Vyborg International Film Festival paid a special tribute in its programme to one of the co- founders of the festival, composer Mikael Tariverdiev, who died of a heart attack in July, aged 64.
Over 48 years Tariverdiev provided music for 136 films, four ballets and four operas. His heart-warming, easy-to-sing music, full of meditative improvisations, helped to make the films especially popular and not only in Russia.
In 1975 the American Music Academy gave a special award to both Tariverdiev and to Nino Rota. Subsequently, a Hollywood producer wanted to contract Tariverdiev to write music for a big-budget film. But the invitation was skilfully 'lost' by Russian film bureaucrats to punish Tariverdiev for his refusal to join 'public reprimand' of film dissidents. For the next 14 years the composer was not allowed to leave Russia. 'He never worried much about this,' recalled his widow, Vera. 'He was a happy man who could work hard on music for different films at the same time.'
Few people know about Tariverdiev's 'Symphony on Chernobyl', finished soon after his visit to the contaminated area around the reactor. 'He made a strong connection between Chernobyl and the Challenger tragedy, which was also in 1986,' says Vera Tariverdiev. 'He said these two catastrophes were meant for us to understand; that civilisation should share its problems and that there should be no walls between us.'
