JAVS Fall 1996

11

VADIM BORISSOVSKY (1900-1972)

by Karl Stierhof

T he name Borissovsky first became familiar to me through the Literaturverzeichnis for Viola und Viola d'Amore (Wolfenbiittel 1937), which he edited together with the famous German music researcher Wilhelm Altmann (1862-1951). Borissovsky's role in preparing this index brought him into disfavor with Stalin's regime; his wife, Alexandra de Lasari-Borissovskaya, of Corsican patrician blood, was even sentenced to death by firing squad. Borissovsky was ready to die with his wife. Fortunately, Alexandra was pardoned-perhaps because of her hus band's fame at the Moscow Conservatory, where he enjoyed the high regard of his colleagues and students. Borissovsky, who lived in a modest ground-floor apartment, was a deeply reli gious man, alien to any politics. My first contact with this great master occurred while I was a member of the Vienna Phil harmonic. In the spring of 1962, I traveled with the Philharmonic (the first western European orchestra to visit the post-World War II Soviet Union) to Moscow and St. Petersburg for several concerts. Our director was Herbert von Karajan. The Soviet minister of culture, Mme. Furtseva, hosted the Philharmonic at a large reception to which significant Russian artists had also been invited. There I got to know the members of the famous Beethoven Quartet, to which Professor Borissovsky had belonged as a violist since its cre ation around 1930. This quartet was famous for its premier performances of the first string quar tets of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), whose Thirteenth Quartet is dedicated to Borissovsky. Shostakovich was one of his best friends. At a later meeting with Borissovsky in October 1971, during an opera and concert tour with the

Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Bohm, the ques tion was raised during a lengthy discussion: "Why haven't the great Russian composers produced any original pieces for viola and piano?" In answer to this challenge, Shostakovich composed his famous

Vadim Borissovsky

Sonata opus 147 (1975). This "swan song" was to be Shostakovich's last work, completed in the hospital shortly before his death. It was performed for the first time in October 1975 by violist Fyodor Drushinin and Michael Muntyan. The sonata is dedicated to Drushinin, Borissovsky's successor at the Moscow Conservatory. Boris sovsky's widow, Alexandra, presented me with a recording of the premier performance. From my first meeting with Borissovsky until his death, I actively corresponded with him in French, a language he commanded well. He sent me a large number of his arrangements for viola and piano (and of cello concerti as well), and I sent him works of contemporary Austrian com posers that interested him very much. On a second trip to Moscow with the Vienna Philharmonic (October 1971), we stayed in the Hotel Russiya, not far from the Kremlin. One