Nota. The Life of Rudolf Barshai, as Told by Him in Oleg Dorman's Film
10 hrs. 8 min.
Description
The conductor Rudolf Barshai belonged to the constellation of great musicians of the 20th century. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra he created in the late 1950s conquered audiences around the world. The orchestra’s regular partners included Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, and Emil Gilels. At the peak of his career, in 1977, Barshai went to the West to play compositions that were forbidden in the USSR. He led orchestras in Israel and Great Britain, Canada and France, Switzerland and Japan.
His path to success and fame was not an easy one—the journey of a boy from a Cossack stanitsa who, by chance, heard Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” in the school corridor and fell in love with music forever. That moment determined his fate, which became closely intertwined with the history of the country and the era. In the later years of his life, in Switzerland, in front of the camera of film director Oleg Dorman, Barshai remembers his wandering childhood, his youth during the war years, concerts at the front line, love and losses, and his legendary teachers, friends, and colleagues—D. Shostakovich, I. Menuhin, M. Rostropovich, and I. Stravinsky.
This is an audio version of a book created from the documentary film “Nota,” shot in 2010 by Oleg Dorman, the author of the unforgettable “Subtext,” and it presents the maestro’s confessional monologue one month before his death.
His path to success and fame was not an easy one—the journey of a boy from a Cossack stanitsa who, by chance, heard Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” in the school corridor and fell in love with music forever. That moment determined his fate, which became closely intertwined with the history of the country and the era. In the later years of his life, in Switzerland, in front of the camera of film director Oleg Dorman, Barshai remembers his wandering childhood, his youth during the war years, concerts at the front line, love and losses, and his legendary teachers, friends, and colleagues—D. Shostakovich, I. Menuhin, M. Rostropovich, and I. Stravinsky.
This is an audio version of a book created from the documentary film “Nota,” shot in 2010 by Oleg Dorman, the author of the unforgettable “Subtext,” and it presents the maestro’s confessional monologue one month before his death.
