Conservatory with a glorious past and a great future

NIZHNY NOVGOROD. A gala concert was held in honor of the anniversary of the Glinka Conservatory.

Compared to the capital and St. Petersburg conservatories that have crossed the 150-year frontier, the main musical university in Nizhny Novgorod is a teenager who enters into a great life. Eight thousand of his graduates, with all the desire to be at a concert in honor of the 70th anniversary of the alma mater, could not. “There are no others, but those are far away.” But on December 6, they were all invisibly present in the hall of the State Philharmonic named after M.L. Rostropovich. The orchestra, consisting of young and famous musicians, was led by Alexander Skulsky, the main conductor of the Philharmonic, a graduate of 1965.

The origins of the university-anniversary were many graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. The students of the legendary conductor of Israel Borisovich Gusman were Vladimir Spivakov and Mstislav Rostropovich. Bert Maranz, a student of Heinrich Neuhaus, brought up a whole galaxy of beautiful pianists, performed with Nina Dorliak, David Oistrakh, Ilya Musin, Veronika Dudarova, Hertz Tsomyk. The musicologist Igor Methodin, the author of the famous “Harmony Textbook”, was a mentor to Yuri Saulsky, a member of the European Academy Yuri Kholopov, and the author of the practical training system for polyphony Viktor Frayonov. Issaak Katz, pianist, military translator, student of Alexander Goldenweiser, headed the department of special piano here before leaving for Israel. The rector of the conservatory Eduard Fertelmeister, who has held his post for 20 years, preserves and enhances the legacy left by his predecessors - Alexander Kogan, Grigory Dombaev, Lev Sivukhin, Arkady Nesterov. Thanks to the efforts of the latter, a lot has been done at the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory to strengthen one of the best composers and musicology departments in Russia.

During the years of stagnation, the Nizhny Novgorod Glinka Conservatory was one of the islands of musical freedom. Here one could hear works, the performance of which was not welcomed or forbidden - sacred music, classical avant-garde. Many music lovers specially came to Gorky to hear Schnittke’s new works here.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru