![\"Yuja](\"http:\/\/delivery.gettyimages.com\/xr\/529441493.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=3&d=77BFBA49EF878921CC759DF4EBAC47D0ADD63220FD4A6E3EA496673AE654C410EE4EE510C96A802FA55A1E4F32AD3138\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Though as usual most of the feedback to my recent blogs comes via private emails rather than public responses, a flurry of interesting posted responses here and via Facebook spurs me to rant some more.<\/p>\n
Re: \u201cquality art\u201d versus \u201ccrap,\u201d Joe Patrych \u2013 someone who knows what pianism once was — writes:<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the problem is the audience \u2013 in order for a sophisticated musician such as Moiseiwitsch to be fully understood requires that the audience is properly educated in what constitutes art \u2013 the importance of that in Soviet (and post-Soviet) Russia vs. the dismissive approach to arts education in the US is certainly part of the problem, and it takes a lot of work to self-educate; it is clear that most people don\u2019t have the impetus to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new book that\u2019s a necessary read is Stalin\u2019s Music Prize<\/a>: Soviet Culture and Politics<\/em> by Marina Frolova-Walker. Excavating Soviet archives, she documents the intense private deliberations that considered which Soviet composers, singers, and instrumentalists would be awarded substantial monetary prizes, with their attendant prestige. We eavesdrop on what the composers Shostakovich and Myaskovsky had to say. We also eavesdrop on craven ideologues.<\/p>\n The book begins with some testimony by the actress Vera Maretskaya. She writes:<\/p>\n \u201cIn \u201946, when I was a delegate to the Congress of Antifascist Women, I happened to speak with an English actress, who had been forbidden to approach our delegation. But she boldly made her way over to us regardless and struck up a conversation with the Soviet women. While she was talking to me about the arts, she couldn\u2019t keep herself from looking downwards, at my chest, and eventually she asked me: \u2018What did you get that medal for?\u2019 I told her that it was a medal given to Stalin Prize laureates. \u2018For what?\u2019 she asked. \u2018For my work in the role of Nadezhkda Durova,\u2019 I replied. . . . \u2018What did they give you?\u2019 I asked her. After a moment\u2019s hesitation, she dipped into her handbag and pulled out something drab-looking, small and flat, a kind of powder box. \u2018That\u2019s how they reward us performers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Much could be said about this vignette. Stalin\u2019s Music Prize<\/em> is certain to be a galvanizing topic when PostClassical Ensemble<\/a> presents \u201cSecret\u00a0Music Skirmishes<\/a> of the Cultural Cold War: The Shostakovich Case\u201d at the Washington National Cathedral on May 23.<\/p>\n