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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Kent:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for the article.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Freedom has its advantages and its challenges. With
the fall of communiisn and the toppling of the Berlin wall, there came many
catatrofic changes is the old Soviet Union. One thing we needto realize is a
government, no matter how well meaning, can force its way upon its citizens,
culturally and otherwise. It is up to the people themselves to dedicate
themselves to the value of a piano, just like the reat of the world. Isn't it
about time that Russia joined the workld community and shared its talent with
the rest of the world/ Sure, monay of these musicians should stay and try to
make Russia a better country, but you can't force the issue. That's the price of
freedon. People make both good and bad decisions about their musical lives, but
that's what life is all about ,isn't it. There must be a reason(s) why so
many pianists and other musicians flock to the west. Ws only have to hope they
will return to their motherland and try to make it a better place to live for
everyone there. In the meantime, we need to encourage these pianists in their
development as artists as they live in the west. And, by the way, how good
are these uprights in Russia? Are the quality pianist in need better built
instruments? Some food for thought .</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Wayne Williams</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Schroon Lake</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=kswafford@gmail.com href="mailto:kswafford@gmail.com">Kent
Swafford</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, August 06, 2006 10:23
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Piano sell-off the sad coda to
Soviet dream</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><IMG src="cid:BDC9E818-FE6B-4106-A22B-663361CC2CD1@local">
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 18px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 16px Arial"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">Sun 6 Aug
2006</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=6><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 24px"><B>Piano sell-off
the sad coda to Soviet dream</B></SPAN></FONT></P>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">MURDO MACLEOD (</SPAN></FONT><A
href="mailto:mmacleod@scotlandonsunday.com"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Arial size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">mmacleod@scotlandonsunday.com</SPAN></FONT></A><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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."</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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."</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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."</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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."</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">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.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><B>Related
topic</B></SPAN></FONT></P>
<UL>
<LI style="MARGIN: 0px"><A
href="http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=98"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">Russia</SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Arial size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
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face=Arial size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><A
href="http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=98">http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=98</A></SPAN></FONT></LI></UL>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><B>This
article:</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"> <A
href="http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1138652006">http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1138652006</A></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial
size=4><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><B>Last
updated:</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Arial size=4><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"> 05-Aug-06 00:13
BST</SPAN></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>