The inspiration of the great master of the past, multiplied by his own talent and continued by a brilliant descendant. The romance miniature “Tsarskoye Selo Statue” by Cui Caesar Antonovich, the performance of which lasts only one minute, can be called the creation of three muses of art, a common result of the creative union of poets, sculptor and composer.
Fabulist
Jean de Lafontaine is known to the modern reader, primarily as a fabulist. In the period from 1678 to 1694, six books of the Fables cycle were published. Using the literary heritage of his predecessors - Aesop, Bidpai, Maro and others, Lafontaine tells his story each time. Traditional plots are filled with relevant domestic content, sound original living language. “Thrush or Jug of Milk” is a genre sketch of dreamers and dreamers, whose castles in the air are broken by ruthless reality as easily as a clay jug that fell on roadside stones.
A sweet deception lifts us up to heaven ...
... as long as life is a ruthless hand
It won’t wake me up ...
J. de Lafontaine
And now the frivolous Peretta with despair bent over the shards in a milk pool.
Sculptor
The image of the dreamer Peretta unexpectedly continued in the most romantic and mysterious Tsarskoye Selo statue. The sculptor Pavel Petrovich Sokolov, a follower of the school of Russian classicism, remembered her while working on the design of the Catherine Park in Tsarskoye Selo. That is how the official history of the creation of sculpture sounds. The requirements of classicism can explain the antique costume and hairstyle of the French thrush.
The amazing portrait similarity of the girl with the jug and Elizabeth Alekseevna, wife of Emperor Alexander I, went unnoticed by contemporaries. Or they were told not to notice. The imperial family was going through a difficult period. Many sympathized with the empress, and perhaps P.P. Sokolov was among them.
In June 1816, the bronze figure "Milkman" adorned the fountain, built by engineer A. Betancourt. The plastic image, the softness of the curves of the girl's body, the elusive flowing fabric of clothing. For more than two hundred years, a beautiful girl has been sad, bending over a broken jug of her hopes.
Poet
Nizhny Novgorod province, the village of Boldino. For the ninety days spent here in the cholera quarantine ring, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin presented mankind with a unique literary heritage.
Impressed by the recently published Iliad, translated by Gnedich, Pushkin turns to ancient poetry. Five anthological miniatures, including the Tsarskoye Selo Statue, become an example of perfect stylization. A reproducible style, with all the obligatory features inherent in it, appears framed by the author's own, unique style.
The graceful laconicism of the verse, sublimity, grace of form recreated the spirit of ancient lyrical poetry. Pushkin's quatrain is saturated with youthful dreams, beautiful images, the memory of time spent in Tsarskoye Selo. The classical form of the work is surprisingly in tune with the forms of sculpture created in the Empire style. The sorrow frozen in bronze froze in four lines. A poetic moment of sadness reflected in eternity.
Having dropped the ballot box with water, the maid smashed it on a cliff.
Virgo sits sadly, idle holding a shard.
Miracle! Water will not clot, pouring out of a broken urn;
Virgo, above an eternal stream, sits forever sad.
A. S. Pushkin
Composer
General, engineer, composer, music critic. Few people manage to achieve significant success, become a professional and expert in so many different fields. Maybe the whole thing is in the name? Parents named him Caesar.
Caesar Antonovich Cui. Graduate, and then teacher of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy. According to his textbooks of fortification, more than one generation of Russian artillery officers studied.
The boy’s musical talent was noticed in childhood, and home musical education was replaced by classes with the famous Polish composer Stanislav Monyushko. From the age of fourteen, young Caesar began to compose music. The composer's creative heritage consists of: fourteen operas, including children's, choral, orchestral works. The vocal forms brought the greatest recognition to the composer. About two hundred and fifty romances are written.
More than seven hundred articles are the result of the activities of music critic Caesar Cui. Most of them were translated and published abroad.
The activities and interests of C. A. Cui have never been divided into periods and stages. All at once, with maximum return, with complete immersion.
Romance
From the first notes of the Tsarskoye Selo Statue, Cui brings the audience to the contemplative world of romanticism. Flexible and expressive cantilena perfectly conveys the rhythm of the verse. The continuously flowing, transparent piano part creates a state of enlightened peace, light sadness from the contemplation of a beautiful image, the general creation of the poet's genius and the sculptor's talent. The quinte tone of the vocal part holds our attention for several measures.
Undoubtedly, this is the best work of the Pushkin cycle of Ts. A. Cui. Cui's chamber-vocal lyrics are being studied and revived. His romantic miniatures are present in the repertoire of contemporary performers. The notes of the Tsarskoye Selo Statue can still be found in the study folders of the vocalists.