Notes interdites
Scènes de la vie musicales en Russie soviétique
Bruno Monsaingeon
2004 - 56 min - Beta digital - France

From 1917 to 1990, the Soviet Union was the scene of a fascinating paradox: in extremely harsh conditions, indeed in an ambiance of terror, it was the one of the 20th century's most exciting crucibles of musical artistry. Major composers, great performers, truly magnificent orchestras exercised their talents against a backdrop of great danger and often grotesque instability. The film is a personal and dramatic look at a entire face of the history of the Soviet Union, the world of music, as it was lived, and it is today analyzed and described by one of its principal protagonists, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, along with Maestro Rudolf Barshaï and pianist Viktoria Postnikova. Rozhdestvensky was born in 1931 and lived and worked in these heady times: dedicatee of works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Schnittke, he took part in the genesis of great works. He collaborated with the greatest musicians of the time, such as Richter, Rostropovitch, Kogan. He also endured the tyrannies of the all-powerful Union of Composers, the first tours abroad, the witch hunts of Jewish musicians, the musical dogma of Stalin and Zhdanov, and the insidious, daily terror. The film uses archive documents and musical excerpts in its reconstitution of this