Competition Enters the Soviet Market

A new consortium of five United States and Soviet organizations under the umbrella title of Art and Electronics (A&E;) has announced its intention to infuse a little capitalism into Soviet musical life by competing--in the U.S.S.R. only--with the Soviet recording monopoly, Melodiya.

The new A&E; is composed of two American labels, MCA Classics and Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, and three Soviet bodies: the Union of Composers of the U.S.S.R., Electronica (the manufacturer and retailer of consumer electronic goods) and Soyuzconcert, the domestic concert booker.

Beginning next month, A&E; will supervise the recording of compact discs--the first digital recordings to be made in the U.S.S.R. by Soviet artists--for distribution in the United States.

At the same time, MCA Classics will launch its own, and unrelated, U.S. distribution of formerly unavailable recordings on the Melodiya label. Later, it will serve as sole distributor for the initial A&E; releases.

“Melodiya will remain separate, while the new label will compete. Melodiya gives its artists a flat fee. A&E; will pay royalties,” explained Martin Fleischmann from his San Fernando Valley office. Fleischmann, with others, has been responsible for putting together the new organization.

“Of course, it all depends on the continuance of glasnost .” He acknowledged that, at this time, though the new arrangement gives U.S. recording artists an entree into the Soviet market, “this is all preliminary to our launching our product over there.”

Among the Soviet artists expected to participate in the new venture--and Fleischmann says that “all Soviet composers and artists of any significance belong to the Union of Soviet Composers”--are Evgeny Svetlanov, the conductor whose 70-minute recorded survey of works by Modest Mussorgsky, and played by the State Academy Symphony, will be out in September, and the veteran mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova, who is the soloist on the Mussorgsky project.

Also: the 17-year old violinist, Vadim Repin, who recently took first prize in the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels, and whose recording of Brahms and Bach sonatas will be released in January; two other young (both under 30) violinists, Sergei Stadler and Maxim Vengerov, and, according to Fleischmann, “a great deal of contemporary music,” including recent works by Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Fleischmann’s final comment sounds both optimistic and foreboding: “The great thing is, all this has been accomplished with the tacit approval of the Soviet government.”

OCEAN HILLS: A three-day music festival organized by, and under the artistic direction of, Henri Temianka is scheduled Sept. 8-10 at Leisure Village Ocean Hills in Oceanside. The final program will offer a unique appearance: the “performance debut” of former Secretary of State Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr., as narrator in Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals.”

The weekend events, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the adult community, begin Sept. 8 with a concert by Temianka’s California Chamber Virtuosi, and listing the Violin Sonata by Franck, as played by Sergiu Schwartz and Steven Mayer; Paganini’s “Moses” Variations, and music by Stravinsky, Saint-Saens and Mendelssohn.

Mayer will give a recital of music by Brahms, Mozart, Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum and Liszt on Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. At 7:30, the festival will present the Strawberry Creek Festival Orchestra, conducted by Yehuda Gilad, with clarinetist Giora Feidman as soloist. The weekend will close with a 4:30 p.m. concert offering music by Schubert, as well as “Carnival of the Animals.”

The festival is the brainchild of real estate developer Michael L. Tenzer, who is chairman of Leisure Technology, parent organization of Leisure Village Ocean Hills.

Information: (619) 758-8500.

COMPETITION: UCLA will host a Piano Festival and Competition Sept. 16-24. At stake are prizes totaling more than $25,000, plus performance opportunities for the winners. In addition, the festival will offer a series of five master classes (all at 7 p.m.) and three evening recitals by visiting young artists.

Ick-Choo Moon, a member of the UCLA faculty, is chairman of the event, sponsored by the department of music and the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts.

The competition is in two parts. The UCLA Piano Competition, for pianists 16-35, will offer a first prize of $10,000, plus recital appearances in Los Angeles and New York. The UCLA-Samick Young Pianist Competition is divided into three age categories (18 and under, 15 and under and 12 and under) and will award prizes in all three categories.

Free admission will be available to the preliminaries and semi-finals of the UCLA Piano Competition, to be held in Schoenberg Hall Auditorium. The finals are scheduled Sept. 24, from 3 to 6 p.m. in Royce Hall, when the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra will accompany the finalists in complete concertos.

Three recitals will take place during the festival week: Eduardus Halim will appear Sept. 16; David Buechner, Sept. 20, and James Barbagallo, Sept. 23, all in Schoenberg Hall Auditorium.

Information: (213) 825-4761.