Biography of Misha May

Text: Svetlana Zetuzheva Photo: Marco BorgGreve, Evgeny Evtyukhov almost all articles about you begin with phrases that your biography is similar to the script of a Hollywood film with a happy end. These are all journalists. I did not say anything like this-although, in general, I do not object to such a conclusion. If you say that my life is full of contrasts - probably it is.

But I never regret anything. I am convinced that in any situation you can and should be found something positive. Take at least 2 years of my life that I spent without cello and practically without music. First, 4 months - in Butyrskaya prison, then 14 months - on correctional labor in the Gorky region, where I had to load 8 trucks with a shovel daily and this is 10 tons!

Of course, at that moment I would prefer that all this in my life would not be. But now I am grateful to fate - or ... Soviet power. Despite the fact that I do not have a diploma in the Moscow Conservatory, I received a much more thorough education. Wasn't it to you, and in fact, proposals to make a film about your life? Not only an offer. A certain film was even shot - semi -documentary.

But this was a very long time, in my former - that life, so now it is no longer relevant ... I always say that on November 7, my second life began. And now I am already the third. After my wife left me, after 24 years of marriage, left with ours ...-How is it in Russian? Then I was very worried and almost did not sleep for two years. I am not in a hurry: I think I have a lot of time smiling in the reserve.

They sometimes tell me that you need to write memoirs. Isaac Stern [one of the most outstanding violinists of the twentieth century. Maybe I will call my “my first 99 years” - unless, of course, by this moment I have nothing to do. In the meantime, I am very busy. Indeed, I was madly lucky to meet and friendship with phenomenal people. I was the only one of all studied with Rostropovich and Pyatigorsk.

I have a very close relationship with both - much closer than just a professor with a student. It was almost 97 to Kazals, after 2 months he died in Puerto Rico ... I happened to work with Leonard Bernstayen-we gave more than 20 concerts together, made 3 notes. He was a very bright person. Of course, you cannot forget my partners in chamber ensembles. When I left Russia, with me there was only a small suitcase.

And the only thing I took out is a poster, it is now hanging in my studio: the Latvian Philharmonic, Misha May and the lupa: Beethoven, all sonatas and variations, May 7 and 11 of the year ... I consider the ribs [Romanian by origin of the pianist, currently lives in London - approx. Martha Argerich [Argentinean pianist with Russian roots on the maternal line - approx. Anyway, I consider myself incredibly lucky.

And the fact that the dream of my life came true - to play on the same stage with my children. And my cello! For 43 years now, as we are together. According to legend, retold by all sites on the Internet, an unknown philanthropist gave the musician this instrument after his victory at the International Ceolocellest Competition in Florence and the subsequent debut in the New York Carnegie Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

As I understand it, the cello was still presented to you, and I had to pay not such a small amount for it. Journalists love to embellish everything! Firstly, not a philanthropist, secondly, not anonymous, but thirdly, did not give it. He was almost 94 years old, this old man, he was an amateur cellist. And how did he have such a great tool? After all, this is the work of the famous master Domenico Montagnan?

Yes, Montagnan made her. It is difficult to say how exactly the cello came to that man ... A Jew, during the Second World War, fled from Germany - and from Europe in general. He was very fond of playing music, and he was not going to part with his cello until he had the opportunity to play at least 5 minutes a day. But by the time of our acquaintance, he was already half paralyzed.

After the concert, some kind of gentleman patiently waited until all the others were dispersed. He told me that he really liked the concert that he had heard very good reviews about me, and he also found out that I had no cello. And his uncle has a wonderful cello that he does not want to sell dealers, he wants the instrument to go to a young and talented musician and could bring joy to people.

Another thing is that at that time I was around in debt and could not pay the right amount myself. I did not even pay those $ 10 that one rich American bought me through the Jerusalem Fund ... How they bought out of slavery! Do you know that I was one of the last who paid for my education? Of course, this was completely illegal, because, in accordance with Soviet statistics, it was necessary to work out one and a half of the year to return the value of education to the state.

And then such compensation was required from people who worked for forty years!In this regard, there was then a terrible scandal, and in the end this tax was canceled. However, West Germany also paid East Germany 40 thousand marks for each eastern German released ... The musician is given to music with all the passion I remember well how I left. In one week then three students of Rostropovich left!

They were summoned one by one and, as an exception, slowly they were canceled this tax ... But when they called me, they reported that I was given 3 weeks for the settlement of affairs, and announced the amount of the conservatory I have passed: rubles. It was a lot of money! The average salary was then rubles. I had to get into debt ... In the case of a cello, the necessary amount was also collected by the US-Israeli Fund, and I managed to become the real master of the instrument only many years later-and this is again a story for a separate book.

Another happy meeting helped me - with a very large banker from Germany. Having learned my circumstances, he immediately bought the cello from the fund and provided it for use. A few years later, members of the Red Army faction killed him - and I played at his funeral ... And after a few years I paid the debt to the bank and finally became the legal owner of my cello. This is not the first time you are participating with her in the Vivacello festival ...

and, I hope, not the last! Borya Andrianova I know for many years, I really appreciate him, I love and respect him. I could not refuse him. Unfortunately, my current visit of here was very short - it seems that it lasted 36 hours ... But at least I managed to listen to Lutoslavsky’s concert in the hall after my rehearsal! Such festivals, if you come to them longer than for a day, make it possible not only to chat with colleagues, but also to get acquainted with new music.

It just so happened that for a long time I was not invited to the festivals, and even a certain complex on this basis began to develop. I always asked my first wife: “But why? After all, I am so friendly and even, it seems to me, pretty! Black swan or ugly duckling, but now I really love the festivals smiles. It is remarkable that Vivacello exists, and I hope that he will successfully last many, many years.

And how do you feel about the new works that write for the cello? Are you interested? Everything is interesting to me - and not only in music! I have a fairly long list of things and ideas that I would very much like to someday implement, but I understand that I hardly have time. The time and energy limit interferes. Modern music is interesting to me, and I would love to play it more.

But this is ... like another language. I have too little time to master this language. I already speak Russian with difficulty ... I speak English, in German, a little French. But in Chinese in Japanese I do not know a word. I do not teach, do not conduct, do not create my orchestras and do not invent my own festivals. I try to do only what I really get well. Once I asked him: “Mstislav Leopoldovich, do you really think that all this music that is written for you is worthy of your time and talent?

So the concerts of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Lutoslavsky, Dytiyo, Britten appeared, and we should be infinitely grateful to Rostropovich for them. I myself had only one student, but how brilliantly gifted by nature that my contribution was purely symbolic. I'm talking about the Korean cellist Hanne Chang. At 3 years old, she began to study on the piano, and at 6 years she heard my concert in Seoul and decided to switch to the cello - this is perhaps my only merit.

I prepared her for Rostropovich’s competition in Paris - and she received the first prize. She was then 11 years old, she played a dvorzhak concert with an orchestra at a little cello ... Then she threw the cello and took up conducting - and, for my taste, she conducts amazingly! I don’t know how reliable these rumors are, but they told me that Daniil Borisovich Sharn, who had never officially taught, had two students with whom he was engaged in private.

So one of them abandoned the music, and the second committed suicide.

Similarly: since my student left the cello, I no longer intends to continue pedagogical experiments. But my younger children play the piano, and even quite good ... for future professional players. Because the most important thing for them is football!