JAVS Spring 2022

In The Studio

Red Ties, Trumpets, and Balalaikas Pt. I: Beginning with Bunin by Nethanel E. Pollak

The list of viola repertoire from the USSR has several prominent and quite well-known concerti to offer, mostly from the last decade of the Soviet Era, many of which were dedicated to, and performed by young Yuri Bashmet. To mention a few: Schnittke (1985), Denisov (1986), and Eshpai (1987). According to the most updated lists of viola repertoire, at least a dozen of viola concerti were written before the 1980s, and the first of them dates back to one of the most important years in Soviet history: 1953. 1 The Viola Concerto by Revol Bunin (1924-1976), a Jewish-Russian composer, one of Shostakovich’s favorite students, and his assistant, was written during this horrifying year and completed shortly after Stalin’s death. 2 But what do we know about the man behind the music? In this two-part article, we will first examine the life of Revol Bunin, then—in part II—delve into the fascinating sound world of his music. Revol Samuilovich Bunin was born in Moscow and lived there for most of his life. His father was a Communist activist, and named his son “Revol”, after the 1917 October Revolution. 3 He started his composition training with G. Litinsky (1901-1985), at the “ Uchiliische” (the ‘prep-school’) of the Moscow Conservatory in 1938, and was admitted to Vissarion Shebalin’s class at the Conservatory itself in 1940. 4 In 1941, when WWII hit the USSR, he was mobilized for a short period to the Red Army, but returned to Moscow after facing some health issues. During his short time at the front, the Moscow Conservatory was evacuated to Kazan, and Bunin had to take privet lessons with Alexander Goedicke (1877 1957), who was too old to leave the city at the time. 5 In 1943 the Conservatory returned to Moscow, and shortly after, Bunin was the first student to enroll to the new composition studio of Dmitry Shostakovich. For a while, Bunin was Shostakovich’s only student, and after his graduation in 1945, when Shostakovich was offered a teaching position in the Leningrad Conservatory, he

Photo of Revol Barshai.

nominated Bunin as his teaching assistant, the main instructor de facto.

No source about Bunin states this clearly, but one can draw a connection between Bunin’s sudden discharge from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1948, and the massive attack on Shostakovich, Shebalin, and many others, known as the Zhdanov Decree. Shostakovich was accused of writing formalist music (for the second time in his career; the first was in 1937), and of stepping up against the Soviet cultural philosophy. Shostakovich himself was banned, downgraded, and terrified by a potential arrest. Supporting him in public was as dangerous, and it would make sense for the authorities to get rid of a person who serves officially as

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022

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