writer
Vladimir Sorokin
In memory of Alexander Vedernikov
I met Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov during the staging and at the rehearsals of the opera “The Children of Rosenthal”. The staging was quite intense and stormy. Everyone understood that it was turning out something that is difficult to calculate logically to the end, so a grain, or rather, the flavor, the spirit of unpredictability hovered over everything and everyone. This was also fueled by an external scandal unleashed by pro-government obscurantists. Nyakroshus, Desyatnikov improvised a lot with the singers, with the direction. I also had to adjust the text so that it could be sung more easily. We were all inspired by the feeling of creating something new, that had not been staged in this theater for a long time, and this feeling was transmitted to everyone - both singers, choir, mimes, artists, and the theater administration. But a person was surprisingly calm among this group of people excited by unpredictability — Alexander Vedernikov.
I do not know if he was completely calm inside himself, as it seemed at the time, but his calmness, the highest professionalism and confidence that we were doing everything right amazed me. There was a feeling that our fantasies, improvisations, along with many purely technological issues, were resting on his shoulders. And these shoulders were truly heroic. His stature, despite the amazing plasticity of this man at the console, had a certain metaphysics of static on which one could rely, and this incredibly helped all of us.
The premiere was stormy. We got to know each other better. And Alexander struck me again. That time, I was amazed by his non-academic attitude towards the cultural field, towards the ocean of culture, towards literature. Everything was in motion in him. He was a surprisingly mobile, open and direct person. When the premiere died down and all the scandals subsided, we saw each other after a while, meeting by chance at a concert. After learning that Ira and I used to visit our friends in Pereslavl-Zalessky, he invited us to his dacha that turned out to be not far from this beautiful town. We went to visit Sasha and Lena. It was one of the most wonderful and unforgettable trips. Actually, the Vedernikovs did not have a dacha there, but a real rustic house, in which all the simple peasant atmosphere had been preserved. Yet Sasha and Lena, urban people, quite naturally existed there, organically inhabiting and animating that place. Sasha cooked fish in a Russian stove, baking it on salt. We were sitting on a starry summer night in a rustic house, drinking, eating, talking about music and literature. It's impossible to forget. Sasha was the life and soul of the party. His booming laughter was envious. There, in that rustic house, I realized that with all the responsibility that laid on the shoulders of this bright, already famous conductor, inside, he was incredibly free. It was captivating. I remember asking him about the limits of absolute hearing, whether it helped or hindered a musician. I have always been interested in the question of so-called “non-musical sounds”, their recording and existence in the score. Naturally, in modern music, “non-musical sounds”, such as the rustling of paper or the grinding of iron, are not recorded in notes, but are indicated by special symbols. So, I said, “Sasha, look, if you just take a cup and”… I picked up an empty cup and hit it with a wooden spoon, it turned out a blurry sound. And Sasha immediately named the chord of that complex sound. I have always been fascinated by such pure and hard-hitting professionalism.
Vedernikov had an imperceptible, composite quality, a symbiosis of music, freedom, high culture, hard-hitting professionalism and quite a dour ethics of a hereditary Moscow intellectual. At the same time, he was not at risk of misanthropy. He knew how to respect people and himself. Not every great musician is able to boast of this. Alexander Alexandrovich was an amazing person. He radiated warmth, charm and gifted us with the formidable and noble noise of the musical ocean. His unique world is always with us. And the music he created. And his laughter. And his attention. And the warmth of his heart. And he will always be missed.
I met Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov during the staging and at the rehearsals of the opera “The Children of Rosenthal”. The staging was quite intense and stormy. Everyone understood that it was turning out something that is difficult to calculate logically to the end, so a grain, or rather, the flavor, the spirit of unpredictability hovered over everything and everyone. This was also fueled by an external scandal unleashed by pro-government obscurantists. Nyakroshus, Desyatnikov improvised a lot with the singers, with the direction. I also had to adjust the text so that it could be sung more easily. We were all inspired by the feeling of creating something new, that had not been staged in this theater for a long time, and this feeling was transmitted to everyone - both singers, choir, mimes, artists, and the theater administration. But a person was surprisingly calm among this group of people excited by unpredictability — Alexander Vedernikov.
I do not know if he was completely calm inside himself, as it seemed at the time, but his calmness, the highest professionalism and confidence that we were doing everything right amazed me. There was a feeling that our fantasies, improvisations, along with many purely technological issues, were resting on his shoulders. And these shoulders were truly heroic. His stature, despite the amazing plasticity of this man at the console, had a certain metaphysics of static on which one could rely, and this incredibly helped all of us.
The premiere was stormy. We got to know each other better. And Alexander struck me again. That time, I was amazed by his non-academic attitude towards the cultural field, towards the ocean of culture, towards literature. Everything was in motion in him. He was a surprisingly mobile, open and direct person. When the premiere died down and all the scandals subsided, we saw each other after a while, meeting by chance at a concert. After learning that Ira and I used to visit our friends in Pereslavl-Zalessky, he invited us to his dacha that turned out to be not far from this beautiful town. We went to visit Sasha and Lena. It was one of the most wonderful and unforgettable trips. Actually, the Vedernikovs did not have a dacha there, but a real rustic house, in which all the simple peasant atmosphere had been preserved. Yet Sasha and Lena, urban people, quite naturally existed there, organically inhabiting and animating that place. Sasha cooked fish in a Russian stove, baking it on salt. We were sitting on a starry summer night in a rustic house, drinking, eating, talking about music and literature. It's impossible to forget. Sasha was the life and soul of the party. His booming laughter was envious. There, in that rustic house, I realized that with all the responsibility that laid on the shoulders of this bright, already famous conductor, inside, he was incredibly free. It was captivating. I remember asking him about the limits of absolute hearing, whether it helped or hindered a musician. I have always been interested in the question of so-called “non-musical sounds”, their recording and existence in the score. Naturally, in modern music, “non-musical sounds”, such as the rustling of paper or the grinding of iron, are not recorded in notes, but are indicated by special symbols. So, I said, “Sasha, look, if you just take a cup and”… I picked up an empty cup and hit it with a wooden spoon, it turned out a blurry sound. And Sasha immediately named the chord of that complex sound. I have always been fascinated by such pure and hard-hitting professionalism.
Vedernikov had an imperceptible, composite quality, a symbiosis of music, freedom, high culture, hard-hitting professionalism and quite a dour ethics of a hereditary Moscow intellectual. At the same time, he was not at risk of misanthropy. He knew how to respect people and himself. Not every great musician is able to boast of this. Alexander Alexandrovich was an amazing person. He radiated warmth, charm and gifted us with the formidable and noble noise of the musical ocean. His unique world is always with us. And the music he created. And his laughter. And his attention. And the warmth of his heart. And he will always be missed.
