M kazinik secrets of geniuses. Audiobook Kazinik Mikhail - secrets of geniuses

To my dear parents

Bella Grigorievna and Semyon Mikhailovich,

with love and gratitude

Preface to the Moscow edition

The first edition of this book was published in my native St. Petersburg.

The second and third are in two Ukrainian cities: Odessa and Kharkov. The fourth is in Moscow.

I have traveled almost all over the world. I fell in love with the energy of New York, the provincialism of multi-tiered Sydney, the architectural pomp of Madrid and the stunning hospitality of Paris, the exoticism of Matisse's Tangier and the artistic boundlessness of Rome. The sophistication of the Topkapi Palaces in Istanbul and the unreal beauty of the palaces and gardens of the Alhambra.

I was not born in Moscow and did not spend my childhood. Only a few visits.

But Moscow is more to me than all other cities combined. Because my soul is in Moscow. Because from a cultural point of view, the spirit of Moscow is indescribable.

Lomonosov arrived in Moscow from Kholmogory with a convoy. Dostoevsky was born here and Gogol died here. In Moscow, Scriabin conceived the idea of remaking humanity. In Moscow, Rachmaninov became what the whole world has been hearing for a century. The greatest symphonist of the 20th century, Dmitry Shostakovich, lived here. Mikhail Bulgakov immortalized the city in his novel.

Already the pillars of the outpost
Turn white; here on Tverskaya
The cart rushes over potholes.
The booths and women flash past,
Boys, benches, lanterns,
Palaces, gardens, monasteries,
Bukharians, sleighs, vegetable gardens,
Merchants, shacks, men,
Boulevards, towers, Cossacks,
Pharmacies, fashion stores,
Balconies, lions on the gates
And flocks of jackdaws on crosses.
In the hot stuffiness of the carriage
I gave it my all
A fit of innate weakness
And sucked with milk.
Through the vicissitudes of the past
And years of wars and poverty
I silently recognized Russia
Unique features.
Overcoming adoration
I watched, idolizing.
There were women, Sloboda residents,
Students, mechanics.

Here I painlessly combined fragments from Pushkin and Pasternak’s poetry.

Both of them enter Moscow. One is on the train, the other is on the crossing. But do you feel what magic? It’s as if there is no distance in time, as if there is one poet and one spirit. You immediately understand what Pasternak’s “sucked in with milk” means. Moscow Pasternak “sucked in milk” Pushkin’s Moscow. Here is a unique Moscow dialect. Moving, living, “adored” Moscow.

A city in which, like in the Universe, large and small planets move. Everyone who writes about Moscow becomes very similar in some way: stylistic, individual and temporal differences are erased. Why is Igor Severyanin a poet from a different Galaxy than Pushkin and Pasternak? And as soon as he starts writing about Moscow, he ends up at the Pushkin-Pasternak carnival:

My gaze was filled with dreams:
Again - there, behind the Kremlin towers, -
Inimitable Russia
Irreplaceable land.
The wretched is rich in it,
The trifles are full of meaning:
Old princess from Arbat
Feta reads through glasses...
And here, to the cozy church
Pulling up in a smart coupe,
The cocotte gives mugs,
One of our own in the yearning crowd...
And you, evening walk
On a troika along the Moscow River!
Is it on Grenade Lane?
Welcoming mansions...
It is no coincidence that Pushkin wrote:
Moscow, there is so much in this sound
For the Russian heart it merged.

To my dear parents

Bella Grigorievna and Semyon Mikhailovich,

with love and gratitude

Preface to the Moscow edition

The first edition of this book was published in my native St. Petersburg.

The second and third are in two Ukrainian cities: Odessa and Kharkov. The fourth is in Moscow.

I was not born in Moscow and did not spend my childhood. Only a few visits.

But Moscow is more to me than all other cities combined. Because my soul is in Moscow. Because from a cultural point of view, the spirit of Moscow is indescribable.

Here I painlessly combined fragments from Pushkin and Pasternak’s poetry.

In sound, not in words!!! Moscow is a sound, because sound is more than a word.

For a symphony is made up of sounds - the highest consonance possible on Earth!

Perhaps the main secret of geniuses is that they eavesdrop and spy from one source.

I am glad that my book will travel on Pasternak’s commuter trains, wandering with the reader along the old Moscow streets, past incredible Moscow churches and mansions. Sit on the benches of Moscow boulevards and rush around the Garden Ring. But the main joy is to learn that the book gave one of the Muscovites creative strength and faith in the triumph of Harmony and Light.

Mikhail Kazinik, Stockholm 2010

Preface

There is a Culture massive And elitist. There is no longer any doubt about this.

Books published in millions of copies, and books that can only be published in a few hundred copies. Giant stadiums accommodating tens of thousands of pop listeners, and small concert halls for chamber music. Millions of copies of comic books and beautiful art books, the prices of which are so high all over the world that you need to have a very good understanding of their value in order to afford to buy them.

But in the book before you, I dare to abandon these two terms and replace them with others. Because talk about mass culture, firstly, is boring, and secondly, it is offensive to “mass ears”. And thirdly, everything is not so simple.

There is terrestrial and cosmic culture. After all, man is a cosmic Spirit placed in an earthly body. Therefore, the goals of earthly and cosmic culture are different. The goal of earthly culture is to please earthly bodies, chain the biological body to the earth, satiate the needs of this biological body to the limit, creating an average image of the human individual and determining the range of its (individual’s) basic needs. An individual must think stereotypically and act for the benefit of all other moderately existing individuals. For them, culture is frankly called “mass culture.” And the sources of information that they should receive are called “mass media.”

Representatives of cosmic culture - Geniuses - create the greatest creations, but they do not deal with the masses. They guess about the basic postulate of the cosmic Spirit. That Man is unique, singular, inimitable. Therefore, cosmic culture always turns to ONE person, to a unique and unique personality. And here a paradox arises. Cosmic culture is the connection between the macro- and microcosm, that is, the Cosmos and the man generated by it.

But then this means that in order to perceive a great culture, we must also be geniuses. After all, it goes without saying that mediocrity cannot understand genius. You can read as many books as you like, listen to beautiful melodies, look at paintings by the greatest artists, but all to no avail. For cosmic culture has a system of signs, without comprehension of which there is no true understanding of art. Earthly culture is not interested in cosmic man, because it is not interested in individuality, but in the universality of the huge human biomass. So the person remains within the assembly line culture, falling into the register of those who constantly replenish the pockets of the owners of endless factories of stars. But a person is born a genius. He is a clot of cosmic energy that finds itself in an earthly swamp. And in this swamp the local rulers are already waiting for him. From now on, Man will become a slave to earthly conveyors. They will put him in a row, castrate him, and explain how he should behave. They will tell him what it means to “be modern.” He will be taught to buy what needs to be sold to enrich the sellers.

The cosmic spirit will submit to the earthly body and begin to age along with it.

The death of the body will entail the death of the undeveloped spirit...

To prevent this from happening, there is a space culture. A culture full of secret signs that maintain the connection between Man of the Earth and his cradle - the Cosmos. Brilliant works of art are always relevant, because for them there is no concept of time. But a person whose spirit has fallen into an earthly trap is not interested in such an abstract category as the category of Eternity. That small group of people on our Planet who are given the gift of creating and perceiving phenomena of genuine culture know perfectly well what we are talking about.

But alas, it is incredibly difficult to reach the masses of those who have been deceived in order to help them not lose touch with the cosmic cradle.

How to reveal to them what they are missing? How can I help them get through the system of secret signs? How to overcome codes?

What should they learn, what should they feel in order to understand that this life, with its “today, tomorrow and next week,” is only a limited earthly phenomenon?

We are all given a chance on Earth. This is the Spiritual radiation of Eternity. That Eternity from which we turn away every minute and every second.

Derzhavin: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am a god!”

What secret do geniuses have? The people thanks to whom the knowledge of all mankind is preserved live among us. Moreover, each of us is a genius. You just need to be able to preserve your originality.

From time immemorial, humanity has generated wars, totalitarianism, devastation, and famine. Man is gradually and methodically destroying life on the planet, and the planet itself. Fortunately, there are creative people. They preserve and protect the heritage of our civilization and create new ones. Thanks to them, humanity has a chance. Mikhail Kazinik believes that he discovered the “Secrets of Geniuses.” Let's give him the opportunity to convince us of this! The book “Secrets of Geniuses” will be of interest to all art lovers.

Russian musician, art critic, writer and philosopher Mikhail Kazinik is considered an erudite person and a passionate educator. His goal is to instill a love of art in as many people as possible.

The author sets out his view of genius in the work. Thanks to this book, the average person will have their eyes opened to seemingly obvious things, but which we so often do not notice in the fast pace of modern life. Do you want to know how a cultured person differs from a person who is far from culture? The author makes such compelling arguments that it is difficult to disagree with him. This is definitely a must read.

Mikhail Kazinik has a talent for persuasion. It seems that he takes the reader into another world and infects him with a keen desire to plunge into art. And it doesn’t matter what you choose - literature, painting or music. Your life will be radically transformed because you will gain the ability to see Beauty.

“Secrets of Geniuses” is a multi-genre book. In it you will get acquainted with the history of art, philosophy, psychology, learn to analyze and much more. This work should be read slowly and thoughtfully. In order to feel and accept the author’s thoughts.

The writer’s opinion about the fact that all people have genetic memory is interesting. A child is born a genius. Some kind of talent is inherent in him from the very womb. But whether this talent will develop or not even be noticed depends on the environment in which the child grows up. As a rule, society tends to raise children according to patterns. Kindergarten, school, compulsory clubs. And few people think about what is interesting for the child to do. Instead of noticing that the little person really likes to sing, draw or look at the stars and support him in this, he is told that he should become a prosecutor or a doctor. He grows up and becomes a doctor. As a rule, he is a bad specialist. But he could become a great artist!

If after reading “The Secret of Geniuses” you suddenly want to visit a museum or listen to classical music – go for it! This means that you have awakened your genetic memory and are ready to see Beauty...

On our literary website you can download the book “Secrets of Geniuses” (Fragment) by Mikhail Kazinik in formats suitable for different devices - epub, fb2, txt, rtf. Do you like to read books and always keep up with new releases? We have a large selection of books of various genres: classics, modern fiction, psychological literature and children's publications. In addition, we offer interesting and educational articles for aspiring writers and all those who want to learn how to write beautifully. Each of our visitors will be able to find something useful and exciting for themselves.

Mikhail Kazinik is an amazing person: art critic, musician, poet, writer, actor, director, playwright, educator and one of the most erudite people of our time. It is not easy to capture his activities at one glance.

Here he is the music expert of the Nobel concert, here he conducts conferences for doctors on the healing power of music, or conferences for businessmen at the Scandinavian Graduate School of Business, or cycles of immersion in art at the Dramatic Institute of Stockholm.

And his joint performances with Yuri Lederman in the ancient charming theater of the capital of the Kingdom of Sweden! The theater, called by the press “the theater that thinks.”

He lives permanently in Sweden, but when asked where he works, he takes out a small globe and says: “On this planet.”

The power of its impact on the audience is enormous. Numerous concerts, Mozart festivals high in the mountains of Norway, lectures on art for the youth of Germany, art programs for the SBS television and radio company in Australia are always an event. Participation on equal terms in Words, Music, Poetry, Philosophy, elements of the Theater brings to the halls not only lovers of classical music, but also representatives of various circles and professions, and, of course, young people.

Mikhail Kazinik is the author of 60 films about world musical culture: the cycle of musical and journalistic programs “Ad libitum, or IN FREE FLIGHT” is broadcast in Sweden as part of a national cultural program; in Russia – on the TVC channel; in America, Israel, Asian and African countries, Canada - on the TVCi channel. Also with great success, he hosts cycles of original programs on radio “Silver Rain” and radio “Orpheus”.

“I am not a promoter of music or any other form of art. Those who do this often destroy its meaning. I have a completely different task - to spiritually tune a person to that wave, to those vibrations that emanate from the works of poetry, music, literature, and painting. Any true art is a transmitter, and a person who, for various reasons, is not tuned to its frequency is a damaged receiver. I’m repairing it,” says Mikhail Kazinik.

(Instead of an annotation, we will give the floor to Mikhail Kazinik himself)

I am often asked how I manage to do everything: write poetry and books, give concerts and give lectures at universities, play the violin and piano, perform on radio broadcasts and host a Nobel concert, act in films about art and teach at a high school? How can I answer this?

There are people who work as programmers, and in their free time they compose, say, music or paint pictures. This, in my opinion, is not easy to combine. I constantly work in one field - the field of art. None of my activities goes beyond its scope. I don't even have a hobby.

And there is only one task: with the help of art, to reveal the original genius of my listeners and readers, their incredible abilities to perceive the cosmic energy that gave birth to Bach and Shakespeare, Mozart and... each of us. I believe in the genius of Man on the Planet. I believe in the opportunity to open people’s eyes, to remove barriers between the Moment and Eternity. You just need to take off the blinders from your eyes and find that “magic crystal” that A.S. writes about. Pushkin. And all the primitive conveyor belt “pop” will fall off like a husk, and a Man will be revealed, equal to the Cosmos. And a new Renaissance will begin, which will once again replace the pop idols and wretched mass spectacles of the current Middle Ages...

Dear reader!

Six years have passed since the first book was published. The second book was published in 2010.

Before you is the fifth edition, which combines both books.

I am very glad that my books have found their readers. Combining them into one publication is especially important because the books are closely related to each other.

The first is a kind of introduction to the Spirit of music, poetry, literature, sociology, and rhetoric.

The second one is for those who read the first one. This is a continuation of an in-depth perception of art and music as the pinnacle of creative burning, as food for the human brain.

I believe that a person who carefully reads both books and listens to ALL the music on the accompanying discs will definitely discover other dimensions and his own creative potential.

When I wrote these books, I felt great joy and was filled with the desire to open the world of art, rhetoric, philosophy, painting, beauty to as many people as possible.

I receive quite a few letters indicating that the purpose of the books has been achieved. But there are even more letters from people who were unable to purchase a single publication. They tell me that books go around in circles, that each book is passed around at least several times. In various cities of Russia, people ask about it in bookstores. But there are no books there. The purpose of this publication is to at least partially satisfy the demand of readers.

The title of the books sounds somewhat provocative. But the deep reader understood (and there are many letters about this) that by geniuses we mean not only the Creators of works of art, but also those who perceive them. Man is born a genius, but the trouble is that humanity has learned to cure this “disease” much better and more effectively than all others.

Therefore, the “secret” of geniuses is also our secret, the secret of possible congenial perception. How to discover the deepest perception in yourself? How to place Pushkin’s “magic crystal” inside yourself? To hear not individual beautiful melodies, not beautiful poetic lines, not regular plot lines of stories and novels, but to reveal the highest plasticity, to learn hidden codes, to feel the breath of the Cosmos, the spirit of Divine insights.

Once upon a time at school we were taught to put letters into syllables, and syllables into words. And we decided that we could read. In fact, the distance from school reading to real reading is light years. When your baby shows you his ability to count: one, two, three, four... and so on until ten, you smile. But deep down you understand the distance from this “account” to the account of Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. So learning to read, write and count in a childish sense is only preparation for true reading and counting.

The next step in counting is the Fibonacci numbers 1,1,2, 3, 5, 8,13, 21... The beginning of the endless path to divine proportion.

Reading - from nursery rhymes to “The Glass Bead Game” by Hermann Hesse.

Music - from “Little Swans” to Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony.

The 21st century must be the century of Personality, Individuality, because we have already passed through faceless crowds, or peoples who are “silent”.

Art and its peak - the music of geniuses - is the greatest panacea against spiritual slavery.

Mikhail Kazinik

Stockholm – Moscow

June 6, 2011

Secrets of geniuses

To my dear parents

Bella Grigorievna and Semyon Mikhailovich

with love and gratitude,

Preface

There is a Culture massive And elitist. There is no longer any doubt about this.

But in the book before you, I dare to abandon these two terms and replace them with others. Because talk about mass culture, firstly, is boring, and secondly, it is offensive to “mass ears”.

And thirdly, everything is not so simple.

There is a Culture earthly And space After all, man is a cosmic Spirit placed in an earthly body. Therefore, the goals of earthly and cosmic culture are different.

The goal of earthly culture is to please earthly bodies, chain the biological body to the earth, satiate the needs of this biological body to the limit, creating an average image of the human individual, and determine the range of its (individual’s) basic needs. An individual must think stereotypically and act for the benefit of all other moderately existing individuals. For them, culture is frankly called “mass culture.” And the sources of information that they should receive are called “mass media”.

And here a paradox arises. Cosmic culture is the connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm, that is, the Cosmos and the man generated by it.

But then this means that in order to perceive a great culture, we must also be geniuses. It goes without saying that mediocrity cannot understand genius.

You can read as many books as you like, listen to beautiful melodies, look at paintings by the greatest artists, but all to no avail. For cosmic culture has a system of signs, without comprehension of which there is no true understanding of art. Earthly culture is not interested in cosmic man, because it is not interested in individuality, but in the universality of the huge human biomass.

So the person remains within the assembly line culture, ending up on the register of those who constantly replenish the pockets of the owners of endless factories of stars.

But a person is born a genius.

He is a clot of cosmic energy that finds itself in an earthly swamp. And in this swamp the local rulers are already waiting for him. From now on, Man will become a slave to earthly conveyors. They will put him in a row, castrate him, and explain how he should behave. They will tell him what it means to “be modern.” He will be taught to buy what needs to be sold to enrich the sellers.

The cosmic spirit will submit to the earthly body and begin to age along with it. The death of the body will entail the death of the undeveloped spirit...

But a person whose spirit has fallen into an earthly trap is not interested in such an abstract category as the category of Eternity. That small group of people on our Planet who are given the gift of creating and perceiving phenomena of genuine culture know perfectly well what we are talking about.

But, alas, it is incredibly difficult to reach the masses of those who have been deceived in order to help them not lose touch with the cosmic cradle.

How to reveal to them What are they losing?

How can I help them get through the system of secret signs?

How to overcome codes?

What should they learn, what should they feel in order to understand that this life with its “today”, “tomorrow” and “in a week” is only a limited earthly phenomenon?

We are all given a chance on Earth. This is the Spiritual radiation of Eternity.

That Eternity from which we turn away every minute and every second.

Derzhavin:

“I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!”

Here is one of the deepest guesses in the history of art. Japanese art critics consider this poem by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin to be the greatest creation of world poetry. After all, all this - from the worm to God, from the slave to the king - is about Man, about the limitlessness of His capabilities.

So the main mystery and experiment of Genesis is to place the Spirit in a body and give it a trial period.

This is what the philosopher Immanuel Kant meant when he said that there are only two truths:

starry sky above us

and the moral law WITHIN us.

But will the earthly body be able to destroy the cosmic Spirit in just 60–70 years of earthly life?

Yes or no?

In most cases, as experience shows, it will.

In addition, he, the body, will be helped.

...And yet I really want to recapture as many people as possible from the machine of the destruction of the Spirit.

Two introductions to the book

First introduction. About the scary gnome

I remember the shock of childhood when I heard “PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION” by M. P. Mussorgsky.

The main picture was a Gnome. But there was also bewilderment: why does the music, which is supposed to depict a fairy-tale gnome, sound so terribly evil? Yes, gnomes can be different, kinder and more evil, but such evil, gigantic, gigantic universal!!!

I heard equally tragic music later from Shostakovich. But it really wasn’t about a gnome - it was world evil, irreparable, inhuman.

But if Shostakovich’s world evil can be easily explained by knowing history, knowing the character of the country in which he lived, then where does such evil come from in Mussorgsky’s fairy-tale music, which tells about a gnome?

The insight came later: I learned about Mussorgsky’s physiological trouble and understood: his Gnome is not a fairy-tale character, but an unfortunate dwarf cursing the world, which for him - deprived, humiliated, deprived of the slightest opportunity to change anything - is a world of evil.

This is Mussorgsky himself - a gnome, and no forces, including medical ones, are able to defeat such evil.

Therefore, next - OLD CASTLE - departure to another time, to another musical layer and a long, especially in comparison with the Dwarf, stay in another dimension. This is true meditation, disconnecting from evil, gathering strength to survive, creatively and mentally.

And then it’s clear why the PICTURES end with the BOGATYR GATE.

From Gnome to Bogatyrsky!!!

This is where the great energy of the fight against evil lies!

A fairy-tale path has been passed with the traditional Baba Yaga, the resurrection from the dead, many kingdoms-states have been achieved, a lot of feats have been accomplished, the right to victory has been earned through suffering.

From tiny chicks that cannot fly ("Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks"), to the literally predicted energy of an airliner in music ("Baba Yaga"),

From a bustling city square (Limoges) to falling into the catacombs of Rome (Roman Tomb).

From the desolation and quiet sadness of the CASTLE (“Old Castle”) to the grandiose announcement and crowdedness of the GATE (“Bogatyr Gate”).

From the rough primitiveness of the music of "CANNE" to the impressionistic harmonies of "TUILRY".

In “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky, one of the most grandiose pictures of the universe that only exists in world art is revealed to us.

But many of the composer’s closest colleagues considered his music illiterately written, unkempt, and ragged. Even in the “Pictures” they saw only a chaotic collection of disparate impressions and strange harmonic absurdities.

Oh, if these friends and connoisseurs of Mussorgsky’s music came to life today and learned about the place this genius occupies in world musical culture, how many major composers in different countries came under the influence of his “illiterate” music, and define themselves as his followers! I think that the shock that Mussorgsky's critics would have experienced would clearly have exceeded the threshold of the possible level of human reactions.

The unfortunate gnome from the hole turned out to be a world giant in the history of musical art.

The Gnome's intonations grew to the scale of D. Shostakovich's fifteen symphonies.

Second introduction. Object of love

A large book would need to be written to explore the hidden signs of PICTURE music, and I reserve the option of doing so in the future.

But the main task of the second introduction is to appeal to everyone who wants to return an audience to great art, bring new generations of connoisseurs of high music, poetry, painting to art, or come to art themselves.

I would like to draw everyone’s attention to some, in my opinion, extremely important aspects of the perception of genuine art. Because the entire system, methodology, methods and principles of presenting art have reached a dead end. The system is already wrong in that many people involved in teaching art believe that when teaching to understand art, information about a particular phenomenon of art is primary.

In my wandering life, I have met a large number of musicians who have received all kinds of music diplomas, indicating that their holders have studied music for at least 15-20 years. It is clear that my interlocutors have received an unprecedented amount of information over the years. But from further conversations it turned out that they very often do not know or know music poorly. But most importantly, many of them do not like music, perceiving music only as a means of earning money, and nothing more.

At one time I had the opportunity to conduct a lot of statistical research. When today, many years later, I look through this information I collected, I understand for the first time that when we use the idea “hair stands on end,” it is a very specific, and not at all figurative, expression.

Because the percentage of professional musicians attending concerts of other musicians is so small that you involuntarily begin to think about many things.

And what’s most incredible is that the number of musicians who continue to actively listen and study music after completing their music education is even smaller.

If we want to educate Musicians with a capital M, and even more broadly, People of Art and (more importantly) a huge audience of people who deeply perceive art, then we must introduce the most important subject into the educational process of any creative university (and, ideally, a humanitarian educational institution in general) , which could, first of all, be not so much informative as poetic, psychological, if you like, musical and philosophical.

It may be called PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEPTION OF ART (music, poetry, literature, fine arts).

Simply put, this is an object whose purpose is to reveal in a person his capabilities in LOVE.

For it is art that differs from other spheres of existence in that love is primary here, love is the root cause of contact with art and the need for this contact.

After all, art at its core is a grandiose energy of love.

And this energy, for those who are able to comprehend it, becomes the most important criterion for the value of life, the bearer of the most intimate, capable of manifesting itself in all other spheres of life and activity.

In this case, as, say, in the case of genuine love for art, it becomes important to comprehend unexpected SIGNS, which can lead to mastery of such depths of music, poetry, and fine arts, which, faster than science, are able to answer the root questions of existence.

These signs or attributes are the main thing that distinguishes art from non-art. Otherwise, how can we understand, how can we realize that J. S. Bach’s little choral prelude is the highest revelation?

Thus, Johann Sebastian Bach compresses so much spiritual information, energy, and thought into a two-minute sound of music that you begin to think about space objects recently discovered by astronomers with an incredible density of matter - quasars.

Only by deeply comprehending art do you begin to comprehend:

what is the value of a person,

how great is the significance of human life,

what fate is worthy of humanity,

which gave rise not only to wars, totalitarianism, leveling of personality, destruction,

but also great Creativity. Creativity, which gives Man the right to call himself a Homo sapiens and travel around the Universe with his head held high.

For the authenticity of the creativity of brilliant composers, poets, artists is manifested not in the greater or lesser beauty of melodies, chords, drawings, beautiful poetic images or color ONLY, but in the presence of unprecedented depths that open up other dimensions of human existence and, moreover, change ideas about life.

I am writing this book with the belief that some principles, reasoning, thoughts will help a new generation enter art.

And enter not under compulsion and not even because it is supposedly necessary from the point of view of society, individual teachers, parents or the circles in which this or that person moves.

My goal is to do everything possible so that a person experiences a huge INNER NEED, feels the impossibility of a full life without deep and constant communication with art. What is called - fell ill with art.

The one who overcomes some of the peculiarities of my emotional style, the one who does not get angry with me for a considerable number of categorical judgments and superlatives, perhaps will follow this path and even, without ceasing to scold me for verbal excesses, will find something for himself important.

Speaking on stage in front of my audience in the most terrible totalitarian times, I always said:

– Don’t agree with me, scold me, argue, just don’t sleep.

– Don’t sleep through Eternity.

– There are no infallible and absolute truths within the limits of earthly existence.

“Intellectually, we are just children who may never grow up.”

It is childhood that is the most genuine adept of Eternity; it is at the beginning of the journey that our knowledge of death is so abstract that it does not affect the style and form of thinking, the image and spirit of our ideas about life.

It is at the beginning of the journey that ignorance of death helps to live in a different feeling - the feeling of immortality.

But when it comes to disputes and disagreements,

one condition must be strictly observed: you can’t like it not the person presenting the idea, but the idea itself.

This understanding is still so lacking in residents of totalitarian (or former totalitarian) countries.

The main idea for me sounds like this:

“I completely disagree with your statement, my dear, but I will do everything possible so that you can express your idea.”

I talk about this today, speaking in different countries, from Sweden to Australia, from Germany to Russia.

But I do not want to stylistically edit the book in order to root out the overuse of this concept.

Because I believe in Eternity.

I, like all of us, came into this world for an unfairly short time.

And therefore I pronounce the word and feel the concept of Eternity, like a spell, like a protest against death,

as a very important definition or concept that brings us closer to the creations of geniuses,

to the highest level of our possible perception of these creations.

...So, if we have agreed on all the features of my style, then we can begin our communication.

"Immortals for a while"

There are two main characters in this book - music and words.

The fact is that in my many years of searching for ways to bring as many listeners as possible to Great Music, I encountered the same problem that most musicians face, those who dare talk about music at all.

Why exactly do they dare?

Yes, because there is no more thankless task than talking about music.

And the more I love music, the more I feel the uselessness of words, moreover, their distance from the music itself, from its essence.

And yet I chose this terrible path for myself - not only to play, but also to speak from the stage.

Is there a contradiction in what I am writing about?

Of course have.

To love music means to play it or enjoy it by listening to it.

Every word kills music as a cosmic guest.

I experience the greatest happiness when I play the violin and piano for hours alone. I feel such contacts with the Inexplicable!

Or when I listen to music.

I am going so far from this monotonous, primitive world, where you need to eat four times a day and preferably at the same time. Where you need to sleep at least seven hours.

Where you need to regularly call some not very close acquaintances so as not to offend them.

God! It’s so good in music, where there are no responsibilities - only rights. The right to immersion, the right to constant improvement, the right to communicate with higher Cosmic signs.

How well I understand the brilliant Svyatoslav Richter, who once said:

“Good music, well performed, does not require any words - it will reach any person.”

And I said and say everything at my concerts.

And I will talk until the end of my earthly days.

I am very I understand well Richter,

but with his statement I completely disagree.

One day I decided to conduct a terrible experiment in Moscow.

A month before Richter’s concert in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, with great difficulty, using all my connections, I obtained 15 tickets for this concert. He took one ticket for himself, and distributed the remaining 14 to students of one of the Moscow State Technical University.

Why did I do this? Isn’t this cruelty in the conditions of an eternal shortage of tickets for Richter’s concerts?

I did this to meet the conditions of Richter's statement about good music, well performed for any person.

I even exceeded the conditions.

After all, everyone knows that Richter’s performance is not just good, but absolutely brilliant.

And the music was of the highest level - Beethoven's late piano sonatas.

Including the Twenty-ninth Sonata “Hammarklavir” - musicians and deep lovers know What this is for the music.

The program also included the last Thirty-second Sonata. (I can imagine how the eyes of all the true music lovers lit up!)

So: great music, great performance.

As for the third term – “any person”, I believe that I also fulfilled this condition “perfectly”. I gave the tickets to modern youth from the Moscow State Pedagogical Technical University. I don’t know why, but I was sure that none of them