JAVS Summer 2025

Chang, Mary Harrah, Ana Tsinadze, and Anna Ivanova. While insightful, these studies tend to focus on individual works or composers, underscoring the need for a broader, more unified exploration of Soviet viola repertoire. Soviet Viola History in a Nutshell The viola in the Imperial Russian territories pre-1917 had the status of a secondary instrument, useful for chamber music and orchestra, with a few works of a more soloistic nature such as the sonatas of M. Glinka (1825/8) or A. Rubinstein (1855). The Bolshevik Revolution resulting in the new communist government brought many changes to the music performance life and the musical education system in Russia and the other republics that joined the Soviet Union, creating more demand for viola players and upgrading the status of the instrument and its solo repertoire. These were the years when Vadim Borisovsky (1900-1972) decided to master the viola as his main instrument, and started a colossal career as a soloist, teacher, and researcher of the instrument, becoming a national role-model ever since. The struggles of the Soviet viola community started as early as in the 1930s, when first the RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musician) banned the viola for ‘overloading the proletarian system’ between 1930 1932, and later when Borisovsky was at great risk after performing joint research with a German scholar and being accused of betrayal. 6 Despite the looming threats, many new sonatas and concerti were composed after the Second World War, and kept increasing and flourishing afterward, along with the ongoing growth of viola activities in the country in the 1970s. As the USSR neared its collapse in the 1980s, composers aligned themselves with more Western trends and placed the viola in an even higher position on the list of favorite instruments. Along with the history of the country, the evolution of viola literature in the USSR strongly depended on the interconnections between composers, performers, pedagogues and students. The contribution of violists from all across the country was essential to the configuration of the viola domain, thanks to their multi function as performers and teachers. Starting our observation from the capital, the Soviet portion of the viola history at the Moscow Conservatory begins with Vladimir Bakaleinikov (1885-1953). Although he graduated from the Conservatory as violinist, his performance career was mainly as a chamber

violist. In 1920 he was called to teach a quartet class, and soon after he was asked to give applied viola lessons to Borisovsky. Some readers might find his name familiar, as he left the USSR in 1927, going on to make important contributions to the viola and academic communities of the Great Lakes. 7 He functioned as a bridge between Imperial and Soviet Russia and symbolically left the world in the year of 1953: the year in which Stalin and Prokofiev died, and Yuri Bashmet was born. As early as 1935, after taking over Bakaleinikov’s class, two of Borisovsky’s students— Strakhov and Kaplun— shared the second prize at the All-Soviet Competition and were the first violists to earn such an important achievement in the Soviet history. 8 This was the same year in which David Oistrakh won the first prize, and as a result the event is mainly documented from this perspective, overlooking the viola breakthrough. Strakhov submitted his dissertation on viola transcriptions, supporting and communicating with Borisovsky’s research, and started his professorship at the Moscow Conservatory shortly after the competition. 9 The years of the Second World War, in which most of the Moscow Conservatory personnel were evacuated to Eastern parts of the country, did not bring many developments to the city’s viola scene. In the following decade, however, the growth renewed, starting with an important change. In 1950, the viola studios that were part of Moscow Conservatory’s violin department ( Kafedra ), became part of the three chamber music departments, and each of the viola professors at the time – Borisovsky, Strakhov, and Terian—became a head of these departments. 10 This was a vital step towards the instrument’s emancipation, and it was followed by another administrative decision of the school in 1959: to open a separate department of viola and harp. 11 Borisovsky’s main protégé was Fyodor Druzhinin (1932-2007), who took over many of Borisovsky’s responsibilities upon his death and became the head of the viola and harp department in 1978. In 1981 he gave an unforgettable performance at the Ninth International Viola Congress in Toronto (ON) and was cordially complimented by Primrose. 12 Besides being the dedicatee of the Shostakovich Sonata op. 147, and some of the works by Frid and Weinberg, he is remembered as a versatile performer, composer, pedagogue, and a source of inspiration for generations of violists and composers.

28

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, Summer 2025 Online Issue