Moscow State Conservatory

History

1966: Leonid Kogan Concert with Franco Mannino

The acquaintance of the Soviet violinist Leonid Kogan with the Italian conductor, pianist, composer, opera director and playwright Franco Mannino took place in 1965 at a rehearsal of a joint concert at the Milan Conservatory. The Italian musician recalled: "I still did not understand who really led the orchestra then: I am a conductor or he is a violinist who played both such complex works - violin concerts by Bach and Khachaturian - in the same breath, just in an ethereal manner. When the last bars fell silent, the orchestrants rose with noise from their seats and applauded in violation of the tradition of greeting the maestro with tapping bows on the Pyupitra. Here came a wonderful moment: Leonid Kogan, who at first seemed to me a closed person, suddenly blossomed with such a conquering smile and hugged me. And I realized with some sixth feeling that at that moment I was gaining a big friend. "

On the same evening, Kogan turned to a new friend with an unusual request: to write a concert for three violins - after all, there are three violinists in the Kogan family: he, his wife and son. Mannino immediately started work, at the end of which he transported the finished score to Moscow. By the return of Leonid Kogan from the tour, the notes of the concert were already waiting for him on the writing table.

In March 1966, the premiere of two Triple Violin Concerts - Antonio Vivaldi and Franco Mannino - took place in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. The author came to Moscow for the premiere and, as Kogan later recalled, gave him the same pleasure as the voice of the Italian tenor Benjamin Giglia or the conducting art of Arturo Toscanini.

In the photo from the funds of the Museum of Music, two outstanding musicians are violinist Leonid Kogan and Franco Mannino. The photo was taken after a joint concert: smiling musicians in tailcoats, in the hands of Kogan a violin with which he never parted.

During Cogan's tour in Italy, Mannino gave him a starling named Paganini. The bird was very beautiful - black with a greenish tint. But she didn't speak. The artist's daughter Nina once saw that her father, closing the cage with a handkerchief, teaches the bird to speak, repeating: "Skvorushka, my starling." Alas, the starling never spoke, but at night he woke up his home with a loud whistle.

Mannino wrote all his violin works - another concert and solo pieces - especially for his friend. Kogan was to be the first performer of another composition, the Concerto for Violin, Choir and Orchestra. The composer began composing it in 1982 for the upcoming International Music Festival. The news of the death of Leonid Borisovich found him at work. The composer invested all the bitterness and sorrow of loss in his new work - Mass, dedicated to the memory of the great violinist. One of the parts of the mass unexpectedly turned out to be light and sunny, like a memory of a charming smile on a serious and focused face of a musician.

1879: Premiere of Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" by conservatory students

Main article: Eugene Onegin (opera)

On March 29, 1879, the Maly Theater hosted the premiere of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, presented by students of the Moscow Conservatory.