Inlägg 94Natalia Solovyova (Estonia) skrev:den 22 juli 2009 kl. 11:14
A TALE ABOUT FISHERMAN AND HIS GOLDEN SONG
PART 3 (by Natalia; thanks to Irena for correcting my stupid mistakes!)

A.S.: - Perestroika (restructuring) began in the USSR. The Soviet Union started to fall apart. The new age came suddenly. In 1990, Igor, while touring in Norway, decided to stay there. He was dreaming about a better life for his family.
It was a wealthy Norwegian, Kusheron, who let Igor stay in his house, since he needed someone to teach his children music. The Soviet school of teaching classical music was highly valued all over the world, and Igor had a reputation of being a wonderful violinist and music teacher. As an illegal immigrant, my brother lived behind closed doors and almost never left the house, teaching Kusheron's children and saving up money for his own house, in order to bring Natasha and his son to Norway.
- Why did Igor Rybak choose this Northern country?
A.S.: - My brother told me, “What would I have achieved in Germany or France? It's better to give concerts in a small country, where everyone loves and worships you, than in a big country, where nobody knows you.” Besides, Norwegians are very fond of music, both classical and folk.
Soon, I received some news and a present from my brother. Igor sent me a posh thin attache case made in France. It seemed like a piece of magnetic life abroad. At the beginning, I condemned Igor and thought him a defector. Only after I had visited him, I realized how happy Igor was in this northern country with its harsh climate and nature. After a year, Igor got his residential permit and began working legally in an orchestra of Opera House. He tried to save up money, and he grew very thin. After 3 years, having made an initial payment for a house, his wife and son were able to come to live with him. They had no money for plane tickets and went to Oslo by train. The family settled in a 3-storey house, typical for Norwegians, in Nessoden, a prestigiuos suburb of Oslo, the heart of Norwegian fisheries.
Our mother, Sasha's grandmother, came to visit them immediately. It's funny how just after Rybaks had got their spacious house, their former neighbour, Zhora the Drunkard, got a separate flat. [Natalia: In USSR, people couldn't buy flats: the flats were assigned to them by the state, and often, people had to live in awful tiny crowded communal flats for dozens of years] Our mother found herself alone in her two-room flat. That's how the fate willed: a violent neighbour had been sent to Igor as if for the purpose of pushing him to leave the country. Igor used to recall that alcoholic with gratitude.
When I visited my brother, I was amazed: there were no fences around houses, and flowers grew everywhere. It was like an absolutely different world. My brother's neighbour is a millionaire, but his house is very modest. It's the rule in Norway not to demonstrate how well off you are. Igor speaks Norwegian excellently, but his wife Natasha speaks it even better. I recall her to wonder at the relative absence of alcoholics there. Norwegians know how to have a good time without any alcohol.
Sasha's grandmother noticed that even dogs had good manners in this country. But Rybaks' dog is a very noisy one. Cindy the schnauzer was bought for Sasha 11 years ago. But it was Natasha who had to train and raise it. The dog obeys commands in Norwegian only, but has got a typical Russian upbringing.
My brother used to go by ferry to the Opera House in Oslo. I accompanied him once. Fjords were everywhere, it was very beautiful. It took half an hour. Both Rybaks were working very hard. Igor was working with 3 orchestras: a kids' orchestra, a teens' orchestra and a youth's one. Moreover, he opened his own violin school with 30 students. I saw students with their violins coming to his house even at weekends. Igor has a rare gift of making classical music fascinating for kids.
Sasha's mother Natalya was quite a successful pianist in Norway. She worked as an accompanist of a famous singer, she worked as a music teacher, she worked with some well-known choirs, and at weekends, she used to play the organ in a church.
Of course, Sasha had to work hard as well. On evenings, he and his father used to perform classical and Norwegian folk music. When Sasha was 12, a royal impresario visited their house, and soon, all the Rybaks were performing in front of the royal family and their guests.
- Do Rybaks speak Russian at home?
A.S.: - Only Russian. When Sasha is angry, he starts speaking Norwegian. He can't curse in Russian. When Sasha was a little boy, Igor used to read Russian books to him, before going to sleep. The family adored Dickens and Chekhov. But Norwegian school had its influence on Sasha. He studied 6 years in primary school, and then 3 years in secondary school. When he turned 13, he quit reading Russian books at all. He saw himself as Norwegian. It seemed to him that Russian language was of no use for him. He even asked his mother to read the letters that I was sending them.
- Does Sasha look like his father or his mother?
A.S.: - He looks like his mother Natasha. He has got her smile and a slightly turned-up nose.
- Did Sasha's grandmother visit him often?
A.S.: - She is an angel of a woman. You won't believe it, but when our father died and she heard that his wife was lonely and paralyzed, she came to take care of her. Later, her sister started to go blind, and she came to live with her in Vitebsk.