theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Rodion Shchedrin | reviews, news & interviews
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Rodion Shchedrin
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Rodion Shchedrin
Neglected for unmusical reasons, the ballerina's husband is back
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Maya Plisetskaya as Carmen and Nikolai Fadeyechev in Shchedrin's 1967 ballet for her
The Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin has long been damned faintly by two facts - that he is the husband of the Bolshoi prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and that he was for a long time the president of the Russian Composers' Union in the USSR. These two things were plenty enough to remove discussion of him from the musical arena to the seething forum of politics where every Soviet composer's actions were given intense non-musical scrutiny both inside and outside the USSR.
The Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin has long been damned faintly by two facts - that he is the husband of the Bolshoi prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and that he was for a long time the president of the Russian Composers' Union in the USSR. These two things were plenty enough to remove discussion of him from the musical arena to the seething forum of politics where every Soviet composer's actions were given intense non-musical scrutiny both inside and outside the USSR.
A composer's life is a marathon. It's not a sprint where you win and then you're a winner for eternity. No, you go up and down.
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