:: About creative works of Alexander Litvinovsky

::

"The invariable, constant fidelity to something is not fruitful. Such fidelity is the result of laziness or extinction..." Maybe, this idea of Igor Stravinsky is the miraculous key opening a door into the kingdom of images of his specific heir -- contemporary Belarusian composer Alexander Litvinovsky.

The creativity of Litvinovsky, as well as his great predecessor is the result of resistance to that laziness and extinction peculiar only to one already too settled and contented. He is in constant search for new metaphors, therefore he oversteps the bounds of the XX century style panorama.

Listening to his music, as if with the wave of a magic wand, you have an opportunity to set off on a surprising journey in time to the depth of centuries, feeling thus the dynamics of contemporaneity. Back to the future? It is quite possible.

Is he really post modernist? Certainly! His element are the original game of styles, the reconstruction of historical musical models from the Renaissance, Baroque, classical, and romantic eras... But also he is not indifferent to the avant guarde, actively using the newest techniques and technologies. As a result -- a unique alloy of every possible element of art from the development of the European civilization is created.

Only contrast collage or symbiosis? Not always. Many of his works are sustained in a uniform style from beginning to end, which does not suggest a parody, but rather an admiration!

What the audience say? As a rule, they are in delight! The performers? They are carried away! Critics? Are intrigued!

Maybe, Alexander Litvinovsky is a composer in the pop-format? But what is high or low, elite or mass? Is the postulation about hierarchy of culture phenomena initially absurd? Who can distinctly answer?

Each style zone for Litvinovsky is not the dead out-of-date circuit, but only a matrix for the creation of a unique projection. Each time, he finds new resources, disclosing, in labyrinths of style, unknown sources of inspiration, admiring and being pleased by the magnificence of each detail.

Would you like to test the music yourself?

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From all my most perspective and talented pupils I can allocate Alexander Litvinovsky as a person capable adequately to present Belarusian musical art in the Internet. The unique creative individuality of Alexander Litvinovsky promptly developed and has shown itself in the Belarus music already in the middle of 1980s. Now, on my opinion, he represents that example in art, which can be called as a Belarusian composer of new times.

I regard Alexander Litvinovsky as a composer-analyst carefully mastering the best traditions of classical musical art, who does not avoid the daring postmodern experiments. I've been knowing him since 1982 -- at first as a student and then of post-graduate student in my class in the Belarus Academy of Music (Conservatory), as the younger colleague entered in the Belarus Union of the Composers in 1990, and now as an activist of the Belarusian Association of Modern Music too.

By the way, Alexander Litvinovsky has a recognition not only on a native land, where his scores constantly are included in repertoir of various musical collectives and soloists (it is important, that young instrumentalists and singers perform his music with pleasure). His music is known abroad and was performed at such international festivals as CHORAL INTERNATIONAL Neuchatel (Switzerland), FLORILEGE VOCAL De Tours (France), International JUGEND-FESTSPIELTREFFEN Bayreuth (Germany), YOUTH MUSIC DAYS in Druskininkai (Lithuania), WORLD MUSIC DAYS (Romania), FESTLICHE KONZERTE ZUM NEUEN JAHR in Zurich (Switzerland), International Festival of Sacred Music GAUDE MATER in Czestochowa (Poland), International ROSTRUM OF COMPOSERS (Amsterdam).

I think, the time has come to present in the Web not only Belarusian music of a so-called popular format, but also high academic samples of it. I'm sure, Alexander Litvinovsky with his achievements in symphonic, chamber, cantata's genres and searches in the field of electroacoustics, is such a vivid example.

:: Creative conception

from traditional to avant guarde

:: Education, Grants

Alexander Litvinovsky was born in 1962 in Minsk (Belarus). He graduated from Minsk College of Music as a musicologist (1982), Belarusian Academy of Music in the class of composition under Prof. Dmitry Smolsky (1987) and received a post-graduate degree there (1991).===

He took part in a Summer Course for Composers (Poland 1993, 1995) directed by Martin Bresnick (USA), Michael Nyman and Daryl Runswick (Great Britain), Louis Andriessen (Holland), Fransois-Bernard Mache (France), Sylvano Bussotti (Italy); in Acanthes 2000/ IRCAM Musical Computing Workshop with Jonathan Harvey (Great Britan), Tristan Murail and Martin Matalon (France).

In 2001 he took part in Workshops in the Stuttgart Academy of Music. The same year he received a grant from the Polish Government as a composer in residence of Electoacaustic Studio of the Academy of Music in Krakow under Marek Choloniewski (Poland).

:: Principal performances

• Minsk Music Spring, International Festival
(Minsk 1990, 1991, 2000)

• New Belarusian Music, International Festival
(Minsk 1992)

• International Festival of Modern Music
(Minsk 1991, 1995)

• International Youth Music Forum
(Kiev 1993, 1994)

• Renaissance of Belarusian Capella
(Minsk 1993)

• Choral International Neuchatel
(Switzerland 1995, 2001)

• Florilege Vocal De Tours
(France 1996)

• International Jugend-Festspieltreffen Bayreuth
(Germany 1997)

• Uluslararasi Istanbul Mistik Music Festival
(Turkey 1997)

• Mighty God, International Festival of Spirit Music
(Mogilev, Belarus 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)

• International Musical Festival named after Ivan Sollertinsky
(Vitebsk, Belarus 1997)

• Muses of Niasvizh / Музы Нясвіжа, Festival of Chamber Music »
(Niasvizh, Belarus 1997, 1998, 2000)

• Festliche Konzerte zum Neuen Jahr in Zurich
(Switzerland 1999)

• Jaunimo Muzikos Dienos Druskininkuose / Youth Music Days in Druskininkai »
(Druskininkai, Lithuania 1999)

• ISCM World Music Days in Bucharest »
(Romania 1999)

• Renaissance of Guitar, International Festival »
(Gomel, Belarus 1999)

• Ankara Cokseli Muzik Dernegi
(Turkey 2000)

• Gaude Mater, International Festival of Sacred Music in Czestochowa
(Czestochowa, Poland 2000)

• Ubel Swallow
(Ubel, Belarus 2000)

• International Rostrum of Composers
(Amsterdam 2000)