О музыкантах XX века

Most of the essays included in this book were written recently and are being published for the first time, while some were selected from among articles that had already been published previously, as indicated at the end of each such article. Almost all of them are dedicated to masters of the older generation. It seems, however, indisputable that such a young and original artist as Evgeniy Nesterenko has already become quite firmly entrenched in the artistic culture of our country and has occupied a prominent place in it. And although there is every reason to believe that in the coming years Nesterenko’s versatile talent will manifest itself even more deeply, fully and brightly, his traits as an artist and a person allow us to speak about the established appearance of an outstanding master.

The dimensions and nature of individual essays largely due to impressions both from creativity and from personal communication with the musicians to whom these essays are dedicated. True, the author never had the opportunity to meet with N.A. Obukhova, nor with Eduard Herriot, nor with Franz Werfel (the author, however, had to talk about the latter more than once with his Viennese friends), and his meetings with Karol Szymanowski were extremely short-lived. But by the time the author first saw the great Polish composer, he already knew many of his works and mentally imagined his appearance as a master and a person about whom both F. M. Blumenfeld and G. spoke so much and with such sincere admiration. G. Neuhaus.