Passionate Russians
HE Slav soul veers between exaltation and despair, at one moment the pivot upon which the universe turns and the next less than a grain of sand in eternity; the result, it is said, of the vast Steppes where there is nothing to keep a’ sense of proportion, Yet beauty is likelier here than where there is order but no sense of the sublime, and for this reason I am deeply attracted towards some of the passionate Russians. ‘They reflect depths of human experience and feeling which we tend to neglect to our own Cost; in literature Dostoevsky, in music Tchaikovski. In Tchaikovski’s music as I feel it he expresses the more negative mood, he is under the vast and lonely skies or, as it were, uses them as a_ sounding board. Strangely enough in listening to 3YC’s Tchaikovski programme it was in the Capriccio Italien played by the ‘Philharmonia Orchestra that the distinctively Slav charactef was most evident, the loneliness, the meélancholy sweetness and behind this the incantatory beat of the drums haunting the world, placing the listener on the threshold of a beautiful and yet awful Eden.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 655, 25 January 1952, Page 10
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191Passionate Russians New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 655, 25 January 1952, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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