INSTEAD OF MAKING CHILDREN

The birth of the Moscow Art Trio was a gradual process, going from solo, through duo to trio phases of labor. Probably, I had needed several years of ripening before meeting Arkady, and, later on, Sergey. It has been said that a tree’s flowers bloom only when the tree itself becomes filled with superfluous energy. I was, at the time, ripe with musical ideas, and I was seething with a wish to share them. Time and again they wouldn’t let me sleep.

Once upon a time I was sitting rehearsing in my first floor Moscow apartment. It was in the summer. The windows were open. While playing, I had a feeling there was somebody outside. I looked out. There I saw this openmouthed guy with a bicycle and a child by his side. “Who are you?” I asked. “A musician, horn player, working with the Bolshoi Theatre,” he replied. “Passing by, I heard this unusual music. So I thought I might go nearer to listen.”

We started going to each other’s concerts, and soon the duo got on its feet. The French horn proved contagious to me, and it soon conquered me completely. I had never before written for that instrument. Arkady opened up to me a whole world of unexpected possibilities for brass instruments. And now we’ve been working together for twenty years. Over the years, we became close friends, even if friendship doesn’t always resemble a honeymoon. The first thing we do when we meet after rather long breaks is to tell each other the latest anecdotes. Sometimes that is more important than the rehearsals themselves. After a few hours of good laughs, the band is in good form again.

CONCEPTION

The act of conception of the »Moscow Art Trio« happened through a wall in a lakeside bungalow in Germany towards the end of the 1980s, during the very last offi cial USSR-East Germany Festival of Friendship, where some colossal creati.......
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