Iwan Iwanowitsch Sollertinski

Sollertinski's grave in Novosibirsk (Sajelzowskoje Kladbishche cemetery)

Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky ( Russian Иван Иванович Соллертинский * November 20 ^{. Jul} / 3. December  1902 ^greg. In Vitebsk ; † 11. February 1944 in Novosibirsk , USSR ) was a Soviet polymath and publicist . His father, Iwan Iwanowitsch Sollertinski, came from a Russian Orthodox priestly family and served as a higher regional judge . The mother, Yekaterina Josefovna Bobaschinskaja, came from an aristocratic family and after the death of Sollertinski's father (1907) lived with the children in very poor conditions.

Life

From 1921 until the beginning of the war , Sollertinski lived in Petrograd , later Leningrad.

Sollertinski was a theater historian, literary scholar (especially for Spanish and French literature), philologist, lecturer, pedagogue, organizer, lecturer (history of philosophy and aesthetics), and cultural politician. Outstanding, however, was his role in building up Soviet musical life, especially in Leningrad (since 1929 advisor to the Leningrad Philharmonic ), not least as a musicologist and critic: in 1936 he was appointed professor at the local conservatory and in 1939 appointed artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic. He was also chairman of the section for criticism in the Union of Composers of the Soviet Union. In these positions he was passionate about classical symphonic music (see his presentation at the All-Union Congress of the Composers' Union of the USSR, May 1941 in Leningrad: "Historical types of symphonic dramaturgy". [2] 267 ff.) And he worked for the dissemination (especially) of Gustav Mahler's music in the Soviet Union.

Sollertinsky was also interested in ballet: in 1930 he received the lectureship on the history of ballet at the Leningrad School of Choreography and thus made a decisive contribution to the further development of Soviet ballet art (see, among other things, his essay on Boris Assafiev's ballet "Fountain of Bakhchisarai", 1934 [ 2] p. 236 ff.).

In 1941 he became the repertoire director of the Pushkin Theater in Leningrad. In 1943, Sollertinsky was appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatory and head of the Chair of Art Studies at the Leningrad Institute of Theater Arts (which, like the Philharmonic, was in Novosibirsk during the fascist blockade), where he gave courses in logic and psychology.

Ivan I. Sollertinski met Mikhail Bakhtin early on and took part in his philosophical lectures. - The hyperactive and highly nervous Sollertinski had a phenomenal memory and mastered over 25 languages ​​and 100 dialects. [3] According to Shostakovich , he knew by heart large parts of the works of Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Pushkin and Gogol. [4] Homer and Cicero are also mentioned, which he was able to recite in ancient Greek and Latin.

Sollertinski's friends included leading musicians of the era, first and foremost Yevgeny Mrawinski , Otto Klemperer , Fritz Stiedry , Ernest Ansermet and, last but not least, Hermann Scherchen , but also Kurt Sanderling . In 1927, Sollertinski became the closest friend of Dmitri Shostakovich, whom he had known since 1921, and one of the most important champions of the work of this brilliant composer. In 1936, in the course of the first attacks against Shostakovich, Sollertinski was called "the troubadour of formalism" by Pravda. [5]

After the premiere evenings (February 5 and 6, 1944) of the Eighth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Mravinsky, for which Sollertinsky had given the introductory lectures (as usual), he died of a heart attack (which had been suppressing his heart disease for a long time) on the night of February 10th and 11th and was buried in Novosibirsk . [2]

Dmitri Shostakovich dedicated his Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (begun in 1943) to the memory of his friend: Sollertinski died in Novosibirsk in early 1944 during the emergency evacuation. From his travels he had brought back a large number of printed music by Western European composers, including works by Ernst Křenek and Kurt Weill. Alma Mahler-Werfel, the widow of Gustav Mahler (whose works he had propagated in the Soviet Union), gave him a photocopy of the Tenth Symphony , which Shostakovich considered to be complete. Shostakovich's first use of klezmer music in the tragic finale of the E minor trio is less surprising - as an expression of the reference for the two dead so important to him - and interweaves grief with thanks.

Quotes

From the diary (1924)

I cannot tell of myself in words. Music is that ideal language to which every part of my ethos belongs.

Sollertinski [4] p. 17

The ethical principle in Russian music

The basic principle of Russian music, which distinguishes it from other national musical cultures, is the consistent implementation of the idea of ​​musical realism, understood as the moral and social duty of the artist towards the people: this realism means anything but a registration or collection of feelings and sensations through the artist or a sounding photograph of reality. He contradicts any "earpleasure" (an ironic term from Balakirew), any hedonistic aesthetic and the conception of music as diversion or "sounding gastronomy". It is based on philosophical generalizations, on the bold formulation of the so-called "cursed questions" and is permeated with flaming moral pathos and a passionate love of truth. If in Western European music the ethical factor was predominant only for individual great musicians and this is precisely why they usually fell into tragic isolation (Beethoven, Mahler, and in some cases Berlioz), then in Russian music it runs like a red thread through all epochs their historical development, regardless of the conflicts between individual creative groups. That is the general premise without which the Russian classics among composers could not even imagine a musical creation.

Sollertinski [4] p. 281

About Shostakovich

( In connection with his Eighth Symphony )

The right to tragedy and tragic art. Tragedy is not born out of pessimism (Byron, Maeterlinck, L. Andrejew). Tragedy as the fruit of maturity, strength, bravery, moral freedom and the conflict of powers of will (the Hellenes, Shakespeare, the classics of Spanish drama, Corneille). The tragic is not the pessimistic (Tchaikovsky, "Carmen" by Bizet). Folklore and festivity. About the term "optimistic tragedy". About the fear of the tragic. The growth of tragedy from the epic. Marx on social tragedy. Shostakovich as a tragic poet in music. Overcoming the tragedy. The triumph of manly strength. Transparent grief. The pastoral-heroic (compare the features of the heroic pastoral in Beethoven's Third Symphony). Idyll ... The relationship to the tragedies of Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky: pain, anger, "gathering of evil forces", struggle for happiness.

Sollertinski [4] pp. 297f.

Testimonies

Dmitri Shostakovich

“Sollertinski was a tireless thinker and scientist, an original publicist and at the same time a gripping theorist. It seemed that he was speaking unnecessarily quickly and nervously, that he was always in a hurry and chasing something, and sometimes he even got out of breath. But that was only because words, language and tongue could not keep up with the impetuous course of his thoughts, which were always original and convincing. The literary legacy is relatively modest. He died very young; but the role he played in the development of Soviet musical culture is enormous. He actually opened up new creative paths for the Soviet composer. ”(Union of Composers of the USSR, 1944)

Publications (Russ.)

• "The Bolt", Ballet by Shostakovich - Leningrad, 1931
• Hector Berlioz. - Moscow, 1932
• Gustav Mahler. - Leningrad, 1932
• Richard Strauss' symphonic poems. - Leningrad, 1932
• Jacques Offenbach. - Leningrad, 1933
• Arnold Schoenberg. - Leningrad, 1934
• "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", opera by Shostakovich. - Leningrad, 1934
• The fourth symphony by Brahms. - Leningrad, 1935
• Brahms' Second Symphony. - Leningrad, 1935
• Giacomo Meyerbeer. - Leningrad, 1936
• "Rigoletto" by Verdi. - Leningrad, 1936
• Luck. - Leningrad, 1937
• "Carmen", opera by Bizet. - Leningrad, 1937
• "The Magic Flute" by Mozart. - Leningrad, 1940
• Beethoven's “Fidelio”. - Leningrad, 1940
• Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. - Leningrad, 1940
• The Third Symphony by Brahms. - Leningrad, 1941
• Selected essays on music. - Leningrad, 1946
• The symphonies of Brahms. - Moscow 1959
• Romance: its general and musical aesthetic. - Moscow, 1962
• Notes on comic opera. - Moscow, 1962
• Reviews. - Leningrad, 1963
• Historical studies. - Leningrad, 1963.
• Essays on ballet. - Leningrad. Music, 1973. - 208 pp.

Music festival

Since 1989, an annual international music festival has been held in Sollertinski's hometown of Vitebsk (Beloruss), which is called the “ International Sollertinsky Music Festival ” in his memory .

Remarks

1. Alexander Pushkansky, Sollertinsky phenomenon (Belarus.)
2. Sollertinski, p. 307
3. Irakly Andronikow (1971), "For the first time on the stage", Publishing House of the Central Committee of the CPSU "The True Moscow", 1985 (Russian)
4. Sollertinski, p. 10
5. Glikman, p. 220 (Russian)

bibliography

• “In memoriam IISollertinski”, memories, materials, studies. - Leningrad / Moscow, 1974.
• Iwan Sollertinski: “From Mozart to Shostakovich”, essays, reviews, notes - ed. v. Michail Druskin (Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979)
• Mikheeva, Ludmila: “II Sollertinsky. Life and Legacy “Leningrad, 1988: Sovetsky kompozitor ISBN Б-85285-043-8
• Shostakovich, Dmitri and Glikman, Isaak: "Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman" (Cornell University Press, 2001) ISBN 0-8014-3979-5
• Alexander Pushkansky, Sollertinsky phenomenon (Belarus.)
• Шостакович, Д .: “Письма И. И. Соллертинскому “(Shostakovich, D .: LETTERS TO SOLLERTINSKI", 2006) - СПб .: Композитор, 2006. - 300 с. - 1000 экз. - ISBN 5-7379-0304-4 . (The Berlin musicologist, translator and musician Gottfried In 2016 Eberle is preparing a German-language edition of this complete edition of Dmitri Shostakovich's letters to Iwan Sollertinski for publication.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Pushkansky: The Sollertinsky phenomenon (Belaruss.)