Recorded Music Now Popular In Russia

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28153, 17 December 1956, Page 19

Recorded Music Now Popular In Russia

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

MOSCOW. Tourists in Moscow on the lookout for souvenirs will search in vain for such things as gramophone records of rock ’n’ roll or hot jazz, but recorded music is. nevertheless, one

of the cheapest things in the Soviet Union, and the tourist who is interested in the classics can bring back a big portfolio at a trifling cost. Soviet Russia treats the gramophone as an instrument of culture, and encourages the sale of classical music by fixing a very low price for records. Thus, the visitor can buy a 12-in slow-playing- record made by top artists for 10 roubles (about 18s 6d). This, even allowing for the fact that that the British-Soviet exchange differential is highly unrealistic, is about half the price a similar record would cost in Britain.

For his 10 roubles the tourist will get, for example, a record carrying two complete concertos —for example, David Oistrakh, the top Soviet violinist. in the Glazounov Concerto on one

side, and a ’cello concerto by another artist on the reverse side. Fulllength concertos by Oistrakh, Gilels, the leading Russian pianist, and other artists can also be obtained in doublesided 10-inch records costing seven roubles each.

The quality of the recording is comparable to that of many Western makes, and the records appear to have a reasonably long life. Russians are keen collectors of gramophone records, and the frequently renewed stocks of discs by leading artists are quickly exhausted.

Musical instruments, also because they are regarded as cultural aids, tend also to be cheap in the. Soviet Union. Balalaikas are available from about 32 roubles—which would be nearly £3 at the official rate of exchange, but probably represents something much more like 15s to a Soviet citizen.

Radio sets, on the other hand, are not cheap. Television, even if one thinks of the rouble’s value realistically, is still expensive, and the average picture screen is tiny—-often eight inches by six-and-a-half, in comparison with the West’s screens of 21in and over.

The quality of the television image appears reasonably good, but the number of sets in use must be small, judging by the infrequency with which one encounters a viewing session in any public place. There is a ready public for ail kinds of “live” music, and the recent concerts in Moscow of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the first American combination of its kind to visit the Soviet Union, were a major artistic event. The orchestra’s performances were rapturously received. Russians willingly pay good prices for concert tickets, and at 30 roubles and over there is always an eager demand for seats at the Bolshoi Theatre, whether the company happens to be performing opera or ballet.