Family secrets of Xenia Bashmet. Julia Kazantseva (piano)

All children are different, and each of them needs an approach, says Ksenia Yuryevna Bashmet, a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky, winner of international festivals and competitions. Her children know when their mother is "on edge" and it is better not to disturb her. Ksenia told more about “subtle psychological moments”, “threats and blackmail” in an interview.

Why did you decide to name your son Grant?

When I started to think about it, for the patronymic and surname Vladlenovich Ovanesyants, for balance, a suitable short and clear name was needed! Plus, the name Grant is not very popular in Armenia, so his reputation is “not spoiled”. The only acquaintance named Grant is a trumpeter from the New Russia orchestra, our friend, a very real and whole person.

If I had known that later my son's surname would change to Bashmet, then I would have chosen a less pretentious name.

And now that's it, nowhere to go, Grant Bashmet must become a star!

How do your kids get along with each other? Does the son help in the upbringing of the daughter?

They simply adore each other. Grantik plays with her very sincerely. Not just "is serving his duty", but comes up with something that would be interesting for his sister. They already have their own interpersonal jokes, he constantly shoots Maya on video, shows everyone, he is proud!

For me, it's all amazing.

Remembering myself as a child, being 6 years older than my brother, I was touched by him, of course, I loved him, but my mother’s rare requests to follow him were a burden to me - I was just serving this very duty! Therefore, I try not to strain my son too much, but he does an excellent job with simple assignments to distract or look after his sister.

Do children like listening to music?

Yes of course! But not classic! My son wears headphones all the time. Quite often he lets me listen to what he likes now. We share our impressions. It happens that I draw his attention to something of ours, professional, some elements that he will then go through solfeggio and theory, but I'm not sure that this is deposited in his head. Occasionally I ask you to take off your headphones in the car and, as a favor to me and for educational purposes, listen together, for example, a part of some symphony that I really like! I try to choose short and fast parts. He reluctantly agrees, but so far he has never got carried away - the headphones are right there back.

I'm sure it won't go in vain. Someday Grant will be "hooked" by classical music!

And Mayechka is generally amazingly musical! From a very early age, she intones well (you can recognize the melody in her performance), which is rare for this age. He loves to dance, very subtly feels and reacts to changes in tempo. Depending on the nature of the music, he changes his movements, loves to play the piano.

What does Grant want to be?

It seems that now he dreams of becoming a football player, although, in fact, he studies at the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky in the violin class ...

What principles, in your opinion, are the main ones in raising children?

My principle is simple. I am one of those who do not have affection for children in general, they are all “read” from childhood: you can understand how their character will be formed in the future. But they need to be forgiven, they get away with everything. I treat my children as individuals: I talk, I try to listen ... They have never heard phrases-sweeps from me, such as “you don’t need to know this, it’s still small” or “don’t interfere, now it’s not up to you.” I always explain what I’m doing and why I can’t devote time to them right now, I try to creatively avoid questions that are not age-appropriate, even for my own breakdown on the op, I always customized the concept after the fact!

My parenting masterpiece is the phrase of the three-year-old Grantik: "Mom, I'm sorry that you yelled at me."

My children are adored just by those who, in principle, do not like children!

Grant and Maya have repeatedly surprised me with how subtle psychological moments they understand at their age, how correctly they guess what to say or do if I'm on edge (I'm late, looking for something important, setting up a router, etc. ) I run around the house and curse myself, fate, the HOA, viola notes, my garden head, in general, I’m talking nonsense, letting off excess steam into the atmosphere. There is a feeling that they are the parents, they love their psychopathic daughter and accept her so a priori.

I don’t know if this is good or bad, but my children have the only and indisputable authority - Mom.

This suits me quite well, but the rest of the adults “enrage”.

Yulia Alexandrovna Monastyrshina is one of the most sought-after piano teachers in Moscow. Her work is distinguished by virtuosity, excellent classical sound and rich dynamic nuances, repertoire diversity. She was born on September 28, 1972 in Moscow.

Achievements and professional skills cover a wide range of areas in the field of music teaching: a famous pianist, laureate of international competitions. J. S. Bach in Leipzig and "Concertino Prague", Ph.D. in art history, honored teacher, lecturer. Gives master classes all over the world, works in Australia, Japan, Austria, Germany, USA. The formats of master classes are different: a lecture course, open lessons, combined options, etc.

The first musical skills were laid down since childhood, she was a student of T.P. Nikolaeva.

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Yu. A. Monastyrshina participated in international competitions, received the title of laureate and winner of many of them, performed with concerts.

After an unsuccessful fall, which resulted in a hand injury, Yulia Alexandrovna stopped her concert activity, concentrating on scientific and teaching activities.

Having received the title of candidate of art history, she did not stop there, supplementing her education with the Faculty of Economics.

Ten years after the injury, the ability to perform musical works with her inherent virtuosity was restored, and Yulia Alexandrovna returned to performing activities. In particular, she recorded discs, one of which is completely devoted to the performance of works by I.S. Bach.

Today the main place of work: Associate Professor of the Department of World Musical Culture of the Moscow State University of Design and Technology (former State Classical Academy named after Maimonides).

Yulia Alexandrovna Monastyrshina is the author of many techniques that reveal the features of the performance of musical works, as well as devoted to the technique of playing the piano.

For his students and listeners, he reads a personal author's course in educational and methodological centers in Moscow and the Moscow region.

On the site you can find out a full biography, see photos, as well as order professional literature - books and teaching aids.

Julia Monastyrskaya (Monastyrshina-Yadykina) is a blind pianist. She is a laureate of many international competitions, in particular, the competitions named after J.S. Bach in Leipzig and the Prague Spring, the winner of the competition named after. L. Braille and the competition "Philanthropist". Julia is not only a performer, but also a musicologist, Ph.D. Therefore, all her recordings are not only the result of bright performance creativity, but also represent the embodiment of a certain philosophical and scientific concept of the music performed.
The pianist was born in Moscow on September 28, 1972, she graduated from the Music College. Ippolitova-Ivanova in the class of S.N. Reshetov, then studied at the Moscow Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, class of T.P. Nikolaeva. The interview below will in many ways shed light on the artistic tasks that Yulia set herself when creating her first studio recordings.

— Tell us about how you entered the Moscow Conservatory.
— It was a funny and at the same time instructive story that taught me to believe in myself. It was always believed that it was almost impossible to enter the conservatory without having connections, no one from our school entered there, but I decided to try, I followed the “worker-peasant” path, I didn’t study with any of the conservatory teachers, I didn’t go to consultations with professors. I remember well that on the day when I had to play in the small hall of the conservatory (namely, the entrance exam for applicants is taking place there), there was a terrible heat, I had to play almost at the very end, because my maiden name is with the letter "I". This meant that the chances that someone from the admissions committee would listen to me after many hours of "auditing" dozens of applicants without air conditioning at a temperature of thirty-five degrees were zero or close to it. My turn came, my teacher told me: “I watched those who were sitting in the hall: someone was taking a nap, someone was reading a newspaper or guessing crossword puzzles. Your only task now is to get them to put aside their prints, which they are now fanning themselves with. I went on stage, sat down at the piano, looked into the hall and said to myself: “You will listen to me, you will listen to me, because I have something to tell you.” I played J.S. Bach's prelude and fugue in E flat in D sharp minor from the first volume of the CTC. This is extremely tragic and insanely difficult music to perform. When I finished, I realized that my face was covered with sweat, my hands were also wet, but I knew exactly what I had done! There was a tragic accomplishment and a catharsis at the end - there was dead silence in the hall, and nothing broke the sacred pause at the end of the music. Then I started playing Mozart, after a few bars I was stopped. "Well, how?" I was asked by the curious people backstage, to which my casual answer followed: “I got in.” There were difficulties with written exams, in particular, with solfeggio and harmony. Since I am blind, I cannot write music. They met me halfway, I played the dictation on the piano, and it didn’t even come to pass the harmony exam, because unexpectedly for myself I passed it already at the consultation for the exam: we played an endless harmonic sequence and invited someone to answer what chords it consists of. For some reason, no one volunteered to answer, and I was terribly shy, but nevertheless, overcoming my shyness, I got up, went to the piano and played a “chain of increased difficulty”. I was told that I could not attend the exam. So, having passed everything and having passed all the obstacles, I nevertheless became a student at the conservatory, while not even knowing who I would study with, and kept wondering who I would get into class with. I went to the sea until the beginning of the school year, and when I returned, my grandmother said: “Some Tatyana Petrovna Nikolaeva called you several times and asked you to call back. What does she want from you?" The world-famous pianist, head of the piano faculty of the conservatory asked me to call back, and on the phone I heard: “Baby, would you agree to study with me?”.
— What did the lessons with Tatyana Petrovna Nikolaeva give you?
- A lot of things. First of all, our classes have never or almost never been one-on-one. All this took place in the genre of a "mini-concert": all the students were sitting, as well as those invited - at least twenty people in the class. Tatyana Petrovna spoke little and was not at all inclined to talk about music, but the very fact of performing in public gave me a great deal. In addition, Nikolaeva greatly facilitated the process of memorizing new works for me. The fact is that I was terribly tormented, trying to disassemble the notes with a magnifying glass, it became more and more difficult to do this, as my eyesight was falling. Once I showed Tatyana Petrovna the score in E minor by J.S. Bach, recorded on the first disc, and it turned out that when parsing the text, I made many inaccuracies related to the fact that I simply did not see the small musical text. And then Nikolaeva unexpectedly said: “Why don't you learn music from records? Well, at least from mine? At first it seemed to me that this was an unrealistic undertaking, but then I got involved and now I learn music quite quickly, using audio recordings to this day. “Does someone else’s interpretation “stamp” my own performance?” - you ask. Answer: "No, it doesn't." Any artist is engaged in copying the paintings of great masters in museums. I believe that it is useful for every musician to engage in this kind of “copying”, when the pianist reproduces with the utmost accuracy the smallest details of the performance of one of the great “masters of the pianoforte” – V. Horowitz, G. Gould, S. Rachmaninov, etc. But at the end you need to say your own word, be sure to bring something of your own. I like to play well-known music. It is always interesting to follow a path traveled by millions before you, and yet find something on it that others have not noticed. I am interested in discovering "new meanings" in classic hits when they suddenly appear in the guise of "familiar strangers". For me, this perspective is important, so to speak, a “fresh look” at well-known things.
— What happened after the conservatory?
- There were several international competitions, victories and laureates, active concert activity, and then it all ended overnight - I walked along the transition, did not see the last steps, fell and injured my right hand. This was the end of my pianistic career, although I was treated for a long time, without resigning myself and without giving up. But still, as they say, "big sport" had to be abandoned. For me, this was a real tragedy, and much more so than my incurable eye disease and steadily declining vision. I didn’t know, I didn’t imagine at all how I would live on, what to do. In the end, she decided to discover other talents in herself, defended her dissertation, became a candidate of art history, received an economic education and a good job. However, all this time, it was as if I did not live, but existed. I could describe myself in the words of the hero of a famous film, who was asked: “What have you been doing all these years?”. The answer was: "I went to bed early." And now more than ten years have passed, the Lord heard my prayers, my hands regained the ability to play.
— You — blind musician. How do you feel about your illness?
- I do not think that this is an ailment, rather, a sign of being chosen. The Lord “kissed” me exactly, taking away my eyesight, but giving me much more – the ability to feel and understand the world, music through spiritual vision. Other people, looking at me, should be happy if only because they are healthy, because, in my deep conviction, health and talent are two things in life that cannot be bought. In addition, I am a truly happy person, since there are no bad people around me - all the "bad guys" instinctively avoid people like me. And one more thing: I learned a long time ago to turn this shortcoming into a huge advantage - there are many women in the world more beautiful than me, but none of them have my “zest” - blindness.
— What is your attitude towards recording in the studio?
— These discs are a “second life” for me, a return after more than a ten-year break. Of course, I have already been forgotten. On the one hand, I understand perfectly well that it is utter madness to try to start a career as a concert pianist again at my age. But on the other hand, the profession of a pianist is unique: dancers leave the stage at 35, singers finish at about 50. By the age of 40, a pianist already has spiritual baggage, he has something to say, and most importantly, something to say. A vivid example of this is the Moscow concerts of the eighty-year-old Horowitz. As for sound recording as such, for me it is a more expedient and comfortable environment for performance. In the conditions of the studio you achieve greater refinement, greater perfection in the implementation of your ideas. In a concert, many factors interfere: stage excitement, spotlights, etc. In the conditions of the studio, it is always easy for me to imagine the audience sitting in the hall; in general, I am a pianist of the studio to a greater extent than the concert stage.
— What is your creative credo?
- Not "play music", but "perform it". Many performers follow the “momentary” that comes from above at this particular moment of performance. For me, the performance of a work is the result of long reflections on the performed and even musicological research. I like to return to the previously played and discover new facets in it. After all, the first contact with the work is just the “tip of the iceberg”, and everything else is hidden “under water”. A true interpreter can completely change the meaning of the music being played. This is somewhat reminiscent of the famous phrase, the meaning of which completely changes depending on where to put the comma: “Execute, you can’t pardon” or “You can’t execute, you have mercy.”
— What is the piano for you?
- Interest Ask. My favorite pianist Glen Gould once said: “I became a pianist by chance, so I play music on the piano.” I can’t say the same about myself – I was born a pianist and I can’t imagine myself playing another instrument. My vision of the piano completely coincides with the way T. Mann saw and understood it: “The piano,” he said, “is not an instrument among others, since it is devoid of instrumental specificity. True, the piano makes it possible for the soloist to show off the virtuosity of his performance, but this is a special case, more precisely, a direct abuse of the piano. In fact, the piano is the direct and sovereign representative of music as such, music in its pure spirituality…”. Simply put, the piano for me is a kind of “matrix” for playing not so much piano music, that is, music written specifically for the piano, but music as such. I like to play on the piano music written for other instruments, that is, music that is outside the field of piano sonority. Of greatest interest to me is "non-piano music" that can be played on the piano. Such, for example, is the clavier music of J.S. Bach.
— The first disc consists entirely of Bach's compositions. What does J.S. Bach mean to you?
— Bach is my favorite composer, besides, this is the composer who works best for me. The amazing fact is that Bach has no "weak" music at all! Everything he wrote is either simply brilliant or incomprehensible... Each note by Bach carries a reflection of something great and immense. When you stand on the shore, you know exactly what is in front of you: the bay, the open sea or the ocean. This knowledge arises according to some elusive signs; maybe it's the strength of the wind or the height of the waves. In the case of Bach, you are always on the ocean. Bach's music is music in the last place, and the primary thing in it is "musical preaching". Everything Bach wrote was a service to God, an interpretation of a sacred text through sounds. I discovered this quite recently - in almost every of his compositions a miracle happens: let's take at least the prelude in C major from the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier. According to Yavorsky, this is the Annunciation, the Archangel flies to Mary to tell her the news that the Messiah will be born to her. It is amazing how the miracle of the Immaculate Conception is performed right before our eyes, while the music is playing!
— What is the most important thing for you in this music?
— Drive. Bach is ideal for conveying the energy of the performer to the listener. The performance of Bach's music is always an "introduction" of the audience into a kind of trance state, a kind of hypnosis. Eastern wisdom speaks of a person's predestination for one specific business in life. I asked: “And if a person has lost the physical ability to do this business?”, And I heard the answer: “Then he will do this business to himself, in his soul.” All these years I have been playing the piano to myself, learning new pieces and working through them with my inner ear.
— Among other Bach pieces, you play a French suite. Why is she?
— I know many interpretations of Bach's clavier suites, and almost all performers forget that this is primarily a dance, and a dance of the gallant age of the Sun King. It is surprising that Bach, who never traveled outside of Germany, was able to convey the spirit of French courtly culture so enchantingly accurately. In essence, music is a continuation of social chatter, but meaningful chatter when life is a polite game. All this music is extremely aestheticized, refined and somewhat pretentious, there are no true feelings here, but there is a “game of feelings”, everything is “not serious”. The whole musical fabric consists of "bows", "curtseys" and "little steps". The Courante, which seems to be a folk dance, is actually a stylization, these are aristocrats dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses, depicting a pastoral. The Sarabande is the philosophical center of the suite. Bach's sarabandes are difficult to play. It seems to be improvisation, but improvisation, “chained” to an iron rhythm. The extreme emotion in improvisation is combined with the calmness of a special kind of sarabande rhythm, and this is really insanely difficult to combine.
— There are many disputes about how Bach's music should be played. What do you think about it?
– For me, a Bach melody is “not a flat image”, but a “bas-relief”, when a melodic pattern, in addition to the two usual dimensions - pitch and length in time, acquires a third dimension - volume. The melody is not played, but "sculpted" like bas-reliefs on ancient Greek vases. Fighting heroes are depicted there, and an ornament winds between them. I have always been interested in the question: what is the main thing here, and what is the background for - an ornament for figures or figures for an ornament? Something similar happens with Bach. When playing Bach's music, I try not to speed up and slow down, all at the same pace, with "black and white" dynamics, but there are surprises at every turn!
— What are your creative plans for Bach?
— I dream of recording 2-voice inventions and 3-voice symphonies, all French, English suites and partitas. The most important task is to publish an anthology of clavier music by J.S. Bach. I have something to say in this area.
— Mozart — your favorite composer?
— Yes, it's true, but I began to understand his music relatively recently. Mozart is one of the most difficult composers to understand. Despite the seeming simplicity and harmony, he does not "at all seek" to communicate with the performer, and even more so with the listener. To be commensurate with the art of Mozart, you need to “grow up”, “ripen” to it. Mozart's events take place at such a "speed" that an ordinary person is not subject to: suddenly, in the midst of all this radiance, an unstoppable celebration of life, something so terrible arises, "a fatal vision, sudden darkness, or something like that" ( A.S. Pushkin, "Mozart and Salieri") - it becomes uncomfortable, but this "something" lasts for a moment, and then - again a holiday! However, while playing, you need to have time to look into the "mirror" for a second and - most importantly - go back. Such emotional “turns” are perhaps the most difficult thing in the performing arts. This is probably why there are so few people who play Mozart's music really well. By the way, all of the above applies to another composer presented on the second disc - Franz Schubert.
— Opus 110 by L. Beethoven, why did you decide to perform it?
“Perform” is a bit of a wrong word, this music cannot be performed, at least in this world, you can only approach it and be in “a reflection of its radiance”. I played opus 110 for many, many years, since my early youth, and only now I realized that I was internally ready to communicate with this great work. Note that other Beethoven sonatas up to the thirty-first are simply called sonatas, but this one is always called "opus 110", as if such a mundane word as "sonata" is not worthy of calling this music. For me, opus 110 is a deeply personal story. I am not lying if I say that this particular composition by Beethoven has been my “guiding star”, my “guardian angel” all these years. Beethoven and I have somewhere similar fates: he became deaf, I went blind, he was abandoned by everyone, and at some point I lost myself in life. When it was especially difficult for me, I sat down at the instrument and started playing opus 110, and the music gave me what I needed so much - strength of mind, strength to live and survive. It is very difficult to say what the music of Beethoven's late piano sonatas is about, since it is not music in the generally accepted sense, it is "rather an objectivity leaning towards convention than the most despotic subjectivism" ( T. Mann, "Doctor Faustus"). However, I will take the liberty of saying that I know what this music is about: it is about how, having lost every single external motivation, to find in yourself the meaning to continue to live on. The finale of opus 110 has a very complex structure: tragic adagios alternate with life-affirming fugues - I just said this and clearly understood that words cannot even to the slightest extent reflect all the cosmic revelations of this sonata. Simply put, in an adagio you need to die, and in a fugue you need to “resurrect”, “rise from the ashes”. But is joy possible after such sadness? Is it possible to meet after such a separation? Beethoven replies: "Yes, if you want to be happy, be it!". No external circumstances, blindness, deafness, etc., can prevent this!
- Why did you decide to record such a well-known and, one might say, "imposed on everyone's ears" composition, like Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons"?
— Because it is the best of what Tchaikovsky wrote for the piano, and in general, The Four Seasons, in my opinion, is one of the most significant masterpieces of piano music in general. You ask: “But what about the First Piano Concerto?” Yes, of course, it will absolutely captivate the ingenious introduction in the style of the polonaise, but everything that follows is several orders of magnitude inferior to the beginning. The cycle “The Seasons” is so perfect that it is impossible to add or subtract a single note here. Remove at least one brick from this “building”, and it will crumble. In addition, this is a work of cosmic scale. A landscape sketch of the seasons is probably only a hundredth of the meanings and revelations that are here. The titles of the plays are just the “tip of the iceberg”, everything else is hidden “under water”. I thought about this music for a long time, I “nurtured” it for a long time, and the more I played it, the more meanings of this amazing music were revealed to me. The cycle is clearly three-part: "Christmas" (December) - a kind of reprise of January "At the Fireside"; "Troika" (November) - a reprise of "Maslenitsa" (February); The Lark is a precursor to Autumn Song (October) - after which it is very difficult to continue the game. This is one of the most tragic and hopeless creations in music, it is heavy raindrops falling wearily on gravestones, and a funeral bell at the end. Thinking about this play, you understand that Tchaikovsky would have taken his own life in any case, even if external circumstances had not forced him to do so. The Lark is music about a bird with a broken wing, about a bird that will never fly again. "Shrovetide" - I never thought that such a lively genre scene could be drawn with sounds: almost in reality I see how someone goes uphill, a snowball is thrown at him, and he rolls head over heels; a schoolgirl flirts with a schoolboy, suddenly a drunk wedged in between them, and so on. “Harvest” is not just a picture of peasant life, the title of the play should be understood in the medieval sense, where “harvest” during plague epidemics meant “harvest of death”. “At the Fireside” is perhaps my most favorite play, here the “fireplaces of life” side by side, warmth, comfort, closeness of a loved one and cold, loneliness, lifelessness of what is “outside the window”. "Barcarolle" (June) - never before have I had to meet a barcarolle not for three, but for four quarters. The last piece of "Svyatki" is a waltz of fluffy, sparkling white snow; an excited Natasha Rostova dances her first waltz at her first ball in her life, and at the end - a suddenly awakened sensuality, a spark that ran between these two - and again shimmering white snow. I really hope that my performance will at least slightly “reveal” to the listener what I know and feel in this music - the melancholy that drove the Russian intelligentsia to suicide.

Dedication by Valentin Zagoryansky (Gleb Sedelnikov)

At the end of 2011, the music publishing house Artservis released three discs by pianist Yulia Monastyrskaya with music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. I cannot but say about it, I will not be afraid of this word, the Event. When you listen to these recordings, you immediately get the feeling that this is the only way these compositions should be performed. However, you can read about the compositions and the performer's credo in the disc annotations and on her page on the publisher's website. Now I want to remember how a 17-year-old girl once came to me and started playing Chopin's Fantasia in F minor. I will try to describe what suddenly happened. Instead of this girl and my old broken piano, a huge incomprehensible living creature appeared in the room - music, a real miracle was created two meters from me! Played by Yulia Yadykina!..

At lecture-concerts in the Rachmaninoff House we will talk about how Russian classical music begins; who are the composers of the "Mighty Handful" and what they did not share with Tchaikovsky; why Glinka is our first great composer; whom Tchaikovsky considered his successor and what happened to Russian music in the 20th century.

Concert one. Forgotten names of the 18th century: I.Khandoshkin, L.Gurilev, D.Bortnyansky, V.Karaulov

It is traditionally considered that Russian classical music begins in the second half of the 18th century. We joined European music quite late, having successfully skipped the entire Baroque era. The 18th century for us is the time of mastering the European style. But we mastered it surprisingly quickly, and already in the XIX-th century, Russian composers began to influence European music. We'll talk about how it all began. And, of course, we will listen to the works of "musical pioneers": anonymous, I. Khandoshkin, D. Bortnyansky, L. Khandoshkin, L. Gurilev and others.

Lecture-concert program:

Anonymous: from the "Book of Bass General Avdotya Ivanova"
- I. Khandoshkin: Variations on the theme of the Russian folk song "Will I go out to the river"
- D. Kashin: Russian song "I drove a herd into the field"
- D. Bortnyansky: Allegro moderato from the Sonata in B flat major; Larghetto from Sonata in F major; Rondo from Sonata in C major
- L. Gurilev: Six preludes
- O. Kozlovsky: Polonaise-pastoral; Two country dances; Polonaise on the theme of the Ukrainian folk song "Please, Madam"
D. Saltykov: Siciliana
V. Karaulov: Variations
In May, we are waiting for the continuation of the project (the whole cycle consists of 7 concerts)

"Say a word about poor Khandoshkin."
How fast everything is in the world of music. 1795 Variations for clavier by Ivan Efstafievich Khandoshkin are published (what a name! You just pronounce it sounds simply charming), and less than 100 years later in 1874 Mussorgsky writes “Pictures at an Exhibition”, and after another 60 years Shostakovich writes 24 Preludes. When we studied, and there was a course in the history of music, it seemed that everything was so slow
Little is known about Khandoshkin. From a family of serf musicians, he served with Count Naryshkin, played the violin superbly (it seems that even he was sent abroad to study), then in the orchestra of Peter III. Not even a portrait of Khandoshkin remained. He wrote more than 100 works not much has come down to us, including these variations. They can be listened to.

Nice picture, right? Don't want to try this lifestyle?
Smart people say that music conveys the spirit of the era like no other art. Here's an 18th century verse:
"Without love and without passion,
All days are unpleasant:
It is necessary to sigh so that passion
Lyubovny were notable.
(Trediakovsky)
You can giggle, but the spirit here is not so felt
And the music of the 18th century is a completely different matter. These are the Viennese classics. It is unfair to compare Russian composers with these celestials, but they all had a common attitude:
“There are so few joyful and contented people in this world,” wrote the seventy-year-old Haydn, “everywhere they are haunted by grief and worries; perhaps music will serve as a source from which a person full of worries and burdened with business will draw peace and rest.
I play Bortnyansky and draw, I play Khandoshkin with Gurilev and draw

Julia, tell us how you combined getting a general education, that is, studying ordinary subjects, with a musical education.

- The College of Music very organically combines general education and specialized music curriculum. It is very convenient that you get all the necessary knowledge in one place. And you do not have to travel to different educational institutions in different parts of the city.

Musician - this is one of the few professions that you need to learn from early childhood. Did you have any doubts when choosing the path? Have you thought about quitting everything?

It's hard to force someone to fall in love with music. You can, of course, guide the child in childhood, show him something, introduce him to the magical world of art. But you can't decide for him. After all, the profession of a musician is a very difficult path. You can’t hack here, so the child must be responsible and capable of full dedication. You need to do a lot and every day - of course, this is not suitable for everyone.

I also had doubts, especially during periods of unsuccessful performances at competitions. No matter how well prepared you are, anything can happen. At times like these, it is especially important to have the support of loved ones. Because over time, you still realize that this is life, and there are ups and downs in it. And if you fell, it's not scary. You just need to get up and move on, constantly set new goals and achieve them.

I know that you are now teaching at the Secondary Specialized College of Music, at the Department of Special Piano. Tell us a little about your students. Is the chosen path difficult for them?

They are all talented and very different. Each needs a separate approach. I try to see in every student, even the smallest one, a personality. They feel it and therefore become more responsible, striving forward. It is very important. Most of my students who graduated from college continue their studies at music universities in the republic and Russia.

I have had occasion to support and guide my students in difficult periods of life for them, when they doubted the choice of a profession and did not want to continue.

A child always needs the advice of an adult, a wise person, support and a kind word are needed. The main thing is to make it clear that this can happen to anyone and it is not difficult for him alone. It's hard in any profession, and every profession requires work.

- Is it possible to get into a music school or university without talent, but with a lot of perseverance and diligence?

Talent, in principle, consists of perseverance and diligence. This is a cumulative concept. Any person at any age can be taught to play any musical instrument. The question is how well he will do it in the end. Abilities are innate, but there are also acquired. You can develop any ability in yourself if you work hard.