The bad old days – 1917

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow It’s a pity Vladimir Lenin was tone deaf, and dismissed music (along with chess) as an entertainment for the ruling class. Had he an ear and taste for classical music (like Karl Marx, who was keen on Beethoven, and Leon Trotsky, who loved Verdi), he might have devised a revolutionary […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow There have been two deconstructionists and reconstructivists of the music of J.S. Bach in our time. Both are dead now — Glenn Gould, aged 50, died in 1982; and Mstislav Rostropovich, aged 80, died this week. The music of one of them will live forever. It was forty-four years ago, […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, April 28th, 2007
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By John Helmer MOSCOW — This may be the year, according to President Boris Yeltsin, when the Russian economy starts growing from the grassroots. It’s already the year in which Russians have been sold on an idea they never had before about the hair-roots on their heads. The idea is that a healthy head of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 23rd, 1997
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