Movie in the works about Alexander Mosolov

There's a movie in the works about one of my favorite composers, Alexander Mosolov. Only a few weirdos like me even know who Mosolov is, so finding out that there's a movie in the works about him is unexpected and exciting. 

The movie is called Mosolov's Suitcase. The website promoting the film says,  "The life, art, and enduring significance of  Russian avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspire four stories  (fictional, semi-fictional, and documentary) about creation and individualism in the face of state power.  Kirill Emelyanov, nominated  for a Best New Actor César (French Oscar), plays the mercurial Mosolov: musician, bad-boy dandy, and forgotten genius of Soviet music.  A film by Matthew Mishory (Absent, A Portrait of  James Dean)."

I can't find anything on the website about when the movie might come out, but I've signed up for an email list. 

Mishory is apparently a rising young director who pays the bills with TV commercials while he pursues his artistic projects.

An April article in "Palm Springs Life" by Sandy Cohen offers quite a bit of information on the film:

"Mishory has spent years working to bring the composer’s story to the screen, making several trips to Mosolov’s native Russia to explore how he and his music persevered despite Communist expulsion in the 1930s."

The piece also says, "As production on the film continues, Mishory is planning a series of concerts by international musicians to introduce contemporary audiences to Mosolov’s music. The filmmaker and his team hope to arrange intimate concerts around the world, including Palm Springs."

Here's a review from Allmusic.com of an album of Mosolov's music, including "Iron Foundry," a short piece that's probably his best-known work, and his once-lost and rediscovered piano concerto.  Quite a bit of Mosolov's music has been recorded and is available on the various music streaming services. 

Alex Ross on Russian Futurists such as Popov

 

Gavriil Popov

Alex Ross, the "New Yorker" music critic,  recently was interviewed for Tyler Cown's podcast series.  

When Cowen announced he was going to interview Ross, he invited readers to suggest questions in the comments. My question didn't make the cut, so I wrote to Ross and posed the question myself, and he was nice enough to write back:

Wed, Sep 30, 11:16 AM 

Dear Mr. Ross,

I very much enjoyed your recent interview by Tyler Cowen, and I am a fan of your books.

Before he did the interview, Tyler solicited possible questions on his blog. He didn't use my question, which is fine, but I was hoping I could email you and ask my question, anyway.

I am a big fan of 20th century Russian composers, particularly Prokofiev and Shostakovich. But I also spend a lot of time listening to early Gavriil Popov, Alexander Mosolov, Nicolai Myaskovsky and Nikolai Roslavets. My question is, do you think the Russian Futurists such as those last four are neglected, and deserve to be better known? I know you have written about Popov, at least.

                                           Tom 

Thanks for the note, Tom! Yes, I believe those composers deserve much wider exposure. I think that the Popov First Symphony is one of the great 20th-century symphonies, and it obviously had a huge influence on Shostakovich.

All best,

Alex

[Alex Ross' Popov article is available online]. 

Laurel Fay's 'Shostakovich, A Life'

Laurel Fay's Shostakovich biography, Shostakovich, A Life, came out in 2000, but it's still a really interesting read, as I learned when I checked it out from the library. 

The collisions between politics and music are a recurring theme, and there were some surprises as I went through the book; while there are a few obvious bad guys (such as Stalin) and some unreservedly good people, many (such as Shostakovich himself) veered from accommodation with the regime to acts of decency. (Fay stresses that the composer learned to cooperate with the regime under Stalin, when the price of resistance could mean death or a stint in a labor camp; some of Shostakovich's younger critics came of age when dissidence did not carry a huge price.)

As an example of somebody who changed depending upon the circumstances, consider Moisey Grinberg. who wrote a piece sucking up to Stalin that accused Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, to my ears a fine piece of music, of being too "formalist," i.e. not Socialist Realist enough. Grinberg griped about "stilted, singular new sounds resulting from abstract formal quests ... This is music that does not connect with the life of the people."

My favorite Shostakovich symphony is the Fourth, so when Fay began Chapter 11 by describing how it was finally performed in the Soviet Union in late 1961 (after a 25-year ban), I followed the account carefully. Fay writes, "The idea of resurrecting Shostakovich's 'missing' symphony originated with the [Moscow] Philharmonic's artistic administrator (1)." Because of my strong interest, I turned back to the notes to learn more. And I found out the administrator who pushed for the revival of the Fourth was the same Moisey Grinberg! 

Similarly, Tikhon Khrennikov, a minor composer and the general secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, plays the role of a Stalinist dirtbag for much of the narrative. But when Shostakovich's Lady MacBeth of the Mtensk District was being considered for a possible revival in in 1961 (it had been banned since the infamous "muddle instead of music" editorial in Pravda), Khrennikov played a positive role, making the case to authorities that "continued prohibition of the opera would be extreme awkward," Fay writes. 

There's also quite a bit about two of my favorite composers, Gavriil Popov and Edison Denisov, and their interactions with Shostakovich. Popov was a longtime friend; Shostakovich provided important early help and encouragement to Denisov.