They've just announced the death at 94 of Tikhon Khrennikov, Soviet composer, and, as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, puppet of Zhdanov. Probably best known in the west for his difficult relationships with Shostakovich and Prokofiev, usually to their disadvantage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikhon_Khrennikov

The only thing that's stopping my eyeballs drying up completely is the thought that I'd far rather have seen Shostakovich or Prokofiev live for 94 years.

Somewhere in deepest darkest coldest Siberia might seem a good place, were it not for the fact that I would not wish to insult the natives by such a suggestion (remember the herring, the mackerel and the cod, Ian?). Khrennikov? As I put it to someone else, requiescat in whatever the Latin for conscience happens to be.

Let's not insult Roger Wright in this way; after all, who really deserved TK?...

Best,

Alistair

By strange happenstance I am currently sitting in deepest Siberia (doubtless some reading would happily have sent me here) - although it's not cold. In fact it's +31C and I'm sitting at an outdoor cafe in front of the Opera House in Ulan-Ude..with neither cod nor herring on the menu I must sadly make do with baked goats-cheese goujons on a bed of mixed leaves with balsamico dressing...

Not a drum has been heard, not a funeral note, for the Quisling of the USSR's classical composers. In fact some of his music is played now and then - he wrote some songs that were featured in films, and they turn up in recitals as lollipop items. I was at just such a concert in Moscow last month, and Obratsova was in the audience. I was pleased to note that along with many, she withheld her applause from the item in question (even though it was her ex-pupil singing).

It's amazing what has been done in the name of 'the Workers'   This talentless stooge has no place in the annals of music - except as a persecutor of the art.

Please don't wish him on Siberia - it's a nice and much misunderstood place, with some super music-making going on (Novosibirsk Opera + Phil, Krasnoyarsk Freshtival and more...)

There was an item about Khrennikov in this week's episode of Last Word on Radio 4. You can listen to it over here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword.shtml

I have a book about Khrennikov written by L. Grigoryev and Y. Platek, published in the United States in 1983 with permission of the Copyright Agency of the Soviet Union. A very strange but interesting book. Remarkable photographs of composers like Henri Dutilleux, Roger Sessions and Peter Mennin on their trips to the Soviet Union. The style of the book is simply hilarious:

"Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, two of the galaxy of twentieth-century classical composers which also includes the name of Tikhon Khrennikov."

A galaxy is a very large thing, you know.

On page 154 we read: "Franz Waxman conducted Khrennikov's Second Symphony and First Violin Concerto at the International Festival of Modern Music in Los Angeles, in 1961."

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