Yulia Lipnitskaya | Page 412 | Golden Skate

Yulia Lipnitskaya

tulosai said:
Me too! :cheer: I hope she will at least be able to improve on what she's done so far, and that she will be happy with how she skates no matter what the result is.
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That's something I expect from her too, to enjoy her skating and be happy.
 
Spiral said:
Thank you very much for replying! I didn't mean to make a research project for anybody - I just asked in case somebody happened to know, since there are posters who are very knowledgeable about music. I also found the information about the Russian teacher and also thought it likely that the inspiration came from something she shared about Leningrad, but I couldn’t find anything specific about this music either. I'd say if this teacher wasn't herself from Leningrad, it was most likely to be about the blockade, since that would be the most emotional association with the city for non-residents, but if she had lived there herself, it could be anything, could be just about the city in general too.

My question was not about describing Leningrad as "sunny beaches." Even in Leningrad it doesn't rain all the time, despite the locals' cynical jokes. I spent a fortnight there about 25 years ago in the summer. The weather was lovely the entire time - sunny and very warm, and my main problem was remembering to drink enough liquids to stay hydrated. Besides, Zueva didn't speak about sunny beaches. She said about the choice of music for the SP: "I offered different options, and she (Yulia) liked this music very much. It's romance, Leningrad, the Baltic, a steamer, red sails. The spirit of this program is a dreaming girl on the shore. This program is similar to her usual style, and I think that's right. Otherwise there'd be too many new movements." That all does fit together. Leningrad is very close to the Baltic sea - Peter I fought for this land with the Swedes in order to get access to the sea trading routes. So the association with ships/steamers makes sense. I assume that "red sails" is a reference to the novel by Aleksander Grin of the same title. It has nothing to do with Leningrad, but the heroine who lives in an unspecified port town dreams that someday "a prince" will come for her in a ship with red sails. Everybody laughs at her, but one day a young captain who fell in love with her does just that - yes, he buys reams of red cloth to rig out the entire ship just to make her dream come true. As he says, "If a person wants a fairy-tale, let's create a fairy-tale for her!" Since many girls anywhere dream of meeting a young man with such an attitude, I can see where the reference belongs in that row of descriptions, especially if she’s supposed to be in a port town, looking at ships.

What I was wondering was not the idea of associating Leningrad with romance, but the idea of associating this particular music with romance. Neither the music, nor the choreography particularly suggests romance to me anymore than to you. Maybe when I re-watch it during TEB with this new information in mind, I'll manage to see the possibility for such an interpretation, but it's not something that the program or the music naturally suggests to me. And like you, I have no explanation for it either, especially since Yulia already had a program about dreaming in both of her previous senior seasons ("Don't give up on love" and "Megapolis"). This looked like something in her general reflective style, but not on the same topic before. My guess - and it's just a guess - is that the romantic meaning is Zueva's idea, that she doesn't know what the composer had in mind anymore than we do (I would guess that either the blockade during WWII or something else, but not romantic daydreams), but Zueva probably thought that one program in a new style is enough and decided to make the LP really comfortable for Yulia, especially considering her technical puberty-related issues and the lack of confidence that goes with not being able to be consistent, and the fact that a long program is, of course, more demanding on the stamina. Well, I'd say if Adian can think of his dream car while skating (and have the right look - I love both his programs), then Yulia can daydream about a city on the sea and a young man who'll make her every romantic dream come true. I don't think about cars when I watch Adian's programs, and if I can't make the romantic associations fit Yulia's LP in my mind, I'll think of whatever it suggests to me and enjoy it.

Thank you again and I apologize for having caused you to spend time on looking things up.
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Spiral, I thought I read someplace about Marina's sunny skies, probably not. Thanks for linking the red sails. I'm okay with most anything that doesn't sound like a picture postcard.

Specifics of narratives aren't important. The important thing for me is that Marina and Yulia structure the dream narrative so that it reflects the emotional content of William Joseph's musical nightmare. Composers nearly always have some life experience in mind when writing music, and solo performers often imagine a scene that represents the music's emotion while they play. The music leaves no doubt that William Joseph was imagining something related to the horrors of Leningrad. But the composition itself expresses emotion and not narrative. Yulia's acute musical sensitivity picks up on this emotion and amplifies it with her own narrative, whatever that may be. Then we, the audience pick up on both WJ and Yulia, the intensity of our involvement depends on how well they match emotionally. So for me, the single requirement for success is that a performance honor the mood of the accompanying music. Judging from the extended arm, the gesture of empty embrace, the reaching upward, Yulia leaves no doubt in my mind that the girl on the beach is suffering from intense loneliness. Pain and tenderness are the common emotions for the first part of Leningrad, and ecstatic joy is the common emotion for the second part. There is a good match between Yulia and WJ in both sections. I would like to hear WJ talk about whether the feeling she expresses on ice matches his own. It wouldn't be a surprise if he felt his narrative more intensely after watching her perform despite her entirely different narrative. If the emotional content is preserved, all legitimate narratives will be enhanced.

If Marina provides some of the basic choreography, then Yulia can provide the depth of emotion. They could still be on the same page regarding the dream narrative, but with different intensities (e.g., for Marina the girl-on-the-beach narrative could be about breaking-up, for Yulia it could be about abandonment). Leningrad is very emotional music, Yulia will reach for its limits. Few people are wired that way, and excessive emotion is presently frowned upon in society. The more I think about this, it seems that older-lady Marina's tepid narrative for Yulia's passionate performance may be the same story as expressed by a cooler temperament.

The thematic continuity of Don't Give Up, Megapolis and now Leningrad is something that I too have thought about. I would include SL. The narratives of loss, and underlying emotions, even the musical structures of Megapolis and Leningrad are similar. Yulia pours her deep feelings into her programs. Deep feelings change very slowly. It wouldn't surprise me to see these themes reworked again.
 
Thanks for replying! For me also the choreography and expression match the music, and that's also enough for me to enjoy the performance. I agree that a performer can think of whatever he/she likes, as long as it produces the right expression, as with Adian. But it's still always interesting for me to know what skaters think about when they skate my favorite programs. I guess it's interesting for me to know more about the skaters whose programs I particularly enjoy. I think it's too personal a question for fans or journalists to ask, but when skaters choose to share it themselves, it's always interesting for me. (I actually wondered how Yulia and Adian felt about Zueva and Tutberidze sharing it with the public.) Incidentally it's something I've also often wondered about musicians when listening to recitals that made a particular impression on me. And I wish I could know this about composers too - in their case, it would have enhanced my enjoyment of the music too, made it deeper (everybody's different, and for me it does matter). Going back to Yulia's LP, Zueva didn't mention anything sad, like a break-up or abandonment. That quote in my post you've just replied to is the only one I've seen where she talked about it. And she definitely talked about a port, docks, not a beach. But I guess Yulia could well be thinking of missing somebody who's at sea and being worried about him and then being reunited with him. Regarding William Joseph, I'd definitely be interested to know what he had in mind when he was creating this music, as well as Yulia's program, of course, but I doubt we'll ever know either, since years have passed since he's written it, and in the US few people pay attention to figure skating outside of Olympics.
 
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I'm noticing explosion of Periscope videos among Russian babies - the moment Julia makes one, I expect epidemy of faints, heart attacks and internet bandwidth collapse. :yahoo:

But yeah... It ain't gonna happen... :biggrin:
 
Spiral said:
Thanks for replying! For me also the choreography and expression match the music, and that's also enough for me to enjoy the performance. I agree that a performer can think of whatever he/she likes, as long as it produces the right expression, as with Adian. But it's still always interesting for me to know what skaters think about when they skate my favorite programs. I guess it's interesting for me to know more about the skaters whose programs I particularly enjoy. I think it's too personal a question for fans or journalists to ask, but when skaters choose to share it themselves, it's always interesting for me. (I actually wondered how Yulia and Adian felt about Zueva and Tutberidze sharing it with the public.) Incidentally it's something I've also often wondered about musicians when listening to recitals that made a particular impression on me. And I wish I could know this about composers too - in their case, it would have enhanced my enjoyment of the music too, made it deeper (everybody's different, and for me it does matter). Going back to Yulia's LP, Zueva didn't mention anything sad, like a break-up or abandonment. That quote in my post you've just replied to is the only one I've seen where she talked about it. And she definitely talked about a port, docks, not a beach. But I guess Yulia could well be thinking of missing somebody who's at sea and being worried about him and then being reunited with him. Regarding William Joseph, I'd definitely be interested to know what he had in mind when he was creating this music, as well as Yulia's program, of course, but I doubt we'll ever know either, since years have passed since he's written it, and in the US few people pay attention to figure skating outside of Olympics.
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You are not alone.

"We have heard or read many times that the music speaks for itself. ...... But it speaks more forcefully, more in depth if you know more about the composer, what he wants to express, and how he wants to express it." Pierre Boulez

Yulia, too. She is always searching.
 
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