Alexander Lokshin: Symphonien Nr.7 & 10 auf CD

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Alexander Lazarevich Lokshin (1920-1987) is one of the most talented and original composers of the 20th century. Having remained aloof from the confrontation between the various musical trends, which had erupted so acutely in the musical life of the former Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s – the rivalry between the radically avant-garde and the traditional-national trends, the composer was able to create his individual style, in which a contemporary musical language is combined with a foundation on traditions of the high art of the past. Emotional saturation, melodic abundance, harmonical and timbral expressivity, a compositionally-dramaturgical plasticity and freedom, as well as a structural unity – these are all qualities, due to which the music of Lokshin authoritatively attracts the listener to itself and could be recognized and remembered.
A. L. Lokshin is a student of N. Ya. Myaskovsky, who greatly appreciated his talent and tried to help the young composer in his career. His diploma composition “Les Fleurs de Mal” (1939), featuring three compositions for soprano and chamber orchestra, set to the poems of Charles Baudelaire (who at that time was a forbidden poet in the Soviet Union), was banned from performance, and the composer was bereft of his diploma. In 1944 Lokshin presented as his diploma work his symphonic poem “Wait for Me” for mezzo-soprano and large symphony orchestra set to the poems of K. Simonov, passed the state exams and graduated, receiving his diploma with high honors. Since 1945 he taught at Moscow Conservatory, from where he was discharged in 1948 during the government’s campaign of “the struggle against cosmopolitanism” (as well as promoting contemporary music among his students). After these events Lokshin did not have the means to find a regular job. He was greatly aided by pianist M. V. Yudina, with whom he was tied for many years by a close friendship. She was fascinated by his compositions, considering him a genius (as did Dmitri Shostakovich).
Lokshin composed numerous compositions, pertaining to various genres, including symphonies, chamber ensembles, piano and vocal compositions, music for films and theatrical productions. However, the acquisition of artistic maturity is connected with the finding of his “personal genre” – the vocal symphony. It was particularly in this genre that the composer’s talent was brought out to the utmost degree, along with the broad scale and the tragic element of his musical thought – it is not by chance that in the West he is called the “Russian Mahler”. The composer wrote eleven symphonies (1957-1976), of which only one is purely instrumental – the Fourth. Turning to literary works of the most various epochs and countries (including Ancient Greek poets, Medieval Japanese lyrical poetry, Shakespeare, the Portuguese Renaissance poet Luis Camoens, Pushkin, Blok, Nikolai Zabolotsky and L. Martynov), in dialogue with them he creates brightly expressive symphonies, permeated with a semantic multivalence, which are, in essence, poems about human life, which are tragic and pungently beautiful.

The Seventh Symphony for contralto and chamber orchestra was written in 1972 and set to the poems of Japanese 13th century poets. It is based on lyrical miniatures of medieval poets (“tanka”). The elaborate beauty of these small masterpieces called for special musical means of expression: hence comes the delicacy, eloquence and intricacy of the music. Nevertheless, just as in other works by Lokshin the symphony dwells on the “eternal problems” – life and death, beauty and happiness, love and hatred. The austerity of the orchestral means and the chamber-like qualities combine with grandiosity and a genuine symphonic approach.
The symphony contains an orchestral introduction, a theme (a vigorous sound of the trumpet) and six vocal-orchestral variations. What is achieved is a dramaturgical surge, which according to the composer’s intention depicts the destiny of the human being: birth, life and death. The symphony’s climax (present in the fifth variation) is permeated with expressivity and tragic moods: the tocsin bell sonority and rhythm of dirge-like tread. The final variation presents the section of catharsis. The mournful tone of the poems ( No, that is not the snow / That plucks tree leaves at random / When earth is covered by petals, blown away. / That is the shade of gray hair's wisdom, / It is my passing, but the flowers will stay. ) is mitigated by the lofty and heartwarming concordance of the music. The symphony’s conclusion resembles an ellipsis: the musical texture gradually thins out and evaporates, dissolving in silence.
The Tenth Symphony for contralto, chorus, large orchestra and organ (1976), written four years after the Seventh differs considerably from the former by its imagery and sound, which is to certain degree due to its inspiration by the poetry of Zabolotsky which lies at the basis of the work. The symphony is permeated with an elegiac mood which is occasionally broken by sharp dramatic outbursts. Here, likewise, there is an orchestral interlude, the main theme, which is performed by the chorus, and three solo variations. These are recitative-like episodes, creating a specific “plot” – a scene in the cemetery, a blind man, begging for alms, and – finally – the semantic pivotal center of the composition – the poet’s remembrance of his killed (repressed) comrades (With wide brimmed hats, long jackets, / With books filled with their own poems, / It's long ago that you fell to dust, / Like branches of a fallen lilac. ). The episodes are connected together with choral interludes, which are musically and emotionally close to the theme, with the same text (In this birch tree grove, / Away from suffering and mishaps, / Where glimmers pink-colored / Non-blinking morning light, / Where a transparent flow / Of leaves pours down from high branches, - / Sing me, oh oriole, a song of a desert, / Song of my life.). The lucid sadness, the pungent lyricism of the music and its introversive character captivate the listener. For example, he is the impression of the writer V. Kaverin: “Recently I listened during an entire evening to compositions to a composer, who was entirely new to me – Alexander Lokshin. He wrote a symphony set to the poems of Zabolotsky. I listened to it with great delight, since in it Zabolotsky is really discerned. In addition, what is discovered is an entirely new, a very heartfelt idea, very kindhearted and disposed towards an emotional upsurge; it is a musical idea which in the long run finds its expression in melody”.
The Chorale which closes the symphony as well as the final variation leads us to infinitude.
“The Songs of Margaret” for soprano and large orchestra, based on Goethe’s “Faust” (in the translation of Boris Pasternak) is one of the best and the most famous works by Lokshin. Although it has not been called a symphony (and the composer himself spoke about it as a mono-opera), its conception is factually symphonic, as Lokshin understood it to be. The history of the creation of this work is as follows: in 1973 the composer wrote music to the prison scene, which closes the first part of “Faust,” and calls it “The Songs of Margaret”. In 1980 he added two more scenes to it (The song of Margaret “What happened with me” and her appellation to the Virgin Mary from the prison tower), and the “Songs of Margaret” become the Finale of the (which was subsequently called “Three Scenes from Goethe’s ‘Faust’”). However, undoubtedly, the “Songs of Margaret” are an independent composition, as was conceived by the composer originally.
In the image of Margaret the overall human suffering is personified – the composer according to his own words, conceived of the heroine as an extremely young creature – a deceived girl, almost a child, whose death presents not only her personal tragedy, but the embodiment of injustice in general. There is something childlike and open-hearted in the title “The Songs…”. For Lokshin it presents a symbol of simplicity, modesty and unpretentiousness: for instance, this is particularly how he described some of Schubert’s songs. Of course the contrast between the unpretentious word “song” and the frightening content which is seen in it (the visions of Margaret going mad) arouses such horror that the tragic aspect of the situation is enhanced even more.
The fractured consciousness of the heroine is conveyed by the succession of song episodes and the recitative-like insertions intruding into them (the appellation to Heinrich, whom she sees in front of her during moments of enlightenment). The work is constructed in the form of two waves with two dramatic climaxes, crowning each one of them (“When the head / Of the trembling child comes to the surface, / Grab her, grab her little hand! / She's alive! / She's alive!! / Alive…” and “Then we had our spring!”…), as well as with a soft, lyrical culmination in the dirge-like final section (“Remain in the world of the living, / Of all of us you alone…”). This presents the epilogue of the drama, the lofty-enlightened farewell with the world of the living. The music sounds extremely simple and austere: the combination of the song-like and of the chorale-like is complemented by features of the funeral march – this is similar to a procession to an execution.
So how do the features of the text and the music correlate with each other in “The Songs of Margaret?” The human voice is only one (albeit the leading) of the participants of the dialogue, which the various instruments hold between each other. An important role in molding the image is played by the orchestra, which is by no means limited to the role of accompanying the singer, but has a determinative meaning in the disclosure of the artistic conception: the musical texture resembles the breath of living beings; it is a pulsating world of human emotions.
The naturalness, the purity of the soul and the integrated nature of Goethe’s Margaret, characteristic of her even on the verge of madness, the idea itself of suffering of an innocent creature – all of this determines the universality of the eternal image – of all times! This in particular is what appealed the most to Lokshin, who created a genuine symphony-drama, featuring a combination of intricate lyricism