Sergei Skripka: Who conducts in cinema?

The plot of the concert program is based on the pages of the history of the world’s only film orchestra. The day before, Sergei Skripka shared with RG his view of the stages of this long journey.

Sergei Ivanovich, although the orchestra is 100 years old, you often say that the countdown of its history for you truly begins with the twentieth anniversary of the orchestra – from a concert in 1944…

Sergey Skripka: Yes, imagine an incredibly difficult time for the country, it would seem there is no time for the holidays. And this concert took place and everyone came to it, including the country’s leadership. The orchestra performed then in one of the central halls of the capital – Column Hall of the House of Unions. There’s a whole constellation of names here – Among the conductors and composers who took part were Isaac Dunaevsky, Nikita Bogoslovsky, Arnold Roitman, David Blok, and Grigory Hamburg.

Then the music of Dunaevsky and Bogoslovsky, Khrennikov and Schwartz from the most beloved films sounded. We performed Dmitry Shostakovich’s newly recorded suite for Leo Arnstam’s film about Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat “Zoya”. Moreover, the concert was hosted by the popularly beloved director Grigory Alexandrov and actress Lyubov Orlova, the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Alexey Ivanov and the soloist of the All-Union Radio Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya sang… It was truly a bright event, a page in the history of the orchestra and the country.

Will this anniversary concert remind listeners of those distant days?

Sergey Skripka: Of course, we will not be performing the same notes and not the same works that the orchestra played at that distant time. Based on fragmentary memories, we approximately reconstructed how it was. I think we have achieved a reconstruction that is close to the real thing. Let’s voice over several fragments of Yakov Protazanov’s film “Aelita”, which premiered in 1924. Let’s present the music for the first Soviet feature sound film, shot in 1931 by Nikolai Ek, – “A start to life.” Next will be the 1940s, 50s, 60s… We end with one of our most recent works – the film “The Righteous” by Sergei Ursulyak.

Have you been a film fan since childhood and still remain one?

Sergey Skripka: I can say that I’m still a movie buff, although the opportunity when I just went to the cinema no longer exists now, and the workload is a little different, and there’s not much to watch. Over the years you become more demanding – I don’t want to watch everything. Sometimes, at the suggestion of friends, I watch something on online platforms.

There are such “invisible” and irreplaceable masters in cinema – music editor… Tell us about those with whom you had to work.

Sergey Skripka: I would not say that these were invisible people. Professionals of the highest brand! People who knew not only their business, but also everyone involved in it. These masters participated in the creation of great good films and not only carried out colossal organizational work, many were themselves famous composers: Vladimir Komarov, Evgeny Ptichkin… Each had their own circle of authors and directors, they, as a kind of moderators, could resolve any conflicts that arose between director and composer.

The world’s only film orchestra has taken part in the creation of several thousand films over a hundred years.

Minna Yakovlevna Blank worked with Vladimir Menshov on the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” and she brought Elem Klimov together with Alfred Schnittke. The amazing Raisa Aleksandrovna Lukina, who also worked with Eisenstein and Pyryev, literally introduced me to the world of cinema. Is it possible to imagine, for example, “Cruel Romance” without the voice of Valentina Ponomareva? But she’s not even in the credits. It was Lukina who recommended this singer and realized that this particular timbre of voice was needed in this film. Absolutely phenomenally, Lukina always kept the orchestra and conductor on their toes. She introduced me to composer Andrei Petrov and wanted me to start working with Larisa Shepitko, who suddenly died tragically before the start of filming…

Remakes are all the rage these days. There are more and less successful ones. For example, “Crew” 1979 from Alexander Mitta with music by Alfred Schnittke and “Crew” 2016 from Nikolai Lebedev with music by Artem Vasiliev. Can you compare these two musical series?

Sergey Skripka: My personal opinion: film music by Alfred Schnittke – the best in his work, there are absolutely masterpieces here. By the way, in his symphonic works he later used some techniques and themes from films. And in the first “Crew” the music was absolutely self-sufficient. It’s no coincidence that Mitta “overwhelmed” it with noises and remarks: everything creaks, wheezes, rings… Actually, you won’t hear music there. When we once performed a number called “Takeoff” (this, as you remember, was a very dramatic episode – the moment the plane took off from the ground through a wall of fire), I understood one thing – no lines or noises are needed here, everything is said by the music! I think Mitta, too, listened to this episode and realized that there was no need for a screen here, so he “removed” the music completely…

And in Artem Vasiliev’s second “Crew,” music and screen coexist on equal terms. It doesn’t take first place, but it complements the picture well. In general, a symphony orchestra gives a special depth to the screen, a certain spaciousness.

In which film do you think the director became a full-fledged co-author of the composer?

Sergey Skripka: I think this is “Cruel Romance” by Eldar Ryazanov. The music of Andrei Petrov and the romances themselves sounding in it, – one of the peaks of vocal lyricism of the twentieth century, standing on a par with the works of Alyabyev, Varlamov, Glinka and Dargomyzhsky. Absolutely amazing music that powered this movie. – I didn’t “colorize” it (I can’t stand these colorizations of films), but I gave it the desired tonality, color, flavor…

I’m not talking about Tarkovsky’s films – everything is very complicated there. But, for example, in “Burnt by the Sun” there is a theme about which Eduard Artemyev himself said: “Nikita Mikhalkov wrote this with the help of me.” That is, he forced the composer to create this theme, literally pulled it out of the author.

Can you name your favorite movie?

Sergey Skripka: There are two of them – this is “An Ordinary Miracle” and “Taming of Fire”. I really regret that I came to the film orchestra and the profession of film director a little later – I didn’t have time to conduct the wonderful music that sounds in these films.

By the way

The world’s only film orchestra has taken part in the creation of several thousand domestic films over 100 years. Sergei Skripka has served as the permanent artistic director and chief conductor of the ensemble for more than 30 years.

The program of the anniversary concert will feature music from the films “A Start to Life”, “Children of Captain Grant”, “The Ballad of a Soldier”, “Three Poplars on Plyushchikha”, “Great Space Journey”, “Slave of Love”, “An Ordinary Miracle”, “ Ah, vaudeville, vaudeville…”, “The Young Lady-Peasant”, “Crew”.