State Academic Russian Folk Choir named after
M. Piatnitsky

Today folk choral singing as part of Russian popular art is an integral element of Soviet multi-national art, with its primary task in revealing the wealth of folk songs and dances, as well as the past, the present and a bright future of the people. Although choral singing in Russia traced its roots to olden times, the folk choir as genre appeared just at the turn of the 20^ century through the activities of a company which has, for 75 years, been a kind of laboratory for folk art studies, with its own history, traditions and followers. This company is the State Academic Russian Folk Choir named after Mitrofan Etimovich Pyatnitsky. Our prospectus is designed to introduce the concert-goer to this unique Russian ensemble.

The basic artistic principle the choir holds is to follow the everlasting and rich traditions of Russian folk art. The ever-changing executant style of the company has always been influenced by its personnel's penchant for realistic expression of folk life and a close contact with audience to affirming the heroic truth of life and social optimism. At the same time a feature of the Pyatnitsky Choir, a truly Russian folklore collective, is its being keenly responsive to modern needs and important events that bring about changes in the day-to-day life of the Russian people.

The company has never had a local or regional flavour, which is so much a feature of other folk choirs and ensembles. The Pyatnitsky Choir, as a national phenomenon, is the most illustrous representative of Russian folk performing art, and enjoys great popularity both at home and abroad. The centre of Moscow . . . 20, Mayakovskaya Square. The Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

Here, on the fifth floor of this famous Hall, which has seen many collectives and an artist of renown from all over the world, the Pyatnitsky Choir creates its wonderful pieces of art.

Composer V. S. Levashov, People's Artist of the USSR Glinka State Prize and A. Alexandrov Prize Winner, was the Art Director of the choir.

Valentin Sergeevich Levashov is a weil-known Soviet composer whose works have become a fixture in the anthology of Soviet music, with his artistic interests ranging from cantatas, suites and operettas to music to dramatic performances, radio plays and films. Yet the lion's share of his talent is being devoted to both reviving old Russian songs and writing new ones. Levashov has led various choirs for over 40 years. In 1962 he was appointed conductor-in-chief of the Pyatnitsky Choir on the recommendation of D. Shostakovich, D. Kabalevsky and A. Khachaturyan, who spoke of him as a gifted and recognized composer working in the field of folk art. In 1968 the company was conferred on the title of academic choir, in recognition of not only its high performance standards but also of its wide artistic findings of the Russian song. The concert programmes prepared by the choir under Levashov are distinguished for great variety, with such stage compositions as We Say Good Morning to You, Russia, May You Prosper, Russia, The Planet Remembers Lenin, Russian Semiprecious Stones, I Love You, My Russia, The Landmarks Along the Great Road and others being peans to the spiritual beauty and grandeur of Soviet man, his boundless love of Motherland. Levashov is creative in bringing out the folklore origins of the songs performed, imparting to them professional completeness. The musician has a thorough grasp of polyphonic harmony, brilliantly conveying in his choral arrangements an original folk-song flavour. His interpretations of such age-old folk songs as 0, You Field, Little Swan Among the Reeds and What is on Fire have long become classical. In the remotest parts of the Altay Territory, the Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tomsk regions Levashov found ancient folk songs which he masterfully arranged before including them into the choir's concert programmes. Today the treasure-house of Russian folk art boasts a hundred songs notated and arranged by him. It is scarcely incidental that the choir's performance of his arrangements of such popular Russian folk songs as Kalinka, Down the Volga River, On Comes the Mail Coach, Along the Volga River, From Beyond the Isle, The Cliff, Fires Burn, invariably received great acclaim both in this country and abroad. Levashov's creative activities as composer and art director of the celebrated Pyatnitsky Choir have been keynoted by an irrepressible urge to continue his quest for ever new formal and imaginative solutions adding a fresh, expressive touch t'o the scores of some well-known songs.

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