Korchmar G. Farewell, My Dear Friend. Fantasy to V. Gavrilin's theme

I was never closely acquainted with Valery Gavrilin. Once being teenagers we dwelled in the neighbouring cells of the Leningrad boarding school at the Conservatoire. Years passed since that when rather occasionally we met on the road near the summer composers’ house in Repino late in the night. He invited me to his cottage and we listened to the disk with I. Sats’ music to the performance “Blue Bird” by M. Meterlinck. All the night long he talked about this composition, taking no account of time. I also rise in my mind the wonderful evening at the widow of the composer V. N. Salmanov. It happened not long before his death. That was the end of our visual communication.   

My music interests and partialities lie far from B. Gavrilin’s principle trend. However, I always admired the purity and beauty inherent in his music, his skill of giving birth to something significant and intrinsic out of vacuity.

It was in 1999, soon after his death, when Elena Dmitriyevna Trubina (my piece is dedicated exactly to her), executive producer of the international youth festival “Brother and Sister”, asked me to compose the little piece for two pianos as the necessary programme for the contest. I felt the desire to take some of Valery’s themes as the base for the future fantasia. By the way, the youth contest “I am a Composer” simultaneously with the competition “Brother and Sister” was given the name of Gavrilin, I decided to choose the song from Valery’s vocal cycle “ Evening”, the beginning lines of which went as “Farewell, My Dear Friend”. Thus the title of my piece appeared, symbolizing, but not our personal friendship. These are poignant emotions during the parting with the great musician, my mostly respected colleague. His heartbreaking melody accounted for to pianos is satiated with lamentations. Then the theme acquires its typically Gavrilin’s waltzing incarnation, distinct for fanciful but so innate for Gavrilin combination of the Russian national features and Schumann-Brahms nature (so close to Gavrilin’s creation). In this lyrical drammatical episode I resorted to the music facture, much tarter, than it is peculiar for Gavrilin’s harmony. After the apex crush the music character returns in its initial, but much more mournful garments completing my fantasia.  

It was not easy to work with Gavrilin’s material. His music seems to be carved of integral indivisible stone, which can hardly allow any penetration inside itself. It’s not me to forecast the success of this composition. However, these are numerous performances of my fantasia that are to give evidence of my dialogue with the great Musician and Man occurred to be rather thriving.