Today’s post has been penned by ‘Piano Pedagogy Spotlight’ guest writer James Kirby. James is a pianist and piano professor who studied in Russia and the UK, and who now teaches the piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Eton College, and Royal Holloway University London.
This article documents James’ concert tour of Central Russia undertaken in 2003: it might be considered a personal diary written as a private memory illuminating the day-to-day touring life of a concert pianist. When he shared it with me a good while ago, I simply had to publish it alongside his interviews. Written in shorthand as might be expected of a diary (I’ve published it exactly as written), it’s a fascinating, enlightening, quirky, and often humorous read.
Central Russia Tour October 2003
Monday 20th October: Sasha (Director of Rachmaninov Institute in Tambov) picked me up from hotel at 7.15am – surprisingly 15 mins late – he’d lost his wallet! – manic breakfast with him and Tatiana in their flat. Set off for Yeletsk (240km from Tambov) famous for being the birthplace of Tikon Khrennikov, former Head of the Composers Union, renowned for his denunciation of Shostakovitch and Prokofiev in 1948. Now 90, he still visits the town occasionally and I was given a 2004 calendar, the picture on the front being a frail but smiling Khrennikov clasping the hand of a rather large deputy, who is hoping to be elected to the Duma on 7th December. Met Jan, the Dean, a clarinettist with a gentle but slightly sad air, who took us to see the impressive university buildings. With 5000 students, we decided to call it “Russky Oxford”. Meeting with Director (Bernard Haitink lookalike with ghastly bright blue wool sweater under his suit) in an extraordinarily grand, spacious room, 4 telephones on desk, picture of Putin, Russian flag and clay model of an Uzbek. Guided tour of university (new hall and computer rooms look really good). Very short rehearsal in nice hall (250 seats), newish Bluthner (which Khrennikov “helped” to buy) – gulp cup of tea and “butterbrod” as I practise. Concert (Mozart Sonata in F K 533/494, Chopin Fantasie, Tchaikovsky 4 Seasons, and Prokofiev 7th Sonata) went quite well – second half was better. Hall was packed. Sasha bounded on stage first and unashamedly propagandized the Rachmaninov Institute, before, in the interval and after the concert – questions afterwards, and loads of photos, autographs etc. Then a masterclass – a young looking 20-year-old girl played slow movement of Mozart K330, older looking smelly 18-year-old boy played Rachmaninov Etude Tableau in F sharp minor. Lunch at 5pm in University Stolovaya elegantly served by waitress with almost no skirt on. Told that supper is in a restaurant at 7.30!! After a kerfuffle managed to persuade them to delay it to 8pm! Then an “excursion” during which a history professor (who had lunched with us) launched herself into a Soviet style lecture about every brick in the town. Irritatingly though, she seemed flawed by any question I ask. Interesting statue of the poet Bunin in the park, atmospheric with all the autumnal leaves, impressive newly restored cathedral. Incredibly ancient autobuses packed with old women creak past every 2 minutes. We pop into the main school building and the professor marches into a classroom and I provide an interesting and unexpected diversion for 30 surprised schoolchildren. We go to our accommodation – a flat in the university residence – 4 rooms but only 1 bed – Sasha gamely improvises a bed out of a sofa, he says it’s comfortable but I know it isn’t! Exceedingly complex instructions for turning on the hot water. Sasha manages after quite a struggle. Dinner with Professor Sradjev (professor of piano methodology – he gave me his book on the Mephisto Waltz) and his wife Olga a singer, who just can’t stop talking about herself. They have just moved here from Tashkent and it turns out that we have many mutual friends – the Yanov Yanovskys, Zakhid Khaknazarov etc. We go to a (cold) restaurant. “French” salad (tasted entirely Russian to me) and “Portuguese” meat (tasted Russian to me).
Tuesday 21st October: “White” breakfast – kefir, tvorog + smetana (all delicious) in Uchilichi Stoloyava with purple walls. Drove to Zhubino, right into the depths of the Russian countryside to meet Pavel (Korean) and his wife Luba (Ukranian). Pavel was a bayan student with Sasha. They lived in Almaty but things became too difficult so they left, drove for 9 days and ended up here! Tiny village, 1 shop, 1 statue of Lenin, 10000 geese, acres of mud – extraordinarily pot holed road. Primitive but cosy house with outside toilet (reminds me of Mezhdunarodnaya Street, Almaty). Feasted on Khorchu, Ukranian meat filled pancakes, chi-chi (Korean greens with chilli), samogon (not me!) at 11am!! Pavel is a hugely talented musician and after hearing him playing the bayan I shall always take it seriously as a musical instrument from now on. His playing was absolutely staggering. Luda sang and danced, Ukranian style. We were sad to leave. Drove to Novomoskovsk (200km) – rain – traffic jams, roadworks. Uchilichi feels big and solid. This town was built in the ‘30s and is so dull that it feels interesting. The uchilichi has no water AT ALL every day between 1pm and 6pm and midnight and 6am – great news as my concert was at 5.30pm. Sasha given a reasonable room with toilet and bathroom (and several pails of water and assorted saucepans). Me on 3rd floor of obzhizhitie with a truly revolting bed with rusty iron bottom which looks as if it has been just raised from the Titanic. I sat on this bed and my backside seemed to go below the level of the floor! To my shame Sasha insisted on quietly swapping rooms later on. Later on we learn from the piano tuner that there is a luxury flat which the Director (conspicuous by his absence) refused to give us!! Looked after by Marina Vladimirovna, slightly nervous and uptight. Quick grey sausage and luke warm mashed potato in stolovaya. Rehearsal in nice hall (250 seats) and not so bad Estonia piano. TV interview before concert where camera operator tells interviewer he’s ready and turns on the lights at the very end of the interview. Good concert, (TV comes and films up my nostrils in difficult bit of Mozart and stomps out) questions, look at visitors book – see that Tatiana Nikolayeva came twice. After her second visit she wrote that “if you go somewhere twice you will come back for a third time”. I think one visit will do for me. Go to bed – sheets are grey and smelly complete with hairs and dubious stains. Filthy dirt encrusted blanket. Sleep fitfully, wake up at 4am convinced that I’m dying and can’t breathe. Go to sleep – woken up at 6am by loud scraping noise – the early morning cleaner sweeping the corridors. Sasha also slept badly – kept awake by students till 1am then woken by cleaner at 5am.
Wednesday 22nd October: Marina Vladimirovna asks if we slept well. Wanted to smash her in the face. Sasha smiles and says everything was wonderful. We set off for Tula with her (60km) in wet snow at 8am. I spend a frustrating hour trying to send some texts. Hopeless signal here. When we get to Tula, MV says she knows the way to the Uchilichi but clearly she doesn’t so we get lost and after several U turns we arrive at the Darghomishky Uchilichi for the “International” Conference on Problems of Musical Pedagogy in Contemporary Russia which starts at 10am. Arrive and we’re told it starts at 11am. Everyone very excited that it’s an International Conference (I’m the “International” bit!) but nobody seems to know what I’m expected to talk about. So I have a quick rehearsal in the Hall for my concert (which will follow the Conference) – hall absolutely freezing and nasty clattery Bluthner. It turns out that 15 people are to speak for 5-7 mins (and I am to speak about the British Musical Educational system and any criticisms I may have on the Russian system – uh-oh!!) – but of course everyone has violent verbal diarrhoea and by the time the conference has been opened by the Minister of Culture for the Tula oblast (region) and one delegate has spoken, a whole hour has passed. I listen to Sasha who speaks energetically and impressively without notes (but for 25mins) – decide I can’t stand any more and go and practise in a class. Tea break and butterbrod. Everyone decides to flee from the Conference and the second half is very sparsely attended. My speech is hurriedly rescheduled and takes place immediately after the break and I speak about our system, then venture to mention the importance of chamber music, imagination and occasional humour in music. Edward Max’s advice on public speaking came to my mind – when addressing a hall, look beyond the back row so everyone feels included – very important today as there are people only on the back row. I look up at one point and see a man yawning luxuriantly – everyone else is blue with cold (and probably boredom). When I begin my recital I am faced with a new challenge – the keyboard is absolutely soaking! As I continue to play I begin to notice small flecks of toilet paper between the keys. Someone has helpfully “cleaned” the keyboard for me. This concert feels like shopping in Tescos on roller skates. The Prokofiev was especially fun. The Director (Lev) wasn’t at the concert, of course. He’d snapped up Sasha and asked him to give a bayan masterclass – I was fascinated and after the concert went straight to a classroom where I found the Director’s wife (dominating big mouthed bayan teacher, Sasha and a pale, terrified looking 15-year-old girl). “She has a bad instrument, she isn’t good enough” the woman was shouting. I interjected a little rhythmic suggestion of my own but it was flattened by the woman. Sasha didn’t have much of interest to say. Later, a tour of the Uchilichi with the Director (who reminds me of a polar bear), nice atmosphere, paintings by students on the walls, and fantastic and lovingly kept library. Then an exceedingly long and rather boring party with the teachers. Spend the night in a wooden hut which is the “lux” accommodation adjoining the obzhizhitie. Apparently it was built for a former female Minister of Culture. She must have liked TV – plenty of TV’s, loads of sockets and mirrors (even on the ceiling!) but only 1 towel scarcely bigger than a face flannel and no toilet paper. Thankfully I never EVER go anywhere in the former USSR without loo paper – I think I’ll add a towel to the list from now on. I use the “towel” and Sasha gamely uses a pillow case. Oh, and I forgot to say it was one of those wonderful Russian locks that takes half an hour to open so by the time we got inside we were absolutely freezing and soaked. We were just about to go to bed but Sasha said he thought there might be someone staying in the other room so we’d have to share. This person didn’t have a key and would knock at 11pm, apparently. Amazingly there was a knock at 11pm so I let in a young man and everyone can go to bed.
Thursday 23rd October: Get up, no mugs so drink tea out of a soup bowl with a spoon! I try to keep my voice down because of our comrade next door but Sasha talks loudly throughout breakfast. Rather touchingly he makes a real effort to be silent as we have to go through our friend’s room to leave the flat. But he drops a huge bottle of water on the floor as he goes through! Just through the gloom we notice a girl in the bed as well. Sasha feels a twinge of guilt (or lust?). Absolutely freezing today – brisk walk around the Kremlin – very impressive walls but church in a sorry state. Change $100 in a bank – it takes for ever – anyone would think I was trying to change my surname. The cashier window was about 2 feet 6 inches above the ground – should either the cashier or I have wished to look at each other we would have had a view of the other’s genitalia area. Luckily neither of us felt the need to do this so the transaction took place with neither of us seeing each other at all. Go to the famous Tula Samovar Museum – get treated to an interminably long “excursion” of the Museum. Our guide is very earnest and smells gently of BO. A pity about this, because there were many beautiful things to see but an explanation of every one absolutely wasn’t necessary. We were fast overtaken by several other groups. With a bit of experimentation, I discovered that if I moved ahead slightly the guide sometimes followed me, but unfortunately not always. I reckon I might have shaved about 20 minutes off the trip. Worse was to follow. Another lady had ominously appeared, silent as yet, our guide for Yasnaya Polyana or Tolstoy’s home. As soon as we bade our farewells to the Samovar Museum and got into Sasha’s car she opened her mouth and a constant stream of diarrhoea issued forth and apart from one interruption (a mobile phone call for Sasha) I don’t think she drew breath for the next 3 hours. Questions were forbidden as she described every street in Tula and she poured forth a stream of facts and figures. Yasnaya Polyana was wonderfully atmospheric in the snow with the birch trees and the wooden houses that we feel we already know from photographs. Everything beautifully preserved, as the woman said it was as if Tolstoy has just popped out for a few minutes. We see the divan on which he was born, the writing desk at which he wrote War and Peace, the room in which he wrote Anna Karenina. Especially touching was his simple grave in the woods – just a humble grass covered mound. Nice meal in café, dropped woman off at bus stop (still talking) and drove to Kaluga (120km). It looks in a poorer state than Tula, and we’re not staying in the obzhizhitie, surprise, surprise, but this time in a “special” flat which has just been completed and we are to be the first guests. We need about 4000 keys to open various doors, gates etc. Nice, but absolutely freezing. The heater is only just tepid and the room feels seriously cold. On a cursory inspection the bathroom looks good, nice tiles etc, but the wash basin isn’t straight, the plug doesn’t work, the toilet lid (as well as the seat!) won’t stay up! And there’s no hot water. Hurray!! Lena (who is studying in Tambov but only goes there twice a year (?!)) makes us tea and her brother Victor practises his (good) English – although as usual everybody says it’s bad. Go and practise in the hall of the Taneyev Uchilichi (beautiful hall – a former church – hence a lovely acoustic – bizarrely the entrance to about 10 classrooms comes straight into the hall so practising is not an especially restful experience). Quick walk with Sasha then back to the obzh where after an immense struggle they have found an oil heater for us and manage to get the hot water to work! We celebrate with vodka – Sasha drinks more than I have ever seen – then the hallway light explodes violently sending glass shattering everywhere. Clear it up, then Sasha moves the 2 beds apart. As he does this, one partially disintegrates, leaving what looks like a massive crumbled chocolate flake in the middle of the room. He sweeps up with the (hopefully) unused toilet brush. Sleep in all my clothes (including sweater).
Friday 24th October: As I write this I can hear Sasha alternately swearing and moaning in the bathroom. It turns out that there are 2 possibilities for water temperature, 0 degrees C or 100 degrees C. So Sasha has a freezing shower, me a boiling one. He then goes to Moscow for 24 hours. Meanwhile I have a very nice masterclass, 6 students, all good, especially 14-year-old-boy who plays one of Pletnev’s transcriptions of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Lunch in the government building with one of the teachers, then an unusually peaceful and event free afternoon – rehearse, sleep and wonderful church bells at 5pm. Concert OK apart from a wobble in Prokofiev first movement. Private viewing of the Taneyev museum afterwards, and party with another of those wonderful armies of piano teachers, 10 women! Natalya is clearly a good director here – she’s been here for 18 years, and is organised and energetic. Amazingly she listened to the concert! I think she wants me to be on the jury of the International Taneyev Chamber Music Competition which takes place once every 3 years.
Saturday 25th October: Quick walk round Kaluga with 2 piano students (who tell me that they have no hot water ALL YEAR). Beautiful service going on in church, cosmonaut museum and marvellous statue of a rocket overlooking the river Oka. Sasha returns from Moscow with Natasha. She works in Tambov – they met up in Moscow and we’re giving her a lift to Briansk. Drive there (200km). Feeling rather grim today – I think it might have been those ancient looking sprats at the party yesterday! I feign sleep because Natasha keeps asking irritating questions. Drop Natasha off at bus station – she has to get another bus to Pogar (3 hrs) and then go into the countryside to see her sister – Sasha is worried about her as it is already 4pm and will soon be dark. Now we’re only 150km from the Ukraine and 120 km from Belarus. Valery (Director) checks us into the Desna Hotel (amazing!!) – hot water – even more amazing!! Lunch, lots of kerfuffle about where to park Sasha’s car, what to do with the luggage etc, finally arrive (far too late and rather cross) at the Tatiana Nikolayeva Music School No 1. She was born here so Valery changed the name of the school (from Glinka) after her death. There is a touching little display with photos, quotations, pictures of her students etc. Big hall, very good Grotian Steinweg only 20 minutes to warm up, and not feeling very good at all. A huge palarva finding the toilet and working out the code (for future visitors you have to press 279 then wrench the handle aggressively upwards). Extraordinarily the concert goes very well, perhaps the best of the week! As I play I can see Sasha sitting in the wings backstage poring over the road atlas working out his route home). Very warm reception, presented with a huge crystal vase, impossible to take home, of course. I privately decide to donate it to Sasha’s Institute. After the concert a woman rushes up and gives me 2 “special” apples and another (largish) lady, full of emotion and tears in her eyes tells me that I have filled her soul with joy and may God ensure that the beautiful vase is always filled with flowers. Feel very touched and hugely guilty about the vase. Drink in Directors office – grey supper in hotel in a curious and slightly sinister “private” room served by drunk waitress then bed. Prodigiously loud vulgar thumping music coming from the café which unfortunately is situated directly below my room. It is so loud that it feels as if the whole band is in my room with me but I’m tired and go to sleep and the next thing I know is my morning alarm call – the sound of a spade scraping the ice and snow outside. I dread to think what time it is. It’s still dark – 6am.
Sunday 26th October: Go to music school and give a lesson to 10-year-old Dasha. She’s very gifted and of course her mother and piano teacher are there. She plays 5 pieces and I’m given 3 bottles of vodka (which I give to Sasha!). Grey lunch in hotel. I have been feeling better this morning but after lunch I feel worse and after nearly 3 weeks of trusty service the bowels finally give way. Miserable afternoon in my hotel room. I’m terribly worried because at 5pm we are invited to the drawing of lots and the opening Gala concert of the 4th International (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus) Competition of Balaliakas, dombras and bayans at the Friendship Concert Hall. Ukraine is on bad terms with Russia so they haven’t sent any competitors. Knowing how long these concerts tend to last, and more importantly having some idea of what toilet facilities tend to be like in these places I go armed with toilet paper and 2 Marks and Spencer plastic bags in case of the ultimate emergency. Needless to say the good toilet is firmly locked and the other one is filled with thousands of leather jacketed smokers. Thankfully I survive and even enjoy the concert although it is of course far too long and every piece is in A minor. Sasha, (seated in the auditorium for a change) makes 2 mobile phone calls during the course of the concert. Leaving the hall is rather tricky as all the street lights have been turned out and there are a considerable number of uneven and icy steps to be negotiated so everyone creeps out slowly, hanging on to each other. Grey supper in hotel and taxi to Station No 1 (there are 3!) for the 23.58 overnight “awaker” to Moscow. Sasha and I part company here – we’ve done 1000km together – he will stay overnight in Briansk and will drive 650km to Tambov tomorrow. His final instructions to me are never to tell anyone in Tambov that he had a woman in the car with him.
Click here to hear and purchase Taneyev’s Piano Trio in D Major, Op.22 and Piano Quartet in E Major, Op. 20 played by the Barbican Trio (of which James is the pianist) with James Boyd (viola).
In Part 5, the final instalment of this series, James discusses his teaching, examining, and adjudicating work.
Top Image: The statue of Sergei Rachmaninov in Tambov
Hello Melanie ,
This was another great story, what an experience!
Thanks again 😉
Hi Martin, I’m glad that you enjoyed this week’s instalment! Melanie