Review of the collected works of Oleg Karavaichuk

Oleg Nesterov, leader of the Megapolis group and head of the Snegiri label, is releasing the collected works of composer Oleg Karavaychuk (1927–2016) as part of the Three Degrees of Freedom project. About how the composer will appear before the listener, tells Igor Gavrilov.

The project of the leader of the Megapolis group Oleg Nesterov “Three Degrees of Freedom” is based on the thesis that “nowhere in the world the composers of the major musical league worked in the cinema” – only in the USSR. Perhaps here one can argue about whether Philip Glass or Ryuichi Sakamoto belong to the “major league”, but there is no doubt that Alfred Schnittke, who began the series of reprints within the framework of “Three Degrees of Freedom”, is the author of the first series, there is no doubt. In 2021-2022, Oleg Nesterov implemented the first part of his project, which included the launch of an Internet platform, as well as the publication of a book and a music collection dedicated to the works of Alfred Schnittke in cinema. Now it’s Oleg Karavaichuk’s turn.

Oleg Karavaychuk is a mythical man who has completely disappeared into his music. A pianist who began his career at the age of seven with a concert for Joseph Stalin and passed his own improvisation for Bach in an exam at the conservatory. The composer who wrote an incredible amount of film music and refused to go to the conservatory composition course with Dmitry Shostakovich. St. Petersburg recluse, sage and freak. No wonder Sergei Kuryokhin loved him so much, who also walked paths close to the boundaries of the supernatural. Long before the leader of “Pop Mechanics” Karavaychuk tested these boundaries for strength. It was completely optional for him to materialize in front of the public, legends replaced his physical presence, and if he appeared, then certainly in an eccentric incarnation.

In 2009, at the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Gogol, Karavaichuk, himself somewhat similar to the hero of the day, took the stage of the Lensoviet Palace of Culture together with Alexander Bashirov, Renata Litvinova and Zemfira (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), but did not sit down at the piano, but walked around stage to the phonogram of his own works and launched into lengthy comments on the music. In 2012, at his performance in the capital’s Garage, Karavaychuk preferred the Tibetan singing ensemble Phurpa and the ballerina Oksana Bondareva to the piano – they illustrated his ideas using their own language, vocal and plastic. This is how Oleg Karavaychuk was remembered by the audience of the 21st century, in which he lived for 16 years out of 88.

As part of the Three Degrees of Freedom project, its producer Oleg Nesterov has already released a collection that includes 30 works by Oleg Karavaychuk from 19 films. To date, this is the most complete collection of Karavaichuk’s music available on digital platforms, and there will also be vinyl. Also, the Word Order publishing house has prepared for publication the book Oleg Karavaichuk. Three degrees of freedom. Music>movie>CCCP.2″.

The presentation of the project took place at the Diaghilev Festival in Perm, and concerts in the composer’s hometown as part of the promotional campaign for this extensive media tribute will be held on July 27 and 28. Karavaichuk’s music will be played on the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Part of Karavaychuk’s myth was the story of how, while recording music for films, the drummer of the Leningrad Philharmonic pounded on the instrument with steamed beef, and the sound of the piano was dissected with the help of felt boots. It is unlikely that condoms will be handed out to the orchestra members in Alexandrinka, as happened at the recording of Karavaychuk with the cinematography orchestra, but this will still not be an ordinary concert. “Karavaichuk’s film music will be performed on an acusmonium, a “loudspeaker orchestra” created for the live performance of multi-channel music,” says Oleg Nesterov. “Acusmonium consists of fifty loudspeakers of various shapes, sizes, frequency characteristics and a mixer located throughout the space. With the help of all this, a spatial sound field is created. ”

Oleg Karavaychuk was an elemental man, and Nesterov definitely wanted to instill this feeling in the projects dedicated to him. At the same time, the producer decided, by his own definition, to separate the music from the frame and combine it with eternity. To do this in the absence of the author himself is titanic difficult. Those who were lucky enough to see Karavaychuk on stage remember how a practically incorporeal creature in a beret, baggy trousers and a stretchy sweater with bangs covering his face ruled musical, choreographic and cinematic storms. Yes, often commented on the process. “Extended sadness”, “stooped music”, “art as the absence of an act” – I would like to believe that these definitions, which Karavaychuk gave his works right during the concerts, will be included in the book “Order of Words”. At the same time, a new collection of works, interviews and memoirs by Oleg Karavaychuk will definitely give an understanding of how an artist can be free in an era of lack of freedom. For some, it will definitely not be superfluous.