Musical messiah

SYMFEROPOL-Alemdar Karamanov, National Artist of Ukraine, Shevchenko Prize laureate, world-renowned composer, and the composer of the Crimean national anthem died recently at the age of 73. Karamanov is the latest in the list of creative luminaries that have died in the last few weeks: Mstislav Rostropovich, Kyrylo Lavrov, and Mykhailo Ulianov.

The brilliant Alfred Schnittke called his fellow student of the Moscow Conservatory a man of genius. Dmitrii Shostakovich, impressed by Karamanov’s student works, considered him “an interesting and original talent.” Karamanov was called “the leader of the conservative modernists,” and despite his fame, the Crimean composer was known as a “Crimean hermit” in the last years of his life. This is easily explained: Karamanov was constantly saturated with the music that lived in him, like it lives in piano keys. It seems as though soon as you open the cover, you will be able not only to hear but see how the world sounds.

To Karamanov, music played the role of a crucial biological organ; it was important not only to his spiritual life but also his physical one, like blood. Karamanov was music, the material embodiment of the most complicated compositions that constantly sounded in the space surrounding him. He always attentively listened to himself, nature, and the world. He physically felt its sound order. As a result, he could seldom listen to the radio, and he practically never attended concerts. People who knew him well explain that he avoided them so as not to sully the world’s sound with ineffective and untalented gammas and symphonies, to protect his soul from the cacophony of odd and false timbres, to immerse it only in the primacy of nature symphonies. He was a musical messiah and hermit of genius.

In the last years of his life his world consisted of three components: himself, perfect music, and the Crimea, which he loved so devotedly that in his time preferred it to all that Moscow could offer. Karamanov was an inseparable part of the Crimea. It is difficult to imagine the Crimea without this original composer both physically and especially psychologically.

“The Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and the world music community have suffered an irreplaceable loss. Alemdar Sabitovych Karamanov, one of our prominent modern composers, has passed away,” said the report of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada and Council of Ministers of the Crimea. “Karamanov, an artist of planetary caliber, a bright and creative individuality, made an inestimable contribution to the development of world musical culture, in many respects determining the face of classical music of the last decades.”

This assessment is entirely just. But despite the fact that these same words were pronounced while he was alive, there were too few words of praise and they were all too rare. Karamanov himself did not like commendations because he knew the price of his genius and understood that few people are able to comprehend his art, especially in the sphere of symphonic music, with the same depth as he did. He preferred to hear only sincere appraisals and opinions. In this sense Karamanov’s oeuvre is truly an elite one, brilliantly illuminated not just by religious mystique but a religious feeling of history and man’s essence — religious truth.

Alemdar Karamanov was born in Symferopil in 1934. After graduating from the Tchaikovsky Music College in his native city, he attended the Moscow Conservatory. His profound talent as a composer became apparent when he was still a student. He composed 14 symphonies, two overtures for a symphony orchestra, several piano concertos and concertos for violin with orchestra, cantatas, and numerous chamber works.

After returning to the Crimea, Karamanov continued to create, becoming one of the world’s leaders in the field of classical symphonies, the most complex of all musical genres. In the Crimea he created such large works as the symphony cycle nos. 15-23, the six-symphony cycle Byst based on the Apocalypse, a cycle consisting of four symphonies and ten parts entitled Sovershyshasia, and the oratories Stabat Mater, Requiem, and Mass. He also composed the soundtrack to the films Ordinary Fascism and Love with Privileges, and the TV serial Strategy of Victory.

The world premiere of Sovershyshasia, performed in full for the first time on Dec. 13, 2006, in Kyiv’s Ukraine Palace, was an outstanding event in Ukraine and the entire musical world. Unfortunately, because of health problems the composer could not attend the premiere. But during Easter this year the recording of his work was shown and according to people close to Karamanov, the composer said: “I am a happy man.”

Crimean leaders recently declared: “The residents of the Crimea, sharing the pain of loss with all those who knew and appreciated Alemdar Sabitovych’s works, bow down to their brilliant fellow countryman for everything he has done for the culture and arts of the peninsula he loved so much. Thanks to this master’s bright and cheerful sense, the charming music set to the plays Fountain of Love, Glamorous World, Adzhymushkai, and the mystery-play Khersones was born. Karamanov is the creator of the music to the national anthem of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea. With his body of works the composer confirmed his sincere and steadfast belief that life is spirit; only life enlightens and makes the chain of life everlasting.”

Karamanov was the recipient of numerous titles and awards. He was honored with the distinguished title of People’s Artist of Ukraine for his great creative contribution to the development of musical art. He won the Shevchenko Prize and was awarded the prize of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea. He was an Honored Resident of the Crimea. Every year the International Young Pianists Competition is held in the Crimea in his honor. The Alemdar Karamanov Charitable Foundation has been created. Scholarly research, dozens of diploma papers, and semi-popular and historical books are devoted to the composer’s creative activity not only in Ukraine but in many other countries. The most prominent musical talents have left words of praise for posterity.

It should be noted that the residents of the Crimea were responsible for introducing Karamanov’s name into outer space. The staff of the Crimean astronomical observatory renamed an asteroid previously numbered 4274 “Karamanov.” He reached psychological depth in his works and cosmic heights. I want to believe that the memory of Alemdar Karamanov will remain for all time and even in the history of the cosmos.

A message for descendants

“Karamanov lived for music and disregarded life’s difficulties. He lived in Symferopil in a tiny flat measuring 32 meters; his water, electricity, and telephone were frequently cut off because of non-payment,” composer’s sister Sevil Krylatova told The Day. “For more than 40 years my brother and I were heading towards the premiere of Svershyvshasia! I paid to have his music copied; I photocopied parts with my own money and brought the scores to musicians.

“Karamanov was composing music until the last minute of his life. He had recently finished an opera about St. John the Golden-Tongued. This is a composition of extraordinary beauty and harmony. My brother never wrote to order; he created according to the order of his soul and heart, with his spiritual brilliance; as he used to say — ‘from a fresh sheet of sky.’ Alemdar devoted his entire life to music. He was a creative personality. He was never interested in routine things, but it was painful for me to see what a hard life he had. His music is a message for descendants, for the future. Unfortunately, Alemdar Sabitovych’s works are performed more frequently abroad than in his native country. We have to understand how great Karamanov was and what a huge, irrecoverable loss we have all suffered.”