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Original Film Title: Children’s Album
Director’s Name: Natalia Ervits
Writer’s Name: Natalia Ervits
Producer: Natalia Ervits
Country of Origin: Germany
Country of Filming: Germany
Language: English
Runtime: 28 minutes 45 seconds
Film Description:
The 28-minute film is a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Album, played by
the well-known pianist Mikhail Mordvinov (https://www.mordvinov.org/)
released in March 2023 on the new Berlin label Medium Coeli
(https://audioproduction.berlin/mediumcoeli-de/) and here, in interaction
with the painting by the sand artist Polina Sayfudinova
(https://linasand.art/performance), becomes a music film. A new story
emerges between the picture and the music, bringing Tchaikovsky’s pictures
from the children’s room to life.
We see the hands of the painter as she creates her motifs and at the same
time the hands of the pianist Mikhail Mordvinov as he interprets the cycle
musically. The sand pictures are transformed into a kind of animation that
comes alive with small effects such as the falling snow or the stars that
gradually light up in the sky. Sometimes the music merges with the painting,
sometimes they alternate. Each time, a new dimension is created that lies
beyond sound and image: the children’s room, where the cycle by P. I.
Tchaikovsky takes place. The children wake up in the early winter morning
and immerse themselves in their fantasy world. The boy plays with the
soldiers and his rocking horse, the girl gets a new doll that gets sick and
dies. They listen to music, they play and dance and in the evening their
nanny tells a fairy tale about the Baba Yaga, they fall asleep and we see
the images from their dreams.
Sooner or later, many children who take piano lessons play pieces from Tchaikovsky’s children’s album. However, the lyrical miniatures, which are mostly accessible to very young musicians and seemingly simple, require particular caution and the full perfection of a concert pianist. The cycle tells – similar to Schumann’s “Children’s Scenes” – about the daily routine of a child. But one could perhaps also discover a deeper background here, which symbolizes a person’s path through life from birth to death.