Mark Pekarsky: “Prince Volkonsky Always Made an Artistic Statement Out of a Mistake”

Alena Verin-Galitskaya

Issue № 1 (789) | 2025

Interview

Mark Pekarsky: “Prince Volkonsky Always Made an Artistic Statement Out of a Mistake”

This article is written in Russian. You can read it here.

References

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DOI 10.34690/452

Author Alena D. Verin-Galitskaya

Affiliation The Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia

Email a.veringalitskaya@gmail.com

ORCID

0000-0001-7549-2087

Abstract

Mark Pekarsky is one of the key musicians of the Russian percussion performance school. The interview took place at his home in April 2023. The conversation’s main topic was reminiscence about composer and harpsichordist Andrei Volkonsky, with whom Pekarsky collaborated in the late 1960s and early 1970s within and outside the “Madrigal” Ensemble. The interview mentions members of the Madrigal of that period and other musical field colleagues: singers Lydia Davydova, Alexander Tumanov, Ruben Lisitsian, and Larisa Pyatigorskaya, cellist and gambist Mark Weinrot, pianist Alexei Lubimov, musicologist Semyon Bogatyrev, theater director Yuri Lyubimov, director of the Moscow Philharmonic Mitrofan Belotserkovsky. Pekarsky talks about the Volkonsky Ensemble’s touring activities and shares his memories of early Soviet experiences performing Renaissance music. In addition, issues of improvisation, performance practice under conditions of scarcity of sources (western scores, books and recordings), and ways of “getting” rare instruments are touched.

Keywords improvisation, early music, early music performance, soviet music culture, early music instruments, percussion instruments, “Madrigal” ensemble, A. M. Volkonsky

For citation

Keywords: , , , , ,, ,

Verin-Galitskaya, A. D. “Mark Pekarsky: ‘Prince Volkonsky always made an artistic statement out of a mistake.’ ” Muzykal’naya akademiya [Music Academy], no. 1, 2025, pp. 144–153, doi:10.34690/452. (In Russ.)

Published 17.01.2025

Approved 11.02.2025

Submitted 24.03.2025

Mark Pekarsky: “Prince Volkonsky Always Made an Artistic Statement Out of a Mistake”

Mark Pekarsky: “Prince Volkonsky Always Made an Artistic Statement Out of a Mistake”

References

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