The Forgotten Violin Master Ke Gang

Heroes are needed to create an era, and human civilization is also inseparable from heroes. Heroes get together through thick and thin, climb high, or rise together. The two peaks are leading the way, competing for each other. The two people who belong to the latter must have a sharp contrast in thinking concept and personality behavior, such as Bach and Handel in baroque music; Wagner and Verdi in the heyday of opera; Toscanini and Futvingler on the podium, Alau and Holovics in the piano world all belong to this category. In the field of violin in the Soviet Union, there are only two such masters. It can be said that their four hands supported half of the world violin art in the second half of the twentieth century and defended the honor and status of the Soviet violin school. The names of David Oistrakh and Leonid Cogan did not disappear because of their deaths and changes in current events; On the contrary, with the passage of time and the emergence of the new generation, more and more people will know and admire them.

Leonid kogan, like David Oistrakh, is from Ukraine, but because Kogan is 16 years younger than the latter, it can be said that David's position in the Soviet music scene was unshakable at least before Kogan appeared. Ke Gang was born in dnipropetrovsk, central Ukraine. His parents are photographers and his father is an amateur violinist. From the age of five, Ke Gang began to learn children's piano. After the hard training of two teachers, he finally succeeded. His two teachers, both surnamed Jampolsky, the former named Philip and the latter named Aram, are students of Orr, but they are totally unrelated to each other. If filippo Jampolsky in his hometown cultivated his love for violin playing and laid a solid foundation, then since he moved to the capital at the age of 10, Aram Jampolsky in Moscow has created a smooth road. Ke Gang studied under Jampolsky for 17 years, and the friendship between them is by no means comparable to that between teachers and students. At the age of 65,438+06, David Oistrakh opened the first page of his artistic life with a song "The Devil's Tremor", and it was at the age of 65,438+06 that Ke Gang staged his debut: Brahms' Concerto in D major, which caused a sensation in the music world with his exquisite piano skills and maturity that was extremely disproportionate to his age. This success was originally expected by people. It should be noted that Ke Gang was only a student in the middle school attached to this school. Four years later, as a sophomore in the Conservatory of Music, Ke Gang toured at home and abroad as a special soloist of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. His impressive acting skills and distinctive artistic personality amazed the audience. However, what really makes the world feel courageous is that 195 1 won the gold medal in the First Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition held in Brussels in 2000, with a Paccini's Concerto No.1 in D major. Ke Gangxuan, who returned home with great honor, was hired as a violin professor by his alma mater. The so-called yes man, soon, 28-year-old Ke Gang became the groom again, and his bride was a female violinist Irina Captier Lova Beta Giles, who was five years older than him. (Elizabeth Giles)

Irina Captier Lova Beta, 33, is the sister of Giles, the most famous emir of piano master in Soviet music. Speaking of the marriage between Ke Gang and Irina Captier Lova Beta, I still owe this uncle a favor, which virtually bridged the gap. Originally in 1949, Kokang, who loved chamber music, formed a piano trio with pianist Giles and cellist Rostovovich, and often played the trio works of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov in concerts. With the passage of time, Giles' sister, who is also a violin major, naturally became familiar with Ke Gang. Irina Kaptelova Beta is not an idle generation. In her early years, she studied piano at Odessa Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Stolyasky, and later under the tutelage of Aram Jampolsky at Moscow Conservatory of Music. She is the real teacher elder sister of Ke Gang. 1937, when the Isai International Violin Competition, the predecessor of the Elizabeth International Violin Competition, was established, David Oystrach, who was in full swing, won the first prize at the age of 29, while Irina Captier Beta, a girl of 18, also won the third place with her good piano skills. Since then, although she has not made a big splash, she has been active on the music stage. Irina Captier Lova Beta admired Ke Gang's youth, and Ke Gang also felt more mature and warm from this senior. The connection between them is not only the sublimation of their artistic and emotional hearts, but also the marriage of two most famous music families in the Soviet Union. A few years later, with the birth of the child, Ke Gang and his wife's life was full of joy, and Ke Gang's career also advanced by leaps and bounds. 1955 was invited to attend a solo concert in Paris, France, which was his first appearance on the western music stage. In his first performance, he played three concertos with different styles, Mozart, Brahms and Paganini, which made the audience who were biased against the performance art in Eastern Europe only convinced. The next day, the French newspaper commented, "Cogan's performance is so great that the audience can realize that the person standing in front of you playing the piano is a real magician."

As the same flag of the Soviet violin school, the relationship between David Oistrakh and Kokang is rare in various domestic articles. Generally speaking, peers always despise each other, especially school leaders with different personalities and styles. Cogan and David Oistrakh have very different playing styles. Ke Gang's success lies in his ability to express the drama of music. Perhaps the most essential difference between him and Aoyou lies in his pursuit of grandeur, preciseness and heroic temperament, which is in sharp contrast with Aoyou's signboard with gentle and elegant feelings and nuanced timbre. However, this difference in personality and temperament did not affect their friendship. 195 1 When Ke Gang participated in the competition of Queen Elizabeth V, oistrakh was sitting among the judges. When Ke Gang finished playing in the final, David proudly said to Thibaugh, a French violinist who was also a judge, "Of course you know that our training method is excellent. Our young people played so well that they completely became the focus of the audience. Leonid and Misha (referring to Mikhail Guilvard Iman, also a student in Jampolsky, who was the runner-up in that year's competition) couldn't find fierce competitors at all. I predict that they will win the top two in the competition. " As expected by Australians, 26-year-old Ke and 24-year-old Wei Manang made their first stop on the podium. After Cogan became famous, as a latecomer, he often attended David's concerts and his evening lectures at the Conservatory of Music. Although David is 16 years older than Cogan, he has always regarded Cogan as an equal colleague, not a competitor. Of course, in general, David always appears frequently in various occasions as the sole spokesman of the Soviet violin school, while Ke Gang always tries to avoid public appearances because of his introverted personality. As for Ke Gang's idol, it belongs to Heifetz. Whenever I recall 1934 when Heifetz visited the Soviet Union, Ke Gang always sincerely said, "I went to every concert of his, and I can still remember every note he played clearly ..." In fact, as long as we pay attention to the faces of the performers on the cover of Ke Gang Records and the expressions of live videos, we can find that he and Heifetz are both cold and dignified when playing. Even Kegang is very particular about playing the piano. According to his son Pavel, his father used softer and brighter stradivari in his early playing career. Later, he felt that Guarnery's gloomy timbre was more in line with his own personality, so he changed to a piano "Jesus" made by 1726. In addition, Ke Gang also collected a famous Guarnery piano of 1733, which David Oistrakh found for him in 1960s. As the saying goes, the piano is the voice of the heart, and the two know each other and respect each other. However, Ke Gang prefers the French bow to the piano bow, and he almost never uses the German bow, which is quite different from Heifetz and David Oistrakh.

Ke Gang is far away from officialdom, but he speaks slowly and acts quickly. Although he was a meritorious artist, a people's artist, a Lenin medal winner and many other honors, it is not easy to find the recordings of his performances with his family, especially in China, which is almost a blind spot for record lovers to collect. To this end, I would like to briefly describe the evolution of personal information collection below. For those who want to find it in the future.

In fact, there are many records made in Ke Gang, but most of the records released by Melodia, a national record company in the Soviet Union, are only LP, which brings great inconvenience to appreciation and collection. At the same time, it seems that the value of Kogan's art in the western world is far less important than that of David Oy Slach, whose records are everywhere, but only a handful of Kogan records are released by the five major record companies. However, a few little-known small companies have a unique vision in this respect and have made commendable achievements.

The "leonid kogan Heritage" released by the Italian "Harlequin" record company is 30CD. Although it is not a complete work, it almost covers different styles and works played by Kogan in various important periods, and it has the reality of a complete work. In Japan, Sanquan Music Co., Ltd. uses Triton as 30CD. The editing ideas and track arrangement are different from The Clown, and the tracks are not completely overlapped. The above two are ideal objects for collecting complete works. As for the CD of Selected Works, when a set of six CDs of British Testament (No.SBT 1223- 1228) was first released, the importance of this CD was that it included the classic violin concerto played by Ke Gang, which could show his distinctive personality and superb piano skills. Including the so-called "Four Concertos" by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, as well as the violin sonatas by Teleman, Leclerc and Isei, and his collaboration with his wife Irina Captier Lova Beta, etc., are really the collection standards. If the second best thing is to listen to its sound with a disc, then the Cogan album (2CD) of EMI Records Company's "Artist Profile" is undoubtedly the first choice (CD number is ZS07777673223). It featured three works in D major by Beethoven, Brahms and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky played by Cogan, and a Spanish symphony by Laro, which was conducted by famous artists such as Conde Racine and Silvestre, and was the representative work of Cogan in its heyday. Unfortunately, this film has been deleted from the catalogue by EMI for several years. I wonder if it will be reprinted in the future? In addition, it is worth noting that the Korean record company Yedang Classica released a batch of precious music files copyrighted from the Soviet Union through American Pipeline Music Company, and processed them by modulus. Among them, there are several kinds of music played by Ke Gang. Because these CDs came out one after another only in 2000, relatively speaking, "Yan Tang" is the easiest for Ke Gang fans to find.

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