For the first time in the history of Trans-Siberian Art Festival: a multimedia performance with the participation of Vladimir Pozner, Andrei Makarevich, Dmitry Sitkovetsky

"... Past the river, past the meadow, along the Derbent-Kaluga highway / there was a soldier of his country with an undeclared war. / Not Anglo-Boer, not Franco-Prussian, but the very Russian one," - this is how the multimedia musical performance-concert "The Devil, the Soldier and the Violin" begins, based on the "History of the Soldier" and other writings of Igor Stravinsky.
The performance is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the “History of the Soldier” by Igor Stravinsky, which was premiered on September the 28th, 1918 in Lausanne. At various times, Jean Cocteau, Jean Marais, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian McKellan, Peter Ustinov and even Sting took part in the presentation of this “readable, playable and danced” parable. Kurt Vonnegut made the text of one of the English versions.
Today in the play “The Devil, the Soldier and the Violin” in the lead roles there are journalist and TV host Vladimir Pozner (Reader), rock musician, poet and artist Andrei Makarevich (Soldier), violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky (Devil).

Vladimir Pozner: “I am not an actor. But it happened that several times in my life I was offered to play in the cinema and in the theater. And I always refused. I considered and believe that a professional should be involved in any business. I do not like amateur performances, including artistic. But for some reason I agreed to change his principles and play in this performance. Why? I cannot say. Perhaps, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, who besides being an outstanding violinist, has the gift of persuading anyone to do anything, bewitched me. Maybe because I really wanted to be on the same stage with Andrei Makarevich, whom I treat with admiration. Maybe because I love Stravinsky. And maybe because I wanted to prove to myself that I can. Judge you ... "

Dmitry Sitkovetsky: “Today Stravinsky occupies an important place in my repertoire. For the first time, seriously, I “met” with his music in my student years, while studying at the Juilliard School. The guys and I played a suite from the “History of the Soldier” and toured with it actively. So this work was my first acquaintance, or rather, complete immersion in Stravinsky. But even then it seemed to me that there are structural problems in the original text and in the musical material. Therefore, in our play “The Devil, the Soldier and the Violin,” I used plays not only from “History of the Soldier”.

Andrei Makarevich about the work on the play: “It was very interesting for me to work on this play. Mad cocktail: Stravinsky's music (after all, there would be no modern jazz and rock-and-roll without Stravinsky!), the tale of Afanasyev in the brilliant poetic transcription by Mikhail Uspensky, why it suddenly turned out to be written today and about today! Yes, and the company of "actors" ... !!! "


The Soldier, the Devil and the Violin

Vladimir Pozner
Andrei Makarevich
Dmitry Sitkovetsky (violin)
Polina Osetinskaya (piano)
Igor Fedorov (clarinet)
Anton Pleskach (percussion)
Alexander Tronov,
Anna Deltsova (experimental dance)
Mikhail Kislyarov (stage director and choreographer)
Andrei Makarevich (drawings)
Jan Kalnberzin (computer animation)

“The Soldier, the Devil and the Violin”
A multimedia staged concert
based on episodes
from “L’histoire du soldat” (1918)
and other works by Igor Strawinsky
Idea and musical adaptation: Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Text: Mikhail Uspensky