19th International Moscow Festival "Bayan and Bayanists" - Russia

With participation of the federal agency of culture and cinematography of Russia, Russian Gnessin Academy of Music and the Friedrich Lips Fund the traditional XIX International Festival “Bayan and bayanists” took place in the concert hall of the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow from December 5 to 9, 2007.

It belongs to the traditions of the festival to remind of special milestones in the history of the bayan. This year the first construction of the Russian bayan celebrated  its 100^th birthday, additionally famous master Y.Volkovitsh who was responsible for some decisif steps in the development of the instrument celebrated his 80^th birthday. In 1907 P.Sterligov created this instrument which was so different from all other harmonika’s (so-called “garmoshka’s”) existing until then, and which he called “bayan” according to the old Russian singer “Boyan”: 55 buttons (4 rows) in the right, 72 in the left keyboard. In 1929 Sterligov built the first bayan with single tones. It is the huge merit of Y.Volkovitsh of having further perfected the quality of the bayan to create the conditions for the modern professional playing. In 1962 he designed the first standard model “Soloist” with tone chamber, 1967 “Concert” and 1969/1970  “Jupiter” (3 and 4 voices). Thanks to the conscientious work of the Russian masters the “Jupiter” attained its world-wide reputation and became the standard for professional education as well as artistic interpretation. Under the direction of S.M.Baranov the best Russian masters work on further improvements of the instrument nowadays. Many well-known musicians such as J.Vostrjelov, M.Väyrynen, M.Bonnay, J.Sidorov, A.Sevastian, Ch.Bonnay, E.Moser, O.Sharov, A.L.Castaño, O.Murray, S.Najko perform on the “Jupiter”.

The first part of the opening concert was arranged by the accordion orchestra “Vivat, accordion!” (conductor: Valentina Bobisheva) of the Schnittke-Music College  as well as the chamber orchestra of the Gnessin music academy (conductor:Timur Mynbajev). Soloists were pianist Svjatoslav Lips (E. Podgaits: “Rondo” for piano and orchestra) as well as bayanist People’s artist Friedrich Lips (A. Piazzolla: “Aconcagua”, concert for bandoneon and chamber orchestra). Young Russian prize-winners of international competitions of2007 were acclaimed by the public after the break: D.Eliasson, J.Puriz, D.Stadnjuk, I.Salachov, S.Shmelkov (bayan) with flutiste O.Somanovskaya.

The following three evenings were dedicated to bayan artists of different countries: S.Najko, J.Schischkin, O.Scharow (Russia), M.Bonnay (France), A.L.Castaño (Spain), as well as “Trio mobile”(J.Gurevitsh, bayan; A.Groshev, flute; N.Telminova, violoncello) from Nischny Novgorod. All performers emphasized the different facets of the Jupiter bayan in their way.

The Gala concert brought an absolute musical highlight with the appearance of S.Hussong (Germany). The large musical range from a traditional Gagaku of 10^th century Japan to the musical avant-garde of J.Cage or A.Hoelszky was very impressive. With V.Osipov (Concertino and xylophon), accompanied on the piano by S.Lips, as well as the group of "Bely Den" (White day) the concert ended lively.

"SILVER DISKS" were conferred to accordionists/bayanists S.Hussong, J.Shishkin, V.Galkin, S.Najko and to the masters V.Vassiliev, A.Tshernov und S.Kashinzev for merits in the bayan art. Exhibitions and presentations of musical instruments of chief world producers took place in the foyer of the concert hall Russian Gnessin Academy of Music throughout the festival.