Prepared by Olga Bugrova Source: № 12 (149) December 2016 THE ART OF MOVEMENT, THE DEVIANT WAY < Translated using Google Translate > The departure was an anniversary Year for Igor Zhukov: pianist and conductor creator of the Moscow chamber orchestra celebrated his 80th birthday. Through this beautiful about the editor "Play from the beginning" «Играть с самого начала» contact the musician his colleagues from different generations - from memories with bias in reviews and direct grateful appeals, a collective text in the sense of a homage to the hero of the day. Andrey KHITRUK The first time I met I.M. Zhukov in 1963, in the 29th grade of the Moscow Conservatory. My teacher L.N. Naumov (Lev Nikolayevich Naumov) then told me that this young man left Emile Gilels and passed to G. Neuhaus. I remember that day I played Lev Nikolaevich Brahms's Second Sonata, and I remember how Igor Mikhailovich (Zhukov) advised me to translate it into another hand texture from one difficult place. Even then it had something special, he was not like on the rest of the students, he felt some kind of concentration frugality, restraint, even dryness, or, more precisely, frugality in movements. Later I happened to hear him in concert, and the first impressions were confirmed. He played sonatas by Scriabin and his manner seemed perfect unexpectedly. In piano playing nothing was fleeting, airy, which, as you know, was characteristic of Scriabin, the performer, and later their talented performers S. Feinberg and G. Neuhaus. True, in Rachmaninoff and later Sofronitsky created another, more massive in sonority, but Zhukov's performance was not similar to this, like many it then appeared the outside line. His hands seemed to have grown into the keyboard. Not a single additional gesture, body movement. All pros very economical and extremely concentrated. I felt like the pianist has “his” Scriabin In addition, there was undoubtedly a conductor's element in his performance, since the form of each composition lined up very clearly, without breaks. No wonder soon I. Zhukov began to work at the same time and conduct. ... It seems to me that the creative legacy of I. Zhukov is still waiting for his real recognition. Perhaps, this pianist went a step ahead, so to speak, and showed us the way that we don't want to go yet. Ekaterina DERZHAVINA Dear Igor Mikhailovich! The biggest shock ever one of the Clavir recitals I've ever heard was one of your concerts - in Rachmaninoff Hall in the spring of 1997 you called program "two-two, three- three" (Chopin's Second Sonata and Scriabin's Second in Part I, Third Chopin and third Scriabin in the second). Nothing like power concept and influence recall. I heard familiar music, like for the first time – nothing habitual. Everyone had the same level of discovery, delight. "Zhukov is a burglar," one of my musician friends told me during a break. ...Unforgettable and the story of one recordings - as a way of restoring fairness in relation to concerts Chopin. Have you always been angry? on the records we mainly hear the pianist, and it's all wonderful The orchestral score is usually reduced to the level of a modest accompaniment by the sound engineer. You invited an excellent pianist Natalia Konsistorum < Наталью Консисторум >, found a sound engineer ready for a performance, Petra Kondrashin, and she herself got up for the conductor's podium ... - and it turned out the most unusual and one of the most convincing concert recordings! But you and Natasha “just” did what Chopin wrote: “pulled out” all the orchestral parts and, together with Kondrashin, made sure that the right balance was achieved. I remember your concert in Germany ten and a half years ago. In the second branch was "Times year" - as well as in my very first a record I bought myself childhood, not yet knowing who the "pianist Igor Zhukov" is. Between the first a record with your Tchaikovsky and this concert was 30 years ago. Of course everything sounded different. But just as free, easy and from the heart - to tears. Fate ordered that you no longer play after this concert but to continue conducting, collaborated with the Nizhny Novgorod Chamber Orchestra. To anyone who was in a crowded room a few years ago houses of composers, from the first to the last notes were interesting heard Tchaikovsky's Serenade for String Orchestra and Mozart's Divertimento many times. As always: conceptual clarity, scale, iron logic and - freedom. Yuri MARTYNOV Igor Zhukov is a man about whom one can write books, but the description of whole natures does not, in principle, require any detail. It is enough to speak to him a few times - and you will understand his high level of uncompromisingness, the highest demands on himself (and on others!) coupled with spontaneity and even naivety. It is enough to hear this musician several times and one remembers the amazing feeling of the endless fullness of the performance - without a single one blank note and without a single superfluous one movement. It doesn't matter whether he plays the piano or conducts. And something else: absolute independence in the best sense of the word - that independence in both performance and behavior that is only determined by a person's deepest inner world, their inner conviction. In addition, constant, almost self-sacrificing burning: Even everyday work at home - to the fullest as before packed hall. It was his simple and precise advice for me if after a forced three-year hiatus, I had trouble coming back on the stage: deal with it only the same return you keep playing with scene. Those who have tried know how difficult it is, but Igor Mikhailovich seems different for himself. Never thought! Sergey Kasprov ... In the late 80's I had Zhukov's first CD of Scriabin's recordings. First came the Preludes, Op. 16. On the first (B major) I "hang": I don't know how often I listened to, but after a while the first track was ready until smooth grinding. In the same way it was "pinched" Poem "To the Flame" - this entry from since then and "stuck" in mine head as standard. I joined a few years later Zhukov's concert and was shocked: what I heard did not follow records I knew. The program began with Frank's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue and Zhukov's performance initially seemed to be the manifestation of a great will to interpret dictate, include dispute and conviction. Everything was a kind of obligation, a categorical imperative that manifested itself with the greatest force in the Brahms Sonata in F minor: it was played with such a confident attitude time - strict and free at the same time, either Yudina's recordings or Busoni's videos came to mind. The recording of Liszt's Sonata in B minor later left a similar impression: The gigantic power of the grandiose, played at the limit of dynamic possibilities, almost pushed into the chair - something like overloads when entering orbit. I left the concert in a strange state - at the same time an internal quarrel, oppression and admiration. In 2009 I was invited to play Beethoven's Second Concerto Orchestra "Soloists of Nizhny Novgorod" conducted by Zhukov. At the program also included the Mendelssohn Octet and before that the Overture to "Children of Captain Grant" Isaak Dunayevsky! The idea behind this comparison (which seemed odd, if not absurd) worked fantastically. Between Mendelssohn and Dunayevsky unthinkable dialogue ensued with almost literal coincidences or quotes that got you shooting every time chair from the "postmodern high". It is difficult to talk about Zhukov's conducting - it wasn't quite ordinary. Actually conducting technique, "leadership" of the orchestra, some ornate gestures was not - everything was quite concise. Play a Beethoven concerto I didn't feel the usual assignment "conductor - soloist - orchestra" where all the characters, as so often, try to either maintain a delicate balance, or, as the case may be who "pull the covers" to demonstrate superiority. One had the feeling of being in a large ensemble, everything happened on the level of anticipation of the intentions of the other - no dictation, everything happened naturally, as if by itself ... Polina FEDOTOV ... It was like this: You come with your a performance that has already been tried out on stage more than once and clearly presents itself in image and sound. And suddenly, in the presence of the master, you begin to lose stop, the ground emerges from under your feet, the piano becomes strange and cheeky. I don't know how, but outwardly Igor Mikhailovich kept still expressed strong disapproval. I've been through this situation many times and knowing everything in advance, I tried to listen deeper, see further, prepare myself lest I become the object of scathing criticism and again it didn't work. music always should be at the peak of thought and feeling, and the focus for Igor Mikhailovich has always been in a few next dimension. And how much you, mortal, touch divine matter, they correspond to the task you have set yourself - it is a matter of your life and your death. Well how can you match? Such a criterion? As a result, there is always doubt, remorse, and at the same time a seductive approach to the essence of being, grasping the incomprehensible, penetrating the mystery. Luck! Uwe BALSER For me, Igor Zhukov is the embodiment of creative will. Never I did not know people more uncompromising, concentrated than he. From 1999 to 2006 he played nine concerts in Heidelberg and conducted six master courses. We first met in the spring of 1999. I remember my excitement and his phrase: "Don't call me 'Mr. Zhukov”, just Igor!” - thos became the beginning of our friendship. Is there something I wouldn't be for grateful to him? Never before I knew what "work" really meant. What effort must be made to the smallest details in order to approach the great one step closer. Igor approached his work, as a conscientious craftsman, but at the same time he was great philosopher! After each of his concerts, not only I lived with the recurring feeling that for the first time I understood the heard works in their true and deep meaning. “Don’t “make” music, everything is already written here!” - over and over again heard by his students in Heidelberg. His teaching did not fit into any schedules - everything lasted as long as it was necessary for rethinking to begin. Often there were tears, but not only during work: even when he was playing. Joachim CHRIST , music producer Telos Records Dear Igor, on August 31 of this year, I mentally sent you Moscow best wishes and returned to the memories 1998 that spring, someone sent me a cassette with a broadcast of your concerto from Scriabin's sonatas with the note: “Listen to this! I think the pianist is happy re-record the sonatas. A few days later, still completely captured by your magnificent play, I first wrote to you, and soon we rushed into our Scriabin adventure. I remember the first recording session like it was yesterday. An exciting experience that will remain for many more people for many years to come. I would not like to describe in all colors your deeply impressive, incomparable play. It wouldn't be fair towards you. For it is impossible to describe the presence of the Muse, who loves modesty, requires complete dedication and therefore appears so rarely, but her kiss is both at your concerts and on records I was allowed to see. "He who has ears, let him hear!"