Polina Osetinskaya and Alexey Goribol - Theater and Film Music

Any chamber ensemble is a living organism, and the notion of its “ensemble playing”—a professional term used by musicians—marks the beginning of its independent, mature life. Polina Osetinskaya and Alexei Goribol “found their chemistry” over nearly 15 years…

The ensemble was born in 1994 with a performance of Robert Schumann’s Pictures from the East. The fiery temperament of both performers initially “consumed” the duo, until the musicians—who are also friends in life—made this very “spirit of rivalry” the driving force of their joint creativity.

Polina Osetinskaya began her artistic career as a child prodigy. Yet perhaps it would be more accurate to speak of two pianists embodied in her: the celebrated wunderkind, whose life Polina herself does not like to recall, and the unique mature musician, uncompromising in her choice of repertoire and interpretations, a performer of contemporary post-avant-garde music.

“Contemporary music,” she believes, “continues the music of the past. It also helps reveal meanings and beauty in older music that have been erased by decades of blind museum-like veneration and mechanical, often soulless performance.”

Alexei Goribol, too, has united two artistic lives in one person: a celebrated pianist of extraordinary emotional power, the creator of original artistic projects combining classical music with theater, cinema, and ballet, and the first performer of a number of works by Leonid Desyatnikov. He studied at the conservatory… as a double-bass player!

Today, pianist Alexei Goribol performs in the leading philharmonic halls of Russia, Europe, and the United States, records for radio, releases compact discs, and participates in prestigious Russian and international music and film festivals.

“The moment a musician takes on a particular composition, they must pass it through themselves; they must fall in love with the music. Otherwise, there is no point in going onstage. The composition lives within you, and you find something in it that gives you the grounds to convey it to other people on the composer’s behalf,” the musician believes.

Music for Theater and Cinema

Program

Part I

Leonid Desyatnikov
Echoes of the Theater — Suite for piano

Alfred Schnittke
Suite for two pianos for the Taganka Theater production The Story of the Inspector General

Leonid Desyatnikov
Nocturne for piano from Alexei Uchitel’s film Giselle’s Mania
Toward the Swan for two pianos

Part II

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Two excerpts from the ballet The Sleeping Beauty
(arranged for piano four hands by Leonid Desyatnikov)

Andrei Petrov

• Overture for two pianos from Daniil Khrabrovitsky’s film Taming of Fire
• Waltz for two pianos from Eldar Ryazanov’s film Beware of the Car

Mikael Tariverdiev
Intermezzo for two pianos from Tatyana Lioznova’s film Seventeen Moments of Spring

Vladislav Uspensky
Waltz for two pianos from the dramatic musical Anna Karenina

Leonid Desyatnikov

• Lullaby for piano from Alexander Zeldovich’s film Moscow
• Foxtrot for piano four hands from Alexander Zeldovich’s film Target

Valery Gavrilin
Selected pieces from the album Sketches for piano four hands, used by the composer in creating the ballet Anyuta:

1. “Waltz”
2. “The Little Clock”
3. “Tarantella”

The program is performed in two parts. Each part lasts 45 minutes.