Garry Yakovlevich Grodberg |

Garry Grodberg

One of the most famous names on the modern Russian concert stage is the organist Garry Grodberg. For many decades, the maestro has retained the freshness and immediacy of his feelings, virtuoso performance technique. The main properties of his brightly individual style – a special vitality in a slender architectonic cut, fluency in the styles of different eras, artistry – ensure lasting success with the most demanding public over many decades. Few people managed to give several concerts in a row during the week with crowded halls in Moscow.

The art of Harry Grodberg has received wide international recognition. The doors of the best concert halls and majestic temples of many countries opened before him (the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Dome Cathedral in Riga, the cathedrals and organ halls of Luxembourg, Brussels, Zagreb, Budapest, Hamburg, Bonn, Gdansk, Naples, Turin, Warsaw, Dubrovnik) . Not every talented artist is destined to achieve such undoubted and sustainable success.

In recent years, the European press has been responding to Garry Grodberg’s performances in the most sublime terms: “temperamental performer”, “refined and refined virtuoso”, “creator of magical sound interpretations”, “a magnificent musician who knows all the technical rules”, “an incomparable enthusiast of the Russian organ renaissance “. Here is what one of the most influential newspapers, Corriere della Sera, wrote after touring Italy: “Grodberg had a tremendous success with an audience consisting mostly of young people, who filled the Great Hall of the Milan Conservatory to the limit.”

The newspaper “Giorno” warmly commented on the series of performances of the artist: “Grodberg, with inspiration and full dedication, performed a large program dedicated to the work of Bach. He created a magical sound interpretation, established a close spiritual contact with the audience.”

The German press noted the triumph with which the outstanding organist was greeted in Berlin, Aachen, Hamburg and Bonn. “Tagesspiegel” came out under the heading: “The magnificent performance of the Moscow organist.” The Westfalen Post believed that “no one performs Bach with such skill as the Moscow organist.” The Westdeutsche Zeitung enthusiastically applauded the musician: “Brilliant Grodberg!”

A student of Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser and Alexander Fedorovich Gedike, the founders of well-known pianistic and organ schools, Harry Yakovlevich Grodberg continued and developed in his work the great classical traditions of the Moscow Conservatory, becoming an original interpreter not only of Bach’s work, but also of the works of Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Frank, Reinberger, Saint-Saens and other composers of past eras. His monumental program cycles are devoted to the music of composers of the XNUMXth century – Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Slonimsky, Pirumov, Nirenburg, Tariverdiev.

The organist gave his first solo concert in 1955. Shortly after this brilliant debut, the young musician, on the recommendation of Svyatoslav Richter and Nina Dorliak, became a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic. Garry Grodberg has performed with the largest orchestras and choirs in our country. His partners in joint music making were world celebrities who have won recognition in the Old and New Worlds: Mstislav Rostropovich and Evgeny Mravinsky, Kirill Kondrashin and Evgeny Svetlanov, Igor Markevich and Ivan Kozlovsky, Arvid Jansons and Alexander Yurlov, Oleg Kagan, Irina Arkhipova, Tamara Sinyavskaya.

Garry Grodberg belongs to a galaxy of those enlightened and energetic musical figures, thanks to whom great Russia has turned into a country where organ music is of increasing interest to a large audience.

In the 50s, Garry Grodberg became the most active and qualified expert, and then Deputy Chairman of the Organ Council under the USSR Ministry of Culture. There were only 7 operating bodies in the country at that time (3 of them were in Moscow). Over several decades, more than 70 organs of prestigious Western firms were erected in dozens of cities across the country. Expert assessments and professional advice from Harry Grodberg were used by Western European firms involved in the creation of instruments in a number of domestic cultural centers. It was Grodberg who, for the first time presenting organs to a musical audience, gave them a start in life.

The first “swallow” of the Russian organ spring was the giant organ of the Czech company “Rieger-Kloss”, installed in the Concert Hall. P.I. Tchaikovsky back in 1959. The initiator of its subsequent reconstructions in 1970 and 1977 was the outstanding musician and educator Harry Grodberg. The last act of organ construction, before the sad exit from the State Order system, was the magnificent organ of the same “Rieger-Kloss”, erected in Tver in 1991. Now in this city every year, in March on the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, the only large-scale Bach festivals established by Grodberg are held, and Harry Grodberg was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city of Tver.

Well-known record labels in Russia, America, Germany and other countries release numerous discs by Harry Grodberg. In 1987, Melodiya records reached a record number for organists – one and a half million copies. In 2000, Radio Russia aired 27 interviews with Garry Grodberg and carried out a unique project together with the Deutsche Welle radio to produce a presentation edition of Harry Grodberg Playing CDs, which included works by Bach, Khachaturian, Lefebri- Veli, Daken, Gilman.

The largest propagandist and interpreter of Bach’s work, Harry Grodberg is an honorary member of the Bach and Handel societies in Germany, he was a member of the jury of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig.

“I bow my head to the genius of Bach – his art of polyphony, mastery of rhythmic expression, violent creative imagination, inspired improvisation and precise calculation, a combination of the power of reason and the power of feelings in each work,” says Harry Grodberg. “His music, even the most dramatic, is directed towards the light, towards goodness, and in every person there always lives a dream of an ideal …”.

Harry Grodberg’s interpretive talent is akin to that of a composer. He is very mobile and is always in a state of searching for new performing solutions. The unrestricted mastery of the art of playing the organ allows the improvisational gift to be fully revealed, without which the existence of an artist is unthinkable. The programs of his concerts are constantly updated.

When, in February 2001, Garry Grodberg opened a unique concert organ in Samara, created according to his disposition by the German firm Rudolf von Beckerath, in one of his three concerts, the First Symphony for Organ and Orchestra by Alexander Gilman sounded – a true masterpiece of the organ literature of the second half revived by Grodberg XIX century.

Harry Grodberg, called “the master of the organ state”, says about his favorite instrument: “The organ is a brilliant invention of man, an instrument brought to perfection. He is truly capable of being the master of souls. Today, in our tense time full of tragic cataclysms, the moments of introspective reflection that the organ gives us are especially valuable and beneficial.” And to the question of where the main center of organ art in Europe is now, Garry Yakovlevich gives an unequivocal answer: “In Russia. Nowhere else are there such great philharmonic organ concerts like ours, Russian ones. Nowhere is there such an interest in the organ art of ordinary listeners. Yes, and our organs are better maintained, since church organs in the West are tuned only on major holidays.

Garry Grodberg – People’s Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prize, holder of the Order of Honor and Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree. In January 2010, for high achievements in art, he was awarded the Order of Friendship.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website