Tertium datur
The Soviet Music Avant-Garde 1956–1982
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the eyes of the West, the Soviet Union had only art that conformed to the regime and art that was critical of the regime. Little attention was given to the wide current of art that was removed from politics and independent. In music, which suffered less under ideological constraints than other forms of art, an avantgarde developed after Stalin’s death. It was as alien to Socialist Realism as it was to the West’s new music. The tense juxtaposition of opposing styles was representative of its compositions. The marginalisation of the non-conformist avant-garde came to an end with the famous concert of April 1982, when works by Ėdison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Alfred Schnittke were performed in the Moscow Conservatory.
(Osteuropa 4/2009, pp. 77–84)