Conversations with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky - Musical Life in the Soviet Union

How did artists survive in the Soviet Union? How tricky did they have to be in the face of authorities? What kind of danger and difficulties did they have to fear? Gennadi Rozhdestvensky talks about authorities, watchdogs and the political system in the former Soviet Union. Absurd, reflective, facetious, this coverage is a wittily-narrated journey through Soviet history in politics and music. With the former Soviet Union moving ever further into the past each year, first hand witness accounts such as his become ever more valuable. ------------------------------------------------------ Production: © Idéale Audience & EuroArts Music International ------------------------------------------------------ Probably one of the most exciting documentaries produced this year: a four hours long film by Bruno Monsaingeon, featuring conversations with one of the most iconic conductors of the Soviet Union and now Russia, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. Born in Moscow in 1931, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky is a charismatic and exceptionally gifted conductor. He made his debuts as conductor at the age of 21. After conducting at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Moscow Radio Orchestra, Rozhdestvensky started an international career. He has conducted the greatest orchestras of Stockholm, Vienna and London. Deeply committed to contemporary music, he was a close friend of such great composers as Shostakovich and Schnittke. He also got to know Prokofiev towards the end of the latter’s life, posthumously championing Prokofiev’s later works, which had been banned until then. Conversations with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky is a film directed by outstanding music filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon. Monsaingeon has devoted a large part of his life to the making of musical films dedicated to the greatest artists of our time, including Yehudi Menuhin, Nadia Boulanger, Glenn Gould, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh and many others. His films are deeply atmospheric as he is interested in the actual person behind the artist, his soul. These conversations between Rozhdestvensky and Monsaingeon were recorded in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2015 in Moscow, Nikolina Gora and Paris. Through these conversations, Rozhdestvensky enlightens his childhood, his musical career, and tells us how musical life was like back in the days of the Soviet Union... ------------------------------------------------------ 1. A "Village Fête" 2. Earliest Recollections 3. Apprenticeship 4. Two Conductors in Moscow 5. Conductor at the Bolshoi 6. Repertoire 7. Foreign Debut 8. "Escorts" 9. Three Tragi-Comic Episodes 10. Beware! 11. 90 Days 12. An Unheard-of Assignment 13. Critics & Co. 14. Conductors???!!! 15. Viktoria Postnikova 16. Exit Visas 17. The Composers' Union and Tikhon Khrennikov 18. Alfred Schnittke 19. Shostakovich I 20. Shostakovich II 21. Prokofiev 22. Stravinsky in Moscow 23. Party Membership 24. Epilogue