Sunday, May 27,2007

He opened the piano and I felt as if I were in Carnegie Hall, because the music was so loud and serious. Vadim Rubinsky played the music of Chaikovsky, Skryabin, Rachmanov, Musorgsky, Stravinsky and the people dining at Russian Samovar that evening were truly astounded by the drama. During the concert, the guests were silent as a conversation was out of the question. Then Alexander Izbitser, our pianist, sat down at the piano, the tension evaporated and everyone went back to having a good time.
Last week, Azari Plissetski, the younger brother of Maya Plisetsky stopped by Russian Samovar. He used to be a great dancer, but is now an excellent choreographer. He lives in Switzerland and works as the Executive Choreographer for Maurice Bejart’s ballet group. With him was his cousin (with the same first name of Azariy but his last name is Messerer), who is a pianist and journalist. Both families, the Plisetsky’s and Messerer’s, have been, for a long time, one of the most famous families in Russian Ballet. When Maya was having lunch in a restaurant one day, her husband, the famous composer Rodion Shedrin, asked Alexander Izbitser to play “Swan Lake”. After a few counts, the great ballerina, still sitting on her chair, moving only her upper body, arms and head, danced the part of the swan.

Two weeks ago, Mikhail Baryshnikov, along with the famous Leningrad director, Lev Dodin visited the restaurant. He brought with him to New York, a group of twenty-eight Drama School students that finished his course this year. Mikhail Baryshnikov showed his students in three days what Dodin taught over the course of five years. The theater was completely sold out. Former students, which were now professional actors, danced, sang, and played musical instruments, showed the wonders of acrobatics, and demonstrated their skills in stage reading. They spent their last night in town at the restaurant “Russian Samovar”, in the VIP room on the second floor.

Every time that Khorostvsky’s in town, he must stop by the Russian Samovar. During his last visit, he introduced me to his three-year-old son Max. I don’t know whether he liked me or not, but he did smile throughout the whole night. That must mean that the bearded man did not scare him one bit.