About Irene Kuznetsova and her works

Irene Kuznetsova

Music and the Word

The present collection of works was written by Irene Andreyevna Kuznetsova, a talented musicologist, who passed away untimely (1962-1993). Some chapters of her candidate thesis and a number of articles are devoted to Chingiz Aitmatov's works and are connected whis correspondence between music and literature. The book also is comprised of some articles and notices on various aspects of musical life of the Kyrgyz Republic. Written using a keen and figurative language, the articles will be interesting not only to specialists but to everybody who is concerned with the development of the Kyrgyz musical culture.

About Irene Kuznetsova and her works

The collection of articles, which you are holding in your hands, was written by Irene Kuznetsova. She was a person of uncommon fate — a happy combination of human and musical gift comes together with the drama of her early death (1962-1993).

It was absolutely impossible to imagine her passing away before her time – she was so full of life, energetic, with aspiration and various interests, inbanality of her dissertation theme and evident literary talent. Irene's personal charm and uniqueness won all our hearts. She was very feminine. Sometimes she looked vulnerable, while at the same time she was always independent and persistent in her views. Her appearance was remarkable as well. She had a beautifully set charming head with a shock of luxurious, curly, slightly reddish hair. But her most striking feature was her wide eyes shining with cleverness, talent, will, and simultaneous coquetry, which was especially attractive by it's tact and nobility.

Everybody loved Irene — pedagogues, classmates in the postgraduate course in Moscow conservatory, colleagues. Efficient and dependable, invariably benevolent always responsive, with generous soul, she continuously attracted people of different ages and professions. And who could imagine that the irreparable would happen to her and be so dramatically premature?

Everything began like with other gifted persons called to culture from childhood. I.Kuznetsova was born on the 20th of January, 1962 in Frunze. Irene's parents are professional musicians. Her father is a well-known musicologist in the republic, her mother is a teacher of piano. When Irene was six, she went to school, and ten years later completed its course with mostly all excellent grades. She studies further at the Theoretical Department of the music college (from 1976 to 1981), where she was enrolled, being a schoolgirl. Then follows an attempt (though unsuccessful) to enter Department of Romance Philology in Moscow University.

Irene began to work when she was 16: she thought solfeggio in the children's music school and studied at the same time. Such a labor and study «polyphony» is explained by her love for financial independence, which she always had. She graduated from the Arts Institute (which has been granted the status of a conservatory) cum laude in 1986. Almost always Irene received an higher scholarship for her excellent grades. She always participated in various students' conferences and olympiads, and in 1986, at the All-Union Arts Olympiad in Leningrad named «Student and Scientific and Technical Progress» she won one of the prize places.

After graduating from the Institute, I.Kuznetsova was offered work in it and during a number of years she taught theoretical disciplines such as harmony, solfeggio and analysis. She prepared her lectures conscientiously and conducted them in a creative and interesting manner. That's why her students respected her.

When Irene was still a first-year student she started writing. Her works appeared in print articles, written on musical themes in the leading republican newspapers, she prepared TV shows and radio broadcasts. The themes of I.Kuznetsova's publications were diverse. In total, the musicologist wrote some 90 articles during nearly 10 years. You will agree that this number is very significant even for an experienced musicologist but Irene was still a debutante. There is no doubt that her energetic and impetuous advance was a sign of talent

The young author was interested in many things, including musical education and composing creative work, questions of propagation of the classic heritage and performance, and music for the young. Among the musicologist's major publications, which called a great interest in the republic at that time, was a cycle of articles about the Bolshoi Theatre, which was on tour in Kyrgyzstan in the summer 1986; notices and interviews dedi¬cated to the creation of such prominent artists of Kyrgyzstan as K.Moldobasanov, S.Toktakhunova, A.Tokombayeva, J.Maldybayeva and D.Saliyeva; a problematic article «On the crest of the rock wave», and many other.

Besides journalism, Irene showed an early interest in scientific work also. Most possibly, the reason was in her love for reading from the childhood, and a thoughtful and critical attitude to what she read. When Irene was a student her course works were highly appreciated by her teachers. We'll name only some of the themes in which she was interested. They were; dramatic art of the Kyrgyz one-part piano sonata, issues of key and harmony organization of Ravel's pieces, tragedy in the creation of Mahler and D.Shostakovich, and musical theatre of Kyrghyzstan…

Irene carried out scientific work while teaching in the Arts Institute. In particular, she wrote an abstract which was successfully defended and used later upon entering the post-graduate course. Knowledge of foreign languages proved to be very helpful to Irene In elaboration of scientific themes. She mastered both English and Italian, the latter she studied on her own, without a teacher.

In the autumn 1989, I.Kuznetsov was sent to the postgraduate study in P.L Chaikovsky's Moscow State Conservatory. Irene chose Chingiz Aitmatov's works and his influence over the musical culture of the region as her thesis (Poetics of Ghingiz Aitmatov and his influence on the musical theatre of Kyrgyzstan of 1960-1980). The theme «Literature and Music» was new for musicology In Central Asia at that time. The contents of her articles, published in scientific collections of works of the Department of the Domestic Musical Culture of the Moscow Conservatory, allow us to judge how many interesting things had been created by Irene. She managed to formulate many «mechanisms» of analysis of Aitmatov's prose. But the manuscript of the thesis was not to be completed. The fragment presented here, reflects all that I.Kuznetsova had succeeded to formulate and polish. The fragment stops, where Irene placed a full stop. Neither she, nor I could even suspect that this full stop might be the last…

Irene Kuznetsova was extremely kind, responsive and forgiving. She never envied anybody, and considered envy as a feeling not worthy of the human beings. She was very responsive and honest, a person of principle. Irene always relied on herself and her own strength. But the strength was melting away tragically… During her short life Irene succeeded in many things. Let this collection of her works remind us about Irene Kuznetsova's bright image.

Helen Dolinskaya
    Dr. of Art Criticism,
    Prof. of the Moscow Conservatory,
    Honored Artist of Russia

Irene Kuznetsova. Music and the Word / Ирина Кузнецова. "Музыка и слово"

Photo by Irene Kuznetsova