“Those plates have come from almost all continents,” – this is how the collector from Liepāja, Raitis Pavlovičs, begins the story about his extensive collection. He has almost all records related to the music of Raymond Paul or his recordings, including great rarities. Their search takes place through various channels. Today, one of the best sources is the worldwide music site “Discogs” and other Internet resources. But Ata Gunivalž Bërtiņš’s book “Latvian Record History” has also been a great reference in the search.
From the left: photographer Aigars Hibneris and record enthusiast, collector Raitis Pavlovičs.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
Raitis Pavlovičs starts the exhibition with one of his great treasures – records released in the late 1950s: “Let’s start with 1956. Here, Pauls participates as a pianist in the newly formed Rīga Radio variety sextet, so here he takes part in the recording. This is his first recording shellac wide. Then follows the year 1957, here is already Paul’s own composition “Slow Foxtrot”. Then comes the year 1958, the song “We met in March”.”
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
If some of the records released in Latvia could be recognizable to the audience, then, most likely, hardly anyone will have seen the records released by exiled Latvians, which are also widely represented in the exhibition. There are more than 30 of them and each track list includes one or more of Paul’s songs.
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
Another interesting testimony are the records released by foreigners who either sing Paula’s songs in their own language or even in Latvian. Raitis Pavlović continues: “Here is a selection released in Finland, which contains “‘Song about the last page'”, here a Swedish selection with “Anno Domini”, and here Vania Stoiković, a Yugoslav singer who, unfortunately, is no longer with us, on both records she has one Paula song each – one is “Zilie lini” and the other is “This world”, by the way, she sings in Latvian.”
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
Soundboards containing Raymond Paul’s music have also been released in America, Australia, Japan, Canada, Sweden and other countries. The most popular song abroad is “Dāvāja Māriņa”, which is why a separate stand is dedicated to it at the exhibition. “It has been translated into 30 languages, more than 100 performers perform it. In Japan, it was sung by Tokiko Kato. The first performer of the song was Aya Kukule, then Alla Pugacheva took it over and basically with her “Million Roses” this song went to the world. Because in the world it is perceived as “Million roses”. Take it as you want, but it’s Paula’s song and it’s wonderful,” said Raitis Pavlovičs.
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
During our conversation, Wright Pavlovich’s phone rings, it turns out that another record was brought to him, which he did not have in his collection, and it is a record with a graphic portrait of Paul on the cover and called “Ai dun-dur dun-dur dun dun dun”. The collector exchanges it for a board in his collection.
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
In total, his collection currently includes 333 Paul records, most of them autographed by the maestro.
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
The exhibition is complemented by the photographs of Aigars Hibner, who also created the visual design of the exhibition. Both authors of the exhibition agree that the exhibition is one of the proofs of Paula’s invaluable contribution to our culture: “This exhibition also made us look at the maestro’s music in a different way, of course he is a very multifaceted, interesting personality with a vision of the world, a sense of the world. In my view – an absolute world-class musician.
I really like how Lia Guļevska said at one of our exhibitions that – Raimonds Pauls – this is Latvia. We took that as a motto for this exhibition, it’s a winged saying for us.”
During the installation of the exhibition “Creation of Composer Raimonds Paula in Records and Photographs”.
Photo: Baiba Kušķe / Latvian Radio
The exhibition “Composer Raimonda Paula’s works on records and photographs” can be viewed at the National Library until the end of November.
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2023-09-28 06:03:09
#Raimonda #Pauls #artwork #sound #records #photographs #exhibition #National #Library
