the radio host has a good tenor-baritone, or baritone-tenor. Some notes sounded almost like an opera! But since vocal school Krotenko does not, the fall of the “corpse” under the piano to the end of the romance standing next to “Ilyich” is a logical outcome.


Andreq Tsitsernaki, Alexey Vorobyov, Petr Aidu, Grigory Krotenko. Photo - Ira Polyarnaya

The melodeclamation “On the death of Ilyich” over the lying “body of Lenin” by the dramatic actor Andrei Tsitsernaka, who stylishly performed the whole evening and the role of a retro entertainer, to the mournful piano chords of Pyotr Aidu, completed the episode “musicians are joking”.

The symphonic suite by Julius Meitus "On the Dneprostroy" (op. 1932) is the finale of the program. Was involved the largest composition orchestra, added drum kit. They played furiously, loudly, with pleasure from their own audacity. At the final bars, all the musicians blew into the pipes and waved their bows while standing, emphasizing the apotheosis of the "folk" building.

The hall went on a rampage, charged with young energy, did not let go. Mosolov's piano concerto sounded as an encore. Piotr Aidu once again showed not only leadership, but also pianistic class.

Such a revolutionary panorama in a concert was unthinkable not only in the days of the USSR, but also immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when suddenly everything great and holy became terrible and shameful. In 1992, suddenly singing in the center of Moscow "International" "because I like the music" French friend I wanted to cover my mouth so they wouldn't beat him.

The average age of Persimfans participants is 30+. This generation no longer wore pioneer ties, did not study the "History of the CPSU" and did not sing about "commissars in dusty helmets." Perhaps it is their view of 1917 that is more objective?

100 years is enough time to understand and accept the facts in all their versatility. When the last living witnesses have gone to another world and all the memoirs of eyewitnesses have been written, it becomes possible to note significant date solemnly mischievous concert with elements of hooliganism "Inhuman Music".

Tatyana Elagina

Persimfans(short for First Symphony Ensemble, also First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council listen)) is an orchestra that existed in Moscow from 1922 to 1932. A distinctive feature of this orchestra was the absence of a conductor in it (partly made up for by the position of the concertmaster, who was located on a raised platform facing the orchestra). The band's first performance took place on February 13, 1922.

Created on the initiative of the violinist Lev Tseitlin under the influence of the Bolshevik idea of ​​"collective labor", Persimfans became the first high-class team that managed to bring a symphonic performance to life, based only on the creative initiative of each of the musicians. At the rehearsals of Persimfans, the methods used at the rehearsals of chamber ensembles were used, decisions on interpretation were made collectively. Among the members of Persimfans were the largest musicians of that time - soloists of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, professors and students of the Moscow Conservatory. The performance of the orchestra was distinguished by great virtuosity, brightness and expressiveness of sound. Following the example of Persimfans, orchestras without conductors also appeared in Leningrad, Kyiv, Voronezh, and even abroad - in Leipzig and New York. This orchestra was praised by Sergei Prokofiev, who performed his Third Piano Concerto with it in 1927. In the same year, the orchestra was awarded honorary title"Honored Collective of the USSR". In the late 1920s, there were disagreements in the team, and in 1932 it was disbanded.

Persimfans played essential role in the cultural life of Moscow in the 1920s, influenced the development of the performing school and the formation of symphony ensembles of a later time (the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the All-Union Radio in 1930 and the USSR State Orchestra in 1936). The weekly concerts of Persimfans in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory were a huge success, in addition, the orchestra often performed at factories, plants and other institutions. The repertoire of the group was selected very carefully and was very extensive.

The First Symphony Orchestra without a conductor PERSIMFANS-- a landmark of early Soviet musical life, which transformed the way symphonic music is played, p...

In 2009, the Persimfans project was reborn under the leadership of the Russian composer and multi-instrumentalist Pyotr Aidu.

Bibliography

  • Poniatowski S.P. Persimfans is an orchestra without a conductor. - M.: Music, 2003. ISBN 5-7140-0113-3


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