Piano sell-off the sad coda to Soviet dream

Kent Swafford kswafford at gmail.com
Sun Aug 6 20:23:23 MDT 2006

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Sun 6 Aug 2006
Piano sell-off the sad coda to Soviet dream

MURDO MACLEOD (mmacleod at scotlandonsunday.com)
STALIN, Khrushchev and Brezhnev all dreamed of a Soviet Union
populated by dedicated citizens, working all day to build the
Socialist dream and studying the high arts in the evenings.

They encouraged piano production in order to boost culture among the
people and upright versions of the instrument became the norm in the
country's myriad blocks of flats.

But now they are being sold in their thousands, many just being given
away, as Russians decide they need room in the post-Soviet era for
more than music practice.

Pianos are being forced out by Ikea furniture and Japanese stereo
systems as young professionals turn their back on their parents'
dreams of having a classical pianist in the family.

The scramble to get rid of the instruments is seen as the latest blow
to Russian cultural prestige in the wake of high-profile artists
opting to ply their trade abroad and even taking foreign citizenship.

Last month, Russian-born opera singer Anna Netrebko received an
Austrian passport. She complained that her Russian nationality meant
that she had to endure the tiresome and "humiliating" process of
applying for a visa for each of her numerous international performances.

In addition, a number of the stars of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet have
publicly admitted they may leave their home country because of tough
new national service rules which will do away with exemptions for
artistic performers.

Moscow-born Evgeny Kissin, who featured at the London Proms last
week, practised for hours on the piano in his flat as a child. He
played so long and so loudly that his neighbours called the police
who, on being told Kissin was practising for a concert in the
Kremlin, let him alone. Kissin is now an internationally renowned
performer.

Once one of the Soviet Union's most lauded pianists, Lola Astanova
was born in Tashkent in 1982, now the capital of Uzbekistan. She
began formal classes at the age of six. At eight she started touring
as a concert pianist. But by 2001 she was based in the United States,
saying: "I left my motherland because it is better to be a complete
failure in democracy, than an icon for millions in despotism."

Scottish-based pianist and classical composer, Sally Beamish, said:
"There is no substitute for having instruments to hand in the home. I
have never had much time for this 'musical talent is in the blood'
notion, the key to developing musical talent is giving people the
option and the opportunity."

The fact that so many international stars are now based outside
Russia or the former Soviet Union is seen as a blow to national
prestige. Netrebko admitted that she had been called a "traitor" by
Russian colleagues over her decision to take Austrian citizenship.

A study by the Moscow Times newspaper showed there were 357 pianos in
the capital being offered on a popular online sale site last weekend,
with 2,000 through the same service for the rest of the country. The
study did not include the thousands more estimated to be on offer in
the numerous free classified advertising newspapers which are popular
throughout the whole of the former Soviet Union, and the small ads
notice boards which adorn most streets, even in small villages.

Many pianos are being offered for free, with the would-be buyer being
expected to come round and collect the instrument, itself no small
task in a nation where multi-storey tower blocks with unreliable
cargo lifts are common.

One unrepentant Muscovite, Darya, said of her decision to get rid of
her piano: "It's been in my flat for a long time. How it got there I
don't know. I don't need it. I don't play."

A piano teacher complained: "This country used to promote knowledge
and real culture. Now it is geared to producing stupid people who
just care about money. I feel so sad that the only way people will
hear our classics is when parts of them appear in pop songs from
America."

The pianos became a common item of furniture from the 1950s until the
fall of communism as dozens of upright piano factories churned them
out for the masses. At least one in three households is estimated to
have had a piano. While the typical price tag was about two to three
months' wages, the pianos were much more affordable than other
luxuries, such as cars and consumer electronics. In the early 1980s,
when a typical wage was 200 to 250 roubles, a good quality piano
could be had for 650 roubles, while a colour TV might cost 800 roubles.

In addition to the easily available pianos, tuition was cheap. The
typical cost for a child would be the very affordable one rouble 20
kopeks a month. That bought a 40-minute class six days a week for a
month.

The pianos are being mostly replaced by fashionable new furniture,
often from foreign-owned companies. Ikea has five Russian stores,
three in the Moscow area alone, and is to open another three this
year, including a second in St Petersburg and one near the Ural
Mountains.

However, those fearing that Russia is on its way to becoming a
cultural wasteland can take solace in the nation's TV, which has
turned to lavish productions of literary classics instead of cheaply
dubbed foreign soap operas.