The Hour of Triumph (1991, December Evenings)

....The concerts were held under the motto "The Hour of Triumph"... 

Ten years ago Svyatoslav Richter coined a name for our "musical-plastic fantasias" and suggested holding a festival devoted to them during the last month of the year myths created by this great musician. Of course, if a myth is understood as an archetype, a primordial form into which life is fitting itself as it acquires self- awareness. The unique performances based on an original artistic conception came into being at an obscure time. They were not unanimously hailed. (..)
I believe that the December Evenings became an important high spot of the Moscow cultural scene from the outset, attracting also the attention of music lovers far beyond the borders of this country. This is confirmed by the fact that international stars took part in our festival through all these years, and that exhibitions arranged within its framework invariably featured paintings both from Soviet museums and from the most famous foreign collections. Svyatoslav Richter's primary concern is to encourage the high standard of the December Evenings programmes, performers and exhibitions. And if we have lived up to these high demands it is mostly the result of his personal contribution to this annual event at all stages of its preparation. On the occassion of the December Evenings tenth anniversary it is worthwhile to recall those who launched this project and who have cooperated with us during all these years. Among them are Nina Dorliak, our supreme judge, strict and uncompromising, the outstanding musicians such as Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, the members of the Borodin String Quartet Valentin Berlinsky, Mikhail Kopelman, Dmitry Shebalin and Andrei Abramenkov, the pianists Eliso Virsaladze and Vasily Lobanov, the singers Galina Pisarenko and Nelli Lee, the conductors Yuri Nikolayevsky, Saulius Sondeckis and Vladimir Ziva, the world-famous directors Anatoly Efros and Boris Pokrovsky, the poet Andrei Voznesensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Bella Akhmadulina, and, naturally, friends of the December Evenings from other countries, such as singer Robert Holl, pianist and conductor Christophe Eschenbach, and art critic John Russell. It is profound feeling that we recall today the excellent musician and the friend of our museum Oleg Kagan who recently departed this life in the prime of his superior talent. His regular participation in recitals at our museum added a touch of serenity, a Mozartian spirit, elevation and great charm. Our grief is boundless, but it is also bright for Oleg Kagan's music is heard all over the world, it can be heard within these walls too, and it lives on in our memory (..)
During the December Evenings lovers of art gather at the Museum of Fine Arts to listen to the music by Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Schubert and Britten, to poems by Shakespeare, and Pasternak, and to enjoy paintings by Delacroix, Levitan, Gainsborough, Picasso, Hogarth and Matisse. Do our festivals make them any happier? if only we could know for sure.... (Irina Antonova)