Glier R Biography

Composer Reingold Glier: Golden Man Text: Fedor Shilov born in Kyiv ethnic German, who considered himself Russian, became the author of the opera on the Azerbaijani theme written in European traditions - the fate of the Reingold Glier formed in such a bizarre figure. Graphics: Sergey Snurnik, the place of Reingold Glier in the Russian musical hierarchy can not be determined immediately.

On the one hand, in a rich 20th century, and even against the backdrop of contemporaries and students - from Rachmaninov to Prokofiev - it is very difficult to look very difficult. On the other hand, it is impossible to argue with the fact that this is the composer of the first row, if not according to the genius, then in terms of influence for sure. The heritage of Glier is not only the scores, but also the pupils, and among them, in addition to the host of outstanding people, are also whole musical cultures.

The stormy beginning of the youth of every second composer in biographies looks written under a carbon copy.

Cultural family of medium wealth, musically preoccupied parents; At the age of five, they showed piano, at seven-already composing something. The biography of Reingold Glier contains few deviations from the canon, except that instead of the piano there was a violin - and quite late, at eleven. Father, German, traded musical instruments of his own production in Kyiv, mother, Polka, raised four children, everyone tried to play something.

Reingold Glier with brother and sister in Kyiv. Parents of the composer. However, Goldik’s parents did not see a professional musician - at best, a good tuner. But they didn’t repaire obstacles, despite the fact that the idyll of early childhood quickly replaced the hardships of adolescence: the father was sick a lot, and the affairs of the family enterprise staggered.

The Glier Student was always poor-both in the Kiev Music School and in the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers were national figures: Taneyev, Arena, Hippolytes-Ivanov. The only stable source of income was a quarter ticket, monthly sent from Kyiv grandmother. Like a real Moscow student, Glier began to teach early: in addition to money, this brought new acquaintances.

So, living with his comrade and student of Sakhnovsky, Glier met Sergey Rachmaninov, who was already a great celebrity. However, Glier seems to be most appreciated in Rachmaninov not so much talent as human qualities: a small essay written in the year for a collection of memoirs is replete with “simplicity”, “modesty”, “a great sense of humor” and “quiet pleasant basin”. In the second year of the conservatory, by the way, Glier goes into Russian citizenship - before that he had a German passport.

This was necessary for a career - after all, the “composer” profession, as Glier himself notes in the memoirs, still, in fact, did not exist. The composition of music was constantly impossible to earn. Having graduated from the conservatory with a gold medal, Glier has been looking for himself for a long time. For some time, he lives at the expense of the timber prisoner Mitrofan Belyaev, then moves to the Yekaterinoslav province, where he teaches the music of little Seryozha Prokofiev, then he teaches at the newly open school of the Gnesin sisters.

However, at this time he already seemed to get out of need. Firstly, his benefactor Belyaev bequeathed to establish at his own expense the Glinka Prize, one of the first lau-reats of which was Glier. Secondly, musical publishers, who willingly printed the works of the young composer-the second and third sextiles and the first and second quartets, provided good income.

Glier of this period is the talented epigon of Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, who is passionate about the idea of ​​implanting national musical traditions into the artistic realities of the new century. However, the composer himself continued to call this period the "years of student." And this is not a rhetorical figure: living in Germany where he had a circle of German students, Glier has been stubbornly learning to conduct the conduct of Oscar Frid.

The years of teaching again were replaced by the years of teaching: with go glue, the professor, and with the GO - the director of the Kyiv Conservatory. In Kyiv, he spent the most terrible years of revolution and civil war for Russia. It was in the midst of the latter, in the year, Gliera introduced one charming student, the meeting with which resolutely changed his whole life.

For clarity, let's immediately clarify: only professional. It was in the house of the Caucasian governor Count Vorontsov-Dashkov. The girl made a splash - and a year later she left to study in Milan; She was supported by an outstanding Azerbaijani industrialist and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Tagiev. After Milan, Shovket continued to education at the Kyiv Conservatory - which in itself characterizes the level of the establishment that Professor Glier led by.

Once, the director of the conservatory was invited to a home concert, where his student sang several Azerbaijani songs. Glier was fascinated by any musical exotic.And when five years later, already in Moscow, Glier taught at Gnesinka and at the University of Communist University of the peoples of the East, he received a letter from Baku with a proposal to write a classic opera on the Azerbaijani topic, immediately agreed.

As you know, the first Azerbaijani opera, Leily and Majnun, wrote in the year Uzeir Hajibaili. Moreover, she became generally the first opera in the Islamic world. But from the musicological point of view "Leili and Majnun" - a mugamous opera. There are no arias in it as such, they are replaced by Mugams - improvisations within the framework of one, strictly defined fret.

For example, all love “Arians” were the Mugs of the Segah, who is also called the “Lad of Love”. Mugama is the most important element of the national culture of Azerbaijan, carefully stored and still very popular. And Mammadova’s shovket really wanted to sing in the Azerbaijan Opera, written in a classic European manner. And it was precisely this exciting task that her former conservative teacher was to solve.

Mamedova was already a big star and an influential person. The contract for writing the opera Glier was proposed by the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Having signed it in the summer of the year, the composer was unlikely to suspect that he would be firmly connected with Azerbaijan for more than a decade. Gliera was warmly met in Baku, but in the capital he did not sit.

The pedant, accustomed to academically approaching any business, he spent several months on his own ethnographic business trip to different regions of the republic-listened to the Khandovtsy, saved musical impressions. It is generally accepted that the greatest contribution to this piggy bank was made by Hangbar Garyagdy Zruglu and the performer on Tara Kurban Primov.

Actually, writing Glier went to Moscow, to his favorite house number 5 on Petrovsky Boulevard. The libretto of the opera, called Shahsenem, was created by the Baku playwright Jafar Jabbarly and Moscow poet Mikhail Galperin. They took a textbook legend about Ashik-Garib, a vagabond singer, in love with the daughter of the rich, Shahsenem. The main parties were written under the shovket of Mammadov and Bulbul, already then undividedly reigning on the Azerbaijani musical stage.

However, this duet did not immediately go on stage at Shahsenem, and indeed the fate of the opera was not easy. Glier showed some of its sketches to his Baku friends at the beginning of the year, but the premiere took place only three years later: the composers tormented doubts how adequate his adaptation of folk musical canons to the standards of classical music.

Moreover, Mammadov’s shovket was very inappropriately left to Italy - without her influence, Glier became difficult to fight off the attacks of critics who considered the composer a “Varangian”, and the very idea of ​​the Azerbaijani classic opera is harmful. As a result, Shahsenem was set in Russian - and although it was successful with the audience and critics, it was clear that the work was far from finished.

Glier in Berlin is the second left. With the smuggling - F. Gostorov and artist S. The work of life Glier seems to be written in the family. In addition to the first classic opera on the Azerbaijani theme, he wrote the first Soviet ballet “Red Mac”, the first academic work on the Buryat material “Heroic march of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic”, the first music for the Tajik cinema, one of the first Uzbek operas “Leili and Majnun” in co-authorship with T.

but Shahsenem remained peculiar With an unclosed gestalt. In the year, Mammadov’s shovket returned to Baku from Italy. The story of the opera, set only once, besides not in the Azerbaijani language, she categorically did not like it - after all, Shahsenem was written for her. The great singer turned out to be an outstanding producer: for the opera they quickly wrote a libretto in Azerbaijani, who again settled in Baku Glier made significant changes to the score, and on May 4, the Akhundov Baku -Ballet “Shahsen” was played as it was: under the control of the author, in the national language, with mammar In the main parties.

Now the triumph was final and complete: the press wrote about the “brilliant victory of national art”, Glier and Mamedov received the title of People's Artists of Azerbaijan. However, formal regalia here were secondary - for the composer himself, for sure. Contemporaries wrote about Glier as a man extremely hardworking. He could not work, everyday work - composer, performing, conducting - was physiologically necessary for him.

He did not refuse the most prestigious offers, like many months of tour of Siberia, where schools often served as concert halls. This is not at all the same as “to take on any work”: Glier remained in demand until his death. There are simply such requests that they do not refuse. Azerbaijan, connected by hundreds of threads, the summer glier in the year could not remain indifferent to the idea of ​​editing and orchestrating the Russian Defense Directorate of the Muslim Magomayev Sr.

who died shortly before.And because Magomaev was his friend, and because Reingold Glier lived all his life with confidence: good music should not gather dust in musical folders. It should sound - and the more, the better.