JAVS Spring 2022

his assistant. Once again, neither Soviet, nor post-Soviet sources explain this connection, yet this conspiracy at least deserves a consideration. Fortunately, Bunin was immediately employed by Muzgiz, the governmental music publishing company in Moscow, and worked there for several years as an editor, dedicating enough time to his own concert compositions, and securing his income by writing for television, radio, and cinema. He spent the rest of his life in Moscow, living in the governmental housing for composers (‘Dom Kompozitorov’ ) , composing, and holding occasional composition seminars, influencing many young students. 6 The only sources that describe his later life are unofficial. The issue of source curation and data gathering is a significant obstacle in Bunin’s case. There are very few written sources on Bunin’s biography, his compositions, available recordings and sheet music, or any other aspect of his musicianship. Besides several laconic entries in Encyclopedias and musical dictionaries, and apart of some reviews of his works in Soviet journals (all listed in the bibliography to this article), the other few writings are memoires and other unofficial testimonies. There are two relatively larger-body sources that are somewhat easier to find and provide a handful of information about the composer. The first is an article in a Russian art online journal, by Moscovian author, poet, and visual artist Leonid Rabichev (1923-2017), who claimed to know Bunin since they were high school classmates. 7 Bunin’s story is mixed in this blog entry with the stories of other classmates and friends, to the extent that it is almost impossible to trace Bunin’s biography, and it can be easily confused with others. The process of data verification returned inaccurate results in comparison with other sources. Rabichev’s style of writing, usually called in modern Russian scholarly “kitchen folklore” ( kukhoni folklor), and might be a result of the massive number of autobiographical writings that came to the world after the USSR collapsed, ending many years of silence. 8 The other, significantly more trustful source, is an article from the USSR music journal “Sovetskaya Muzika”, written in 1957 by Semion Shlifshtein (1903-1975), a musicologist and a music critic, full with appreciation and lobbing in favor of the young composer. 9 This article will serve us later, in Part II, to unfold the nature of Bunin’s writings, as preparation to an analysis of the viola concerto.

(quartets, trios, instrumental sonatas), piano music, and more than 50 Soviet film scores of all kinds: drama, documentaries, and cartoons. Interestingly enough, and with very little details that can reveal the entire story, Bunin was commissioned to supply the background music for the 1967 UK documentary “10 Days That Shook The World”, celebrating 50 years to the October Revolution. 10 His musical language varied and progressed over the years, yet always stayed tonal and loyal to basic structural forms. As Ala Grigoreva notes, Bunin leans on the traditions of the Russian Romanticism, yet aligns with other Soviet musical trends of the mid-20st century and adds to his unique mixture elements of folk music, jazz, and Russian liturgy. 11 For all of his life, Bunin enjoyed a warm professional appreciation. First by Shostakovich, who sent him to work as his assistant in Leningrad; then by the conductor and artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988), who conducted his symphonic works from 1947 and on; and later by many Moscovian conductors and performers who constantly commissioned and included his works in their programs. Among his greater supporters were the violinist Leonid Kogan and the conductor Yevgeni Svetlanov. The most important lobbying came from his friend and colleague, violist and conductor Rudolph Barshai (1924-2010). 12 During almost two decades of collaboration between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, Barshai, along with his Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conducted and recorded many of Bunin’s works, keeping his music present on stages all across the USSR. 13 This collegial lobbying was essential in Bunin’s case, as he never received any governmental awards or other official recognition. 14 There are two possible reasons for the negative

Bunin’s output includes 9 symphonies, concerti for violin, viola, and piano, 2 operas, oratorio, chamber music

Revol Bunin with Rudolph Barshai.

78

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