Valentin Gaft and Vladimir Minin presented the audience a joint work

MOSCOW. In the hall to them. Tchaikovsky premiered an unusual project. Valentin Gaft and conductor Vladimir Minin showed the public a musical and poetic composition, the literary basis of which was a poem written by Valentin Gaft. According to this poem, in 2008, the play “Dream of Gaft…” was staged in Sovremennik, but the stage reading of the poem, which was already well known to theater-goers, had nothing to do with the new project.

The only thing that connects them is the central hero of the composition, and the author’s next attempt to understand what Stalin is, to comprehend his actions and personality. Adding musical accompaniment to the text of the poem, which included works by Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Dunaevsky, made the text of the poem more dramatic and added new shades to the words of the poem.

The style of the composition is radically different from the performance, the text of the poem sounds new, responding to the theme, still open to our contemporaries - what Stalin was for our country, who he was - a leader who did a lot for people or was a cruel executioner.

The author’s position in the poem can be traced clearly - not much is said about the merits, the main motive passing through the poem is repentance. Valentin Gaft believes that repentance cannot change the past, but it can help people who see their idol in Stalin to consider its human nature. He is not a god or a devil, but it is human nature to be different.

The rest of the heroes of the composition are famous people, whose attitude to Stalin is different for everyone. These fantastic dialogs also bring their accents to the composition, allowing us to appreciate the scale of this controversial figure. Each passage of the poem is accompanied by the Moscow Chamber Choir.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru