Yu. Falik. "Pushkin’s Strophes" (1998): on the "Pushkin text" in the composer’s choral work

Pushkin’s famous maxim “You are your own highest judgement” was constantly recalled and quoted by the St Petersburg composer Yuri Falik (1936–2009). This instrumentalist composer’s path to choral music and, in particular, to his most important work in this genre of his late period — the cycle Pushkin’s Strophes (1998) — was a very complex one. The composer’s perception of the role of the greatest Russian poet was always mediated through thematic spaces and the image of the main city in Pushkin’s destiny — St Petersburg. Turning in the final period of creativity to the poetry of A. S. Pushkin, Yuri Falik achieves a special integrity of style, the unity of prayerful depth of expression and hymnic joy of being. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the interpretation of Yuri Falik’s authorial style in the paradigm of St Petersburg musical poetics. As a result of the study, the significance and meaning of the evolution of the composer’s a cappella choral work are determined.