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TRIBUTES TO ALEXANDER TCHEREPNIN
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AARON COPLAND
Alexander Tcherepnin was a remarkable and fascinating composer, because
his art represents an unusual fusion of differing cultures; his Russian
upbringing; his long sojourn in Europe, particularly Paris; his extensive
travels in the Orient; his many years in the United States. Because
of this last, I came to think of Sasha as a kind of honorary American
composer, a valued colleague and friend. His music, expert and individual,
was often dashing and affecting. |
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NED ROREM
His music colored my Chicago childhood. It never occurred to me then
that one day I would actually know him. But years later, when we occasionally
chatted during Parisian intermissions or at Manhattan parties, I would
always draw a parallel between the cosmopolitan likability and tall
elegance of his person, and the expert economy and healthy sensuality
of his art. And now today, I continually return to the notion of the
man as to the sound of his music, and realize that my life--indeed,
the life of our planet--would be much lonelier without the fact of
Alexander Tcherepnin. |
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HENRI
DUTILLEUX
The human warmth, the natural curiosity and the appetite for everything
new that animated Alexander Tcherepnin's entire existence were paralleled
in his work, and passing years only heightened his faculty for enthusiasm
and intensified the youthfulness of his spirit. |
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ELLIOTT CARTER
The remarkable and the unusual characterize the musical side of the
Tcherepnin family. To have been the son of the outstanding Nikolai
and yet not to have been dominated by him but to have a personal,
commanding, avant-garde style of his own, puts him in a special category
of present-day composers who have been for the most part in reaction
against their upbringing. For Sascha was a greatly respected creator
of new music of highly developed skill and imagination. |
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VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY
Whatever Tcherepnin wrote, the work possessed a wonderful clarity;
no matter how complex the language, and an elegant and forceful style.
He showed an unfailing surety in determining the proper form for his
works. |
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VIRGIL THOMSON
Alexander Tcherepnin was a remarkable pianist and a composer both
highly skilled and deeply original, personal, not quite like any other.
The range of his music was wide, comprehensive, covering all the forms
and practically all the occasions. |
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YEHUDI MENUHIN
Alexander Tcherepnin is to music the living and lovely echo of that
magic that Serge Diaghilev brought to Western Europe. The boldness
of imagination that flowered in this halcyon time is inherent in all
Tcherepnin's music. Profoundly Russian in conception, it yet bears
the stamp of a Paris in which Asia, Africa and Europe met and fused. |
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HE LUTING
Mr. Tcherepnin was the Western composer who most passionately loved
Chinese music. He was tireless in his efforts to promote Chinese music
around the world. Many of his own compositions reflected a Chinese
character. We Chinese musicians will love him and miss him forever.
He has our eternal devotion and esteem. |
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ROBERT
MUCZYNSKI
I owe Alexander Tcherepnin so much! Without his encouragement and
faith in my earliest primitive attempts I am quite certain that I
would have pursued a different path. He guided me, assisted me, inspired
me. He was the most positive-thinking and dedicated artist I have
ever known. I still miss him. I am certain that his creative work
will emerge and receive its fullest and most deserving recognition
in the years to come. |
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JANOS STARKER
Alexander Tcherepnin is one of a handful of true giants of twentieth-century
music. His music will stay and the esteem will increase.
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