ABSTRACT
The development of modernist research in Soviet music was furthered by some significant international contacts. In May 1958, the Party’s Central Committee adopted a document disavowing the most odious formulations of the 1948 verdict about the ‘formalistic’ trend in Soviet music. In the post-Soviet era, some intellectuals voiced the opinion that ‘by the end of the 1960s, the authentic Russian culture had diverged from the State so radically that it continued to exist only in its underground aspect’. Patently exaggerated in application to every branch of culture, this postulate seems inappropriate regarding music. A certain contribution to the propaganda of new music in the Soviet Union was made by other notable soloists and orchestras coming from the West. The performances of Cliburn and other previously unfamiliar foreign musicians, undoubtedly, had a refreshing impact upon Soviet musical communities and also largely contributed to the formation of a new enthusiastic audience for serious music.
