Yuri Falik

Falik Yuri Alexandrovich (Also Falik Yury Alexandrovich) (July 30, 1936, Odessa, USSR – January 23. 2009, Saint-Petersburg) was a Russian composer, orchestral conductor, cellist, a board member of the Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg) branch of the Composers' Union, People's Artist of Russia.
Biography.
Childhood and youth
Yuri Falik was born in the family of an orchestral musician. His father Alexander Efimovich Falik played percussion in the Odessa Opera orchestra. His mother Evgeniya Mikhailovna worked at the Theatre too. In early childhood, Yuri Falik was often present at orchestra rehearsals and opera productions, easily memorizing and humming the music he heard. The Second World War detached him from music for four years. Yuri and his mother were evacuated to Central Asia, Kirgyzstan. His father volunteered for the front, and perished in 1942. The family tragedy and deep complex experiences of the early childhood strongly influenced not only Falik's personality, but also his art.
After returning to Odessa in 1944 he started to study cello under the guidance of his father’s friend from the Odessa Opera House symphony orchestra – David Abramovich Mevzhinsky. The following year Falik entered his class at the famous Odessa Secondary Special Music Boarding School named after P. Stolyarsky. Thus began his systematic music education. At the age of 11, Falik began composing, often neglecting his schoolwork in favor of the new hobby. Soon he got his first mentor in composition – the composer Vladimir Afanasievich Shvets, who taught musical literature at the P. Stolyarsky School. Falik had special interest in the quartet. In addition, as a cellist, he enjoyed playing in the school's academic Quartet ensemble. In 1952, he organized his own Quartet ensemble, which consisted of his schoolmates and friends. Along with classical works, the repertoire of this Quartet included new works of the Soviet Union composers, as well as Falik's own compositions. According to his friend Adam Stratievsky, there were two youth quartets (1953 and 1954) written for the ensemble/ The Quartet in e-moll (1954) was subsequently published by the Soviet Composer Publishing House in 1982 and was included in the list of the composer's works as the First Quartet. By the time he left school, Falik had composed quite a number of works, including quartets, works for an orchestra, choirs, romances, and a piano prelude. However, he decided to enter the performing faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory as a cellist.
Conservatory
From 1955 till 1960, Yu. Falik studied at the Leningrad Conservatory in Professor Alexander Shtrimmer’s cello class. Then he pursued postgraduate course under Mstislav Rostropovich’s guidance. He successfully started his performing career with the first solo concert in Leningrad (1958), then followed concert tours in Soviet cities. In 1962 Falik became a Diploma-winner of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition, and a few months later he won the First prize in the International Cello Competition at the Eight World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki. It is noteworthy that almost half a century later (in 2007) Falik took part in the Tchaikovsky Competition again, but now as a jury member in cello category.
Though he had a very busy life as a cellist, Falik never lost the irresistible urge to compose music, and in 1959 he was accepted to composition class of the Conservatory first under Yuri Balkashin’s guidance, then under Boris Arapov’s. He graduated from the Conservatory as a composer in 1964 submitting the "Symphony for String Orchestra and Percussion" and the "Quintet for Winds" as his diploma works.
During this period the young composer had a significant meeting with Igor Stravinsky who was touring in the USSR in 1962. Stravinsky had been his music idol since the Odessa times. For the first time Falik heard Stravinsky’s music in early youth on a record brought by friends from abroad. It was the "«Rite of Spring»" which impressed him by unexpected and non-trivial timbre findings in the Introduction of the Ballet. And now, it wasn't just luck, but a sign of destiny to get acquainted with Stravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic. Having heard that the young musician combined a professional performing career with composition, Stravinsky said: «"It's impossible to combine: a cello is a very difficult instrument and takes a huge amount of time»". The words sank deep into the young composer’s soul, strengthening the long-cherished idea of treason to the cello. The next several years Falik devoted more and more time to composition even though he still continued to perform solo and as member of chamber ensembles. In 1975, Falik expressed his piety for the Maestro in "«Mourning Mass for Igor Stravinsky»" («Elegiac Music») for 16 strings and 4 trombones, timed to coincide with the five-year anniversary of Stravinsky's death.
Career.
Falik’s independent composer path started with the "Second String Quartet" (1965) dedicated to Yuri Balkashin’s memory. This work clearly defined Falik's compositional personality. The Quartet was performed with great success by the Leningrad Taneyev Quartet in 1966 and was recommended for publication by the Leningrad Composers' Union. Considering this work a milestone, he arranged it for String orchestra and published as «Music for strings» (1968).
Perhaps due to Stravinsky's influences, the next few years of Falik’s career in composition were devoted to the ballet genre. Between 1966 and 1968, he created three ballets in collaboration with choreographer Georgy Aleksidze: "«Buffoons»" (a chamber ballet for four dancers to the similarly-named music of Falik's Concerto for Winds), "«Thiel Ulenspiegel»" (based on a Flemish legend), "«Oresteia"» (a choreographic tragedy after the work by Aeschylus). G. Aleksidze worked on libretto and choreography. He outlined the plan, action and atmosphere of a ballet and later developed dance movements in detail for the each phrase of Falik's music.
Only two of three ballets of the 1960s were staged". «Buffoons»" was produced on the stage of the Leningrad Academic Cappella in 1967. "«Oresteia»" was staged during two seasons in Leningrad Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre, then in Tbilisi (1973) and Estonia (1979). At Leningrad premiere production in 1969 Falik made his debut as a conductor on a big stage.
Despite the fact that the second ballet "«Thiel Ulenspiegel"» was never staged, its music is well known in Russia as the First Concerto for Symphony orchestra. The premiere of the Concert conducted by Dmitry Kitayenko took place in 1971, in Moscow. In fact, a similar fate befell the fourth planned ballet "«Capriccios»" based on F. Goya's works to a libretto by the artist . The music of the failed ballet formed the basis for the "Second Concerto" for the orchestra "«Symphonic Etudes»" (1977), dedicated to G. Rozhdenstvensky. Thus, it was within the ballet genre that the composer's "concertato style" matured, quite clearly exposing the theatrical and playful nature of Falik's creative talent.
On the whole, the period of the 1970s became very fruitful for Falik in terms of searching his own style. At this time he became renowned as a chamber-instrumental and an orchestral composer. Since 1966, Falik was a regular participant of the Leningrad Musical Spring Festival. In 1972 his "First Concerto" for symphony orchestra was performed at the Third International Festival «Prague Spring» by Czechoslovak radio orchestra under conductor Eduard Serov. In 1977 Falik participated in the «Warsaw Autumn» with a "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" (the violin part was performed by G. Zhislin).
The "Violin Concerto" (1971) marked the beginning of the period of creative maturity. A lyrical-philosophical concept of the Concerto is embodied on a new technique level: the five-movement composition consists of open parts following each other without interruption and provides the effect of continuous development of the principal intonation idea. Melodic material of the Concerto grows out of several simple tunes which are presented in the Introduction and pass evolving and varying through the whole cycle. The Concerto was dedicated to his friend Victor Lieberman and performed by him in Leningrad under conductor Alexander Dmitriev) with great success. In 1973, Falik received a positive review on "the Violin Concerto" from D. Shostakovich, who congratulated Falik on his «excellent opus».
Falik and Shostakovich
Despite the fact that Falik wasn’t a student of Dmitri Shostakovich, he was strongly influenced by Shostakovich's personality and works as were many young musicians of his generation. Nevertheless, the young composer sought to avoid borrowing any elements of Shostakovich’s musical language, as he mostly embraced the poetics of master’s works, tragic spirit and deep psychological tension of his music. He dedicated the "Fourth String Quartet", completed in 1976, to the memory of Shostakovich. The conversation that took place between Falik and Shostakovich in 1975, became an impulse to start working on this opus. Shostakovich noticed it is impossible to compose a joyful String Quartet. According to him, it was beyond anybody but Mozart. Falik sportingly undertook to refute this statement and promised Shostakovich to compose such a Quartet. The beginning of the work on the first movement in 1975 showed that the argument was already lost. Soon, tragic news of Shostakovich's death predetermined the mourning and memorial character of the second and the third movements of the Quartet. Instead of a joyful quartet it turned out to be a requiem. Without stylistic borrowings or quotations from Shostakovich's music Falik created a musical portrait of the Master, expressed personal thoughts and feelings, his own pain of the irreparable loss.
Choral music
At the turn of the 1960-70s, Falik discovered a new field of work – music for choir "a'cappella". Since 1969, choral cycles and separate compositions for choir appeared every year. Works of the 1970-80s, such as "«Autumn Songs»", "«Two Solfeggio»", «"A Stranger Lady»", «"Winter Songs»", "Cant-vivat", «"Estonian Watercolours»" as well as three Concertos for choir "a’cappella" with lyrics of Silver Age Russian poets brought him a wide fame as a choral composer. He interprets choir in an unusual manner, so it quite often sounds like an orchestra or a chamber instrumental ensemble. Colorful harmony, metaphorical musical images, melodic and rhythmic virtuosity of chorus parts – all of these impart bright features of "concertato" style to the composer's choral music. At the same time, Falik appears as a lyricist and a fine connoisseur of poetry in this genre.
In 1990-1992 Falik completed the main part of "«Liturgical Chants»" based on the text of a Russian Orthodox prayer book. It became the most considerable amongst the choral works of those years and marked a watershed on his way, his own new Millennium. In his Interview with A. Yepishin in 2006 Falik recalled that his creative impulse for writing the choral cycle was provoked by the prayer book published in 1887, which he discovered in 1983 in the belongings of his deceased mother.
A few years later, in 1996, another sacred choral work appeared. American choirmaster Larry Сook, who heard "«Liturgical Chants»", suggested that Falik write a catholic Mass. Falik remembered, the "Mass" for soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra was written surprisingly quickly – in a month and a half. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1997 (performed by the Choir of Youth under Yu. Khutoretskaya), then, in 1999, in America at St. John's Church of Youngstown city (USA, Ohio). Both premieres (Russian and American) were played under the composer’s baton.
It should be noted the sacred theme matured over the previous two decades in his instrumental works such as the "Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Quartets", "«Symphonic Etudes»" (1977) etc. Musical language elements of these compositions refer to such Christian choral traditions as Znamenny chant, Gregorian chant, early forms of church polyphony. A focus on prototypes of the sacred genre sometimes can be «read» in titles of works or movements, for example, "«Morning Mass for Igor Stravinsky»" (1975), an orthodox funeral service, or the Second Movement «Requiem» of the "Sixth String Quartet". Likewise, movements of the "Concerto della Passione (1988)" are titled «Lacrimosa», «Dies irae», «Libera me», «Lux aeterna». However, Falik doesn’t seek to recreate the genre, treating prototypes generically as symbols of the spiritual human being.
"Polly" in America
In the end of the 1980s the American producer Geraldine Freund set out to revive the genre of symphonic musical fairy tale for children, like Prokofiev's "«Petya and the Wolf»". She considered that only a Soviet composer should continue this tradition. On the advice of V. Ovcharek – head of the Leningrad Taneyev Quartet, she addressed the proposal to Yu. Falik. «"I was told that Falik is the only soviet composer who still writes melodies»", Freund recalled. Falik accepted and soon, by August of 1989 full score of the musical fairy tale "«Polly and Dinosaurs»" for two narrators, children choir and symphony orchestra was completed. In the following year Falik was invited to America to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the world premiere of his musical Fairy Tale. Followed by his family, Falik spent a week in Chicago, conducting orchestra and choir rehearsals, besides he lectured to composition students from Northwestern and De Paul universities and the University of Chicago (Illinois, USA). He returned to the Northwestern University as a visiting professor in 1991-1992.
Teaching
In 1980 Yu. Falik became a senior lecturer at the Leningrad Conservatory. Since 1988 he worked there as a professor of composition and instrumentation. As a mentor of young composers Falik realized that his task is not to push the talent, but to guide it in the right direction, by keeping a talented person "«wrapped in cotton wool"» from the beginning. He particularly focused on the issue of influence and imitation: in his opinion, a young composer should not be afraid of someone else's influence: "«If your own nature is strong, it will gain strength and make its voice heard»". However, it is necessary to be careful in choosing the object of imitation, to distinguish the «open» and «closed» types of composing style systems. The influence of an «open style system», such as Prokofiev’s, Stravinsky’s, or Schoenberg’s works pose no danger for beginners. On the contrary, it is better, in his opinion, to avoid the influence of such composers as Shostakovich’s and Rachmaninoff’s «closed style systems».
Conducting
For the first time, he picked up the conductor’s baton, while a student of the Conservatory, when he had to record music for Lope de Vega's play «A Peasant Woman from Getafe» for Leningrad Film Studio. A few years later he was entrusted with artistic direction of the Leningrad Conservatory’s Student Chamber orchestra. Besides, he performed as a conductor all over Russia and abroad. During his American tour in the 1990s his performances with the Chicago and Baltimore Symphony orchestras were highly appreciated by the press. Lists of his programs always included music of the XX century, along with the venerable names of Stravinsky or Lutoslawski he performed music of little-known and young Russian composers. As a conductor, Falik participated in the Second and Third World congresses of cellists (1997, Saint Petersburg, and 2000, Baltimore, respectively) under Mstislav Rostropovich’s leadership.
Music and style.
The influences which formed his style include those of I. Stravinsky, P. Hindemit, A. Vebern, B. Bartok, S. Prokofiev, N. Myaskovsky, W. Lutoslawski and D. Shostakovich. But any influence was considered by him as a step on his self-education path. Contemporary techniques of composition were not a dogma for him, he treated them selectively and interpreted them freely. After all, the technical design of his works (Falik called it an «engineering plan») was always as original and logically verified, as it was predetermined by the tasks of embodying an artistic concept. Thus, in the same work an expanded tonality and modal structures coexist with dodecaphony technique elements; melodic themes alternate with timbre and texture complexes-themes and colorful sonority; rigid, elastic and «gestural» rhythm is replaced with a free speech-recitation or chant-monody development of musical time. The intonation origins of his music are often rooted in the ancient layers of folk and professional music of the Russian, European and Jewish traditions. Archaic intonations, marked by his own style and placed in the stylistic context of music of the XX-XXI centuries, determine the sound image of the most significant compositions of the central and late works (such as Violin Concerto, String Quartets, Second and Third Symphonies, Elegiac Music, Symphony Etudes, Concerto della Passione, Mess, Liturgical Chant et.)
«"A super master of every aspect of technique, he treats new methods selectively – only using them as his artistic concepts require. First, he searches for hidden resources in traditional genres and forms but foremost is the emergence of the idea, the conviction of the decision, the grasp of the intricacy of his musical development and the beauty of the sound"»
Works.
Works for Music Theatre
"«Oresteia»" choreographic tragedy after the tragedy by Aeschylus (1968)
"«The Impostures of Scapin»" («Plutni Skapena») opera-buffa after Moliere’s comedy (1982)
Orchestral Works
"Concertino" for oboe and chamber orchestra (1961)
"First Symphony" for string orchestra and percussion (1963)
"First Concerto" for orchestra after the legends of Thiel Ulenspiegel (1967)
"Music for Strings" (1968)
"Light Symphony" (1971)
"Concerto" for Violin and Orchestra (1971)
"«Morning Mass for Igor Stravinsky»" («Elegiac Music») for 4 trombones and 16 strings) (1975)
"Second Concerto" for orchestra («Symphonic Etudes») (1977)
"Chamber Concerto" for three flutes (by one performer) and String Orchestra (1983)
"Symphoniette" for String Orchestra (1984)
"Concertino" for bassoon and string orchestra (1987)
"Concerto della Passione" for cello and symphony orchestra (1988)
"Vivat", overture for Symphony orchestra (Vivat Chicago-Symphony) (1991)
"Symphony No. 2" «"Kaddish»" (1993)
"Lyric Concertino" for viola and small symphony orchestra (for the day of Saint Petersburg) （1973, 2002）
"Symphony No. 3" «"Canto In Memoria"» (2005)
Chamber Instrumental Works
Eight "String Quartets" (1954, 1965, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1984, 1993, 2001)
"Trio" for Oboe, Cello and Piano (1959)
"Quintet" for winds (1964)
"«Buffoons»" Concerto for wind and percussion (1966)
Partita for organ (1966)
"Invention" for Vibrophone, Marimba and 5 Tom-toms (1972)
"Composition" for Solo Violin (1975)
"Toccata" for Horn and Piano (1975)
"English Divertissement" for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon (1978)
"Composition" for Cello Solo (1979)
"Pastoral and Burlesque" for flute and piano (1980)
"Three pieces" for Clarinet Solo (1983)
"Introduction and Three Canzones", for flute, bassoon, violin, cello and piano (from the Opera Buffa "«Plutni Skapena»") (1995)
"Retro-music" for brass quintet (Brass quintet of the Chicago Symphony orchestra) (2 trumpets, French horn, trombone) (2003)
Piano Works
"«Nadia’s Tales»", a piano cycle for youth (1969)
"Children’s Piano Album" (10 pieces) (1974)
"Five Preludes" for piano (1982)
"«Dedicated to Paganini»", Invention and Chaconne for piano (1981)
Vocal-symphony Works
"«A Solemn Song»", cantata for soloist, choir and orchestra (1968)
"«Praying Voice»", chamber cantata for soprano and chamber orchestra based on poems by Anna Akhmatova (1978)
"«Ringaday»" («Zveniden’») vocal-symphony cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra on lyrics by early XX century Russian poets (1986)
"«Polly and Dinosaurs»", musical fairy tale after the fairy tale by Jeraldin Freund for two narrators, children choir and symphony orchestra after the Fairy Tale by Geraldin Freund (1989)
"Mass" for soloists, choir and chamber orchestra (1996)
"«Mannerheim»", chamber cantata for mixed choir, clarinet, piano and percussion (2007)
Chamber Vocal Works
"«World Songs»", vocal cycle for Baritone and Piano (1961)
«"A Half-fairy Tale»" («Poluskazki»), the Cycle of vocal miniatures on poems by F. Krivina, for baritone and piano (1965)
"«The Sad Mother»", lullabies for Mezzo and Piano, lyrics by G. Mistral (1972)
Five poems by Anna Akhmatova for Soprano and Piano (1972)
"«Ringaday» («"Zveniden’"»)" Vocal Cycle for Mezzo-soprano and Orchestra (lyrics by early XXth century Russian poets (1980)
"«Beranger Songs»" for Baritone and piano (1984)
"«…From lyrical Diary»" for Tenor and Piano, lyrics by V. Soloukhin and A. Zhigulin (1985)
·"Two songs" for soprano and piano, lyrics by D. Maximovich translated by A. Akhmatova (1995)
Works for Choir a’cappella
"«Triptich»", Сhorus Сycle, lyrics by V. Soloukhin (1969)
"«Autumn Sons»", Chorus Cycle, lyrics by D. Kedrin, K Balmont, I. Nikitin, An. Zhigulin (1970)
"«Two solfeggio»", Prelude and Fuga (1973),
"Cant-Vivat " for Men’s Choir, lyrics by A. Sumarokov (1974)
"«A Stranger Lady»" («Neznakomka»), lyrics by A. Block (1974)
"«A Harp»", chorus poem, lyrics by E. Mejelaitis (1974)
"«Winter Sons»", lyrics by B. Pasternak, N. Zabolocky, A. Zhigulin (1975)
"«Estonian Watercolours»", Suite for Women's Choir, lyrics by D. Vaarandy, Yu Lyiv (1976)
"«Poems by Igor Severianin»", Concerto for Choir a’cappella (1979)
"«The City sleeps»" with lyrics by A. Blok (1980)
"«Karelian Watercolor»" with lyrics by R. Vinonen (1980)
"«Prayer»" with lyrics by M. Lermontov (1983)
"Doloroso" (1983)
"«Ivan's Willow»", with lyrics by A. Tarkovsky (1984)
"«Colorful Images»", four miniatures for children's (women's) choir based on poems by S. Marshak, V. Mayakovsky, and I. Reznikova (1985)
"«Trinity»", («Troicyn den'»), Concerto for Choir a’cappella, lyrics by M. Tsvetaeva (1987)
"«O, Nature!»", Concerto for Choir a’cappella, lyrics by B. Pasternak (1988),
"«Liturgical Chants»" («Liturgicheskie pesnopeniya»), the texts of the Russian orthodox «Prayer Book» («Molitvoslov») (1990–1993)
"«Prayers»", five Prayers for mixed Choir (1997)
"«Stanzas by Pushkin»" Concerto for Choir a’cappella (1998)
"«Ellegies»", Сoncerto for soprano solo and choir a’cappella, lyrics by A. Akhmatova and N. Gumilyov (2001)
"Four Сhoirs" with lyrics by Arseny Tarkovsky, for Choir (and Flute) (2003)
"«Miraculous Faces»" («Pred Svyatye ikony»), Cycle for mixed choir a’cappella (2004)
Four Russian songs for Women's Choir, with lyrics by Nikolai Klyuyev, (2005)
"«Two prayers»" («Dva molitvosloviya») for Women's choir (2007)
"«Book of Canzons»" Chorus Cycle in two parts, lyrics by European poets of the XI"-"XVII centuries (2007, 2008)
"«Prayer»" for Chorus a’cappella, lyrics by A. Solzhenitsyn (2009)
Music for Drama Theatre and Films
"«Pushkin’s Tales»" Leningrad Young Spectator Theatre , dir. by P. K. Veisbrem (1962)
"«A Peasant Woman from Getafe»", the play by Lope de Vega/ Leningrad TV Studio, dir. by P. K. Veisbrem (1962)
"«Theme with Variations»" Lenfilm, directed by M. G. Shapiro (1972)
"«The Near World, the Far World»", Leningrad Science Film, dir. G. Zhvania (1974)
"«Five Years of Life»" Moscow Central Science Film, dir. A.Burimsky (1976)
Editions, Arrangements, Instrumentation
"Two fragments" from J. Gershwin’s Opera «Porgy and Bess»: arrangement for Cello and Piano (1966)
"R. Plunkett «Cornevil's Bells»": Editorial, recitatives, and instrumentation (1974)
"A. Borodin «Prince Igor»": editing and instrumentation (1993)
V. Sher. Children's Concerto for violin and piano. Editing and instrumentation (2003)
"S. Joplin, J. Gershwin, O. Peterson:" Transcriptions for string ensemble and piano (2003)
External links.
Scores by Yury Falik []