Yuri Falik

A few years later, in 1996, another sacred choral work appeared. American choirmaster Larry Сook, who heard "Liturgical Chants", suggested that Falik write a catholic Mass. Falik remembered, the Mass for soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra was written surprisingly quickly – in a month and a half. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1997 (performed by the Choir of Youth under Yu. Khutoretskaya), then, in 1999, in America at St. John's Church of Youngstown city (USA, Ohio). Both premieres (Russian and American) were played under the composer's baton.

In 1990-1992 Falik completed the main part of "Liturgical Chants" based on the text of a Russian Orthodox prayer book. It became the most considerable amongst the choral works of those years and marked a watershed on his way, his own new Millennium. In his Interview with A. Yepishin in 2006 Falik recalled that his creative impulse for writing the choral cycle was provoked by the prayer book published in 1887, which he discovered in 1983 in the belongings of his deceased mother.

For the first time, he picked up the conductor's baton, while a student of the Conservatory, when he had to record music for Lope de Vega's play "A Peasant Woman from Getafe" for Leningrad Film Studio. A few years later he was entrusted with artistic direction of the Leningrad Conservatory's Student Chamber orchestra. Besides, he performed as a conductor all over Russia and abroad. During his American tour in the 1990s, his performances with the Chicago and Baltimore Symphony orchestras were highly appreciated by the press. Lists of his programs always included music of the 20th century, along with the venerable names of Stravinsky or Lutoslawski, he performed music of little-known and young Russian composers. As a conductor, Falik participated in the Second and Third World congresses of cellists (1997, Saint Petersburg, and 2000, Baltimore, respectively) under Mstislav Rostropovich's leadership.

In the end of the 1980s the American producer Geraldine Freund set out to revive the genre of symphonic musical fairy tale for children, like Prokofiev's "Petya and the Wolf". She considered that only a Soviet composer should continue this tradition. On the advice of Vladimir Ovcharek, head of the Leningrad Taneyev Quartet, she addressed the proposal to Yu. Falik. "I was told that Falik is the only soviet composer who still writes melodies", Freund recalled. Falik accepted and soon, by August of 1989 full score of the musical fairy tale "Polly and Dinosaurs" for two narrators, children choir and symphony orchestra was completed. In the following year Falik was invited to America to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the world premiere of his musical Fairy Tale. Followed by his family, Falik spent a week in Chicago, conducting orchestra and choir rehearsals, besides he lectured to composition students from Northwestern and De Paul universities and the University of Chicago (Illinois, USA). He returned to the Northwestern University as a visiting professor in 1991-1992.

In 1980, Falik became a senior lecturer at the Leningrad Conservatory. Since 1988, he worked there as a professor of composition and instrumentation. As a mentor of young composers, Falik realized that his task was not to push the talent, but to guide it in the right direction, by keeping a talented person "wrapped in cotton wool" from the beginning. He particularly focused on the issue of influence and imitation: in his opinion, a young composer should not be afraid of someone else's influence: "If your own nature is strong, it will gain strength and make its voice heard". However, it is necessary to be careful in choosing the object of imitation, to distinguish the "open" and "closed" types of composing style systems. The influence of an "open style system", such as Prokofiev's, Stravinsky's, or Schoenberg's works pose no danger for beginners. On the contrary, it is better, in his opinion, to avoid the influence of such composers as Shostakovich's and Rachmaninoff's "closed style systems".

It should be noted the sacred theme matured over the previous two decades in his instrumental works such as the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Quartets, "Symphonic Etudes" (1977) etc. Musical language elements of these compositions refer to such Christian choral traditions as Znamenny chant, Gregorian chant, early forms of church polyphony. A focus on prototypes of the sacred genre sometimes can be "read" in titles of works or movements, for example, "Morning Mass for Igor Stravinsky" (1975), an orthodox funeral service, or the Second Movement "Requiem" of the Sixth String Quartet. Likewise, movements of the Concerto della Passione (1988) are titled "Lacrimosa", "Dies irae", "Libera me", "Lux aeterna". However, Falik doesn't seek to recreate the genre, treating prototypes generically as symbols of the spiritual human being.

Despite the fact that Falik wasn't a student of Dmitri Shostakovich, he was strongly influenced by Shostakovich's personality and works, as were many young musicians of Falik's generation. Nevertheless, the young composer sought to avoid borrowing any elements of Shostakovich's musical language, as he mostly embraced the poetics of master's works, tragic spirit and deep psychological tension of his music. He dedicated the Fourth String Quartet, completed in 1976, to the memory of Shostakovich. The conversation that took place between Falik and Shostakovich in 1975, became an impulse to start working on this opus. Shostakovich noticed it is impossible to compose a joyful String Quartet. According to him, it was beyond anybody but Mozart. Falik sportingly undertook to refute this statement and promised Shostakovich to compose such a Quartet. The beginning of the work on the first movement in 1975 showed that the argument was already lost. Soon, tragic news of Shostakovich's death predetermined the mourning and memorial character of the second and the third movements of the Quartet. Instead of a joyful quartet it turned out to be a requiem. Without stylistic borrowings or quotations from Shostakovich's music Falik created a musical portrait of the Master, expressed personal thoughts and feelings, his own pain of the irreparable loss.

Despite the fact that the second ballet "Thiel Ulenspiegel" was never staged, its music is well known in Russia as the First Concerto for Symphony orchestra. The premiere of the Concert conducted by Dmitry Kitayenko took place in 1971, in Moscow. A similar fate befell the fourth planned ballet "Capriccios" based on F. Goya's works to a libretto by the artist Gavriil Glickman. The music of the failed ballet formed the basis for the Second Concerto for the orchestra "Symphonic Etudes" (1977), dedicated to G. Rozhdenstvensky. Thus, it was within the ballet genre that the composer's concertato style matured, quite clearly exposing the theatrical and playful nature of Falik's creative talent.

The Violin Concerto (1971) marked the beginning of the period of creative maturity. A lyrical-philosophical concept of the Concerto is embodied on a new technique level: the five-movement composition consists of open parts following each other without interruption and provides the effect of continuous development of the principal intonation idea. Melodic material of the Concerto grows out of several simple tunes which are presented in the Introduction and pass evolving and varying through the whole cycle. The Concerto was dedicated to his friend Victor Lieberman and performed by him in Leningrad under conductor Alexander Dmitriev) with great success. In 1973, Falik received a positive review on The Violin Concerto from Dmitry Shostakovich, who congratulated Falik on his "excellent opus".

On the whole, the period of the 1970s became very fruitful for Falik in terms of searching his own style. At this time, he became renowned as a chamber-instrumental and an orchestral composer. Since 1966, Falik was a regular participant of the Leningrad Musical Spring Festival. In 1972, his First Concerto for symphony orchestra was performed at the Third International Festival "Prague Spring" by a Czechoslovak radio orchestra under conductor Eduard Serov. In 1977, Falik participated in the "Warsaw Autumn" with a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (the violin part was performed by G. Zhislin).

Perhaps due to Stravinsky's influences, the next few years of Falik's career in composition were devoted to the ballet genre. Between 1966 and 1968, he created three ballets in collaboration with choreographer Georgy Aleksidze: "Buffoons" (a chamber ballet for four dancers to the similarly-named music of Falik's Concerto for Winds), "Thiel Ulenspiegel" (based on a Flemish legend), "Oresteia" (a choreographic tragedy after the work by Aeschylus). Aleksidze worked on libretto and choreography. He outlined the plan, action and atmosphere of a ballet and later developed dance movements in detail for the each phrase of Falik's music.

Falik's independent composer path started with the Second String Quartet (1965) dedicated to Yuri Balkashin's memory. This work clearly defined Falik's compositional personality. The Quartet was performed with great success by the Leningrad Taneiev Quartet in 1966 and was recommended for publication by the Leningrad Composers' Union. Considering this work a milestone, he arranged it for string orchestra and published it as "Music for Strings" in 1968.

During this period, the young Falik had a significant meeting with composer Igor Stravinsky while he was touring in the USSR in 1962. Stravinsky had been his music idol since his childhood. Falik heard Stravinsky's music for the first time in his youth on a record brought by friends from abroad. He listened to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", which greatly impressed and inspired him. To Falik, it wasn't just luck, but a "sign of destiny" to get acquainted with Stravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic. Having heard that the young musician combined a professional performing career with composition, Stravinsky said: "It's impossible to combine: a cello is a very difficult instrument and takes a huge amount of time". The words sank deep into the young composer's soul, strengthening the long-cherished idea of treason to the cello. For the next several years, Falik devoted more and more time to composition even though he still continued to perform solo and as a member of chamber ensembles. In 1975, Falik expressed his piety for the Maestro in "Mourning Mass for Igor Stravinsky" ("Elegiac Music") for sixteen strings and four trombones, timed to coincide with the five-year anniversary of Stravinsky's death.

Only two of three ballets of the 1960s were staged. "Buffoons" was produced on the stage of the Leningrad Academic Cappella in 1967. "Oresteia" was staged during two seasons in Leningrad Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre, then in Tbilisi (1973) and Estonia (1979). At Leningrad premiere production in 1969 Falik made his debut as a conductor on a big stage.

At the turn of the 1960-70s, Falik discovered a new field of work – music for choir a'cappella. Since 1969, choral cycles and separate compositions for choir appeared every year. Works of the 1970-80s, such as "Autumn Songs", "Two Solfeggio", "A Stranger Lady", "Winter Songs", Cant-vivat, "Estonian Watercolours" as well as three Concertos for choir a'cappella with lyrics of Silver Age Russian poets brought him a wide fame as a choral composer. He interprets choir in an unusual manner, so it quite often sounds like an orchestra or a chamber instrumental ensemble. Colorful harmony, metaphorical musical images, melodic and rhythmic virtuosity of chorus parts – all of these impart bright features of concertato style to the composer's choral music. At the same time, Falik appears as a lyricist and a fine connoisseur of poetry in this genre.

Though he had a very busy life as a cellist, Falik never lost his desire to compose music, and in 1959 he was accepted to the composition class of the Conservatory first under Yuri Balkashin's guidance, then under Boris Arapov's. He graduated from the Conservatory as a composer in 1964, submitting the Symphony for String Orchestra and Percussion and the Quintet for Winds as his diploma works.

From 1955 till 1960, Falik studied at the Leningrad Conservatory in Professor Alexander Shtrimmer's cello class. He then pursued his postgraduate studies under Mstislav Rostropovich's guidance. He successfully started his performing career with his first solo concert in Leningrad in 1958. He then performed concert tours in Soviet cities. In 1962, Falik became a Diploma-winner of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition, and a few months later he won the First prize in the International Cello Competition at the Eight World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki. Almost half a century later, in 2007, Falik took part in the Tchaikovsky Competition again, but as a jury member in the cello category.

Falik had a special interest in quartets. In addition, as a cellist, he played in the school's academic quartet ensemble. In 1952, he organized his own quartet ensemble, which consisted of his schoolmates and friends. Along with classical works, the repertoire of this quartet included new works of the Soviet Union composers, as well as Falik's own compositions. According to his friend Adam Stratievsky, there were two youth quartets (1953 and 1954) written for the ensemble. The Quartet in e-moll (1954) was subsequently published by the Soviet Composer Publishing House in 1982 and was included in the list of the composer's works as the First Quartet. By the time he left school, Falik had composed a number of works, including quartets, works for an orchestra, choirs, romances, and a piano prelude. However, he decided to enter the performing faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory as a cellist.

Yuri Falik was born into the family of orchestral musicians. His father Alexander Efimovich Falik played percussion in the Odessa Opera orchestra. His mother Yevgenia Mikhailovna also worked at the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre. In early childhood, Yuri Falik was often present at orchestra rehearsals and opera productions, easily memorizing and humming the music he heard. Yuri and his mother were evacuated to Kyrgyzstan during World War II. His father volunteered on the front lines of the war, and perished in 1942. The family tragedy and traumatic experiences of his early childhood strongly influenced not only Falik's personality but also his art. After returning to Odessa in 1944, he started to study cello under the guidance of his father's friend from the Odessa Opera House symphony orchestra, David Abramovich Mevzhinsky.

Yuri (Yury ) Alexandrovich Falik (Russian: Юрий Александрович Фалик; July 30, 1936, Odessa, USSR – January 23. 2009, Saint-Petersburg, Russia) was a Russian composer, orchestral conductor, cellist, a board member of the Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg) branch of the Composers' Union, and People's Artist of Russia.