Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova, a great Russian Tennis champion came to the Samovar to celebrate her victory over Venus Williams. She likes traditional Russian dishes and ordered borsht and pelmeni. Nadia looked radiant and happy and drank a little cherry vodka later in the evening. She asked the pianist to play “an unknown star is shining over us”. The presence of a star makes the evening exciting and another good evening at the Russian Samovar electrifying.

Crazy Night at RS

Yesterday was a crazy night at the restaurant. As they say, “the joint was jumping.” All the seats were taken. Among the guests was Valery Ponomarev, the famous trumpeter, who played with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and with the greatest American bands. Ponomarev, along with many other guests, came to congratulate TV journalist, Olga Cherny on the upcoming birth of her first child; it’s going to be a boy. At another table sat the Editor-in-Chief of Sova Magazine, Elena Nesterova, who looked great in her sexy cocktail dress. Across from her sat Alain Malraux, the Playwright and the son of the famous Frenchman, Andre Malraux, who was Minister of Culture in the time of General De Galle’s presidency. Alain is 60 years old and very distinguished Playwright whose play was recently shown in an off-Broadway production. Most of the people at the tables knew each other and the atmosphere was one of friendliness and goodwill. Pianist, Alexander Izbitser entertained the guests through the night.

Celebrate the Present

Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of US Congress and a friend of Joseph Brodsky's, came in with a friend to spend the evening at the Russian Samovar. I met Elizabeth about 20 years ago at one of Joseph’s Birthday parties. We talked about how many lives Brodsky had touched and how he brought together so many people. Elizabeth’s friend turned out to be a professor at a Hebrew University so the conversation turned to Israel. I came up with a bleak prediction that once the situation becomes desperate, the Israelites would use the bomb and that will be the beginning of a world-wide nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it. It started in Jerusalem and it will end in Jerusalem. This is my pessimistic view of the apocalypse. I wish it would not happen. In the meantime, let’s enjoy this life and that’s what we did clinking glasses at the Russian Samovar.

Opera Night at the Russian Samovar

Yesterday, a few young people came to RS to taste our icy infused-vodkas on a hot summer night. They happened to be graduates of Julliard School of Music and began singing many world-famous opera arias. Our regular customers asked for more and more and couldn’t stop applauding. What a great night and just one of many special spontaneous performances at the restaurant. One of the singers, Irina Dubovoy, especially impressed the crowd when she sang a few of Calman’s melodies followed by Bizet's Carmen. They were all surprised that our pianist, Alexander Izbitser, knew all of the operas and sang together with them in the original languages of the arias.

Death of a Dissident

Alex Goldfarb just published a book called “Death of a Dissident”. I’ve known Goldfarb for 30 odd years. In Russia he was a dissident, in America he joined the faculty of Biology at Columbia University and showed himself to be a capable scientist. Some years later, he became a capable administrator in charge of the Soros’ foundation, where he helped Russian scientists who survived the terribly difficult years of Perestroyka. He also organized American doctors who volunteer their services to fight TB in Russian prisons. He helped Alexandre Litvinenko and his family defect to England. Litvinenko was a former Russian FSB agent who was rather knowledgeable of many secrets of the Russian Security Services. In the book, Goldfarb asserts that Litvinenko was poisoned by FSB agents in an act of revenge for divulging of Russian State Secrets. He supposedly wrote the book with Marina Litvinenko, but it’s clear that Goldfarb wrote most of it, if not all, by himself. The book is written in English, showing Goldfarb to be a highly educated and intelligent person. A week or so ago, Alex and Marina Litvinenko were guests of Charlie Rose, arguably the best TV show host. Goldfarb was very impressive and answered all the questions with precision and agility. Last Thursday he came to the restaurant and brought two books. One was for me and the other for the well known Russian-American journalist Vladimir Kozlovsky. I don’t know what Alex wrote for Kozlovsky, but on the book he signed for me he wrote: to Roman Kaplan – owner of a haunt where dissidents and spies hang out.

Art and Entertainment in Russian Samovar

Mikhail Simoman, a wonderful young violinist from Moscow, came in for a brief visit and played famous Broadway melodies at the restaurant. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Vladimir Radunsky, a well known artist and illustrator of children’s books also came to celebrate the publication of their mutual undertaking, a children’s book called “Because”, which they presented earlier that evening at the 92nd Street Y.

The renowned sculptor, Ernst Neizvestny brought some friends from Moscow to introduce them to the Russian Samovar, while the artist Shimon Okshteyn came over to tell of the great success of his one-man shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Mikhail Arol, a well-known art collector, returned from a series of art auctions in London where a work of Oleg Tselkov, a Russian painter who lives in Paris, was sold for $400,000. The prices of works by Russian painters of the 60’s keep growing. Pieces that were $30-40,000 a year ago have grown ten-fold

15 Years of “Soloists of Moscow “

Yuri Bashmet invited me to the 15th Anniversary celebration of his “Soloists of Moscow Orchestra”. It was 15 years ago that Yuri came into Russian Samovar in NY and introduced me to his orchestra for the first time. The orchestra’s performance that night in the big hall of the Moscow Conservatory was the last in a series of grueling performances, as they were finishing up a huge tour of Russia - performing in 40 cities in 2 months. The day after the event, they left for another concert in Paris.

The ‘tout Moscow’ attended the concert – many of Russia’s well-known musicians, actors, artists and writers. Among them was Alexander Tchaikovsky, t he Director of the Leningrad Conservatory and the famous actor, Oleg Menshikov. It was scorching hot in Moscow and the theater was an inferno, but still full o f eager listeners who bravely sat through the entire concert. Afterwards, there was a reception in the covered courtyard of the newly reconstructed Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, which was hosted by Leonid Yarmolnik. At the end of the night, Sati Spivakova drove me home.

While I was in Moscow, a good friend of mine, Dennis Sedov- a tall, good-looking, opera singer with a beautiful voice, came into Russian Samovar. He often performs in America and quite recently played the part of Figaro. He will soon join the Cincinnati Opera for Mephistopheles in Faust. During my stay, I also met Renat Davletarov, who informed me that he will be bringing the Russian Film Festival to NY at the end of October and promised many new and exciting films.