Tikhon Khrennikov
So this probably lies way out of this blog's normal subject matter, but oh well. I noticed Russian composer's Tikhon Khrennikov's obituary in the Times yesterday. I was shocked he was still alive. His main claim to fame today is that when Stalin needed a composer to ride herd over his fellows, Khrennikov took the job and most famously put his knife squarely in the middle of Dmitri Shostakovich's back. (I recommend Shostokovich's autobiography Testimony for a sense of what he went through; the man was lucky to survive). Khrennikov is a bit like the Russian version of American artists who named names to HUAC. So I should hold him in complete contempt, right? But here's the thing-----I love Khrennikov's music.
This performance of The Song of Drunken People is the only clip of his work I was able to find.
posted by Paul Miles at
12:41 AM
3 Comments:
There is just something inherently funny about folks all dressed in their finest in a frou-frou place of great solemnity like a concert hall playing the fool. Great clip!
And the threshold for what is funny is so much lower---Victor Borge and PDQ Bach were Pryor level roll in the aisle comedic genuises to classical music lovers ( I have to admit to owning a PDQ Bach album when I was a kid).
Heh. I not only owned an album, I went to see PDQ Bach in concert in San Antonio. And I also own a Victor Borge book called My Favorite Comedies in Music which still makes me laugh.
Man, I eat an incredible variety of paste, don't I?
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