Вера Дулова. Воспоминания. Статьи. Документы

When Dulova entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1922, Professor Slepushkin was no longer there; he had died in 1918. She studied with Maria Korchinskaya. In 1925 she played at a concert given by conservatory students for the benefit of homeless orphans. People’s Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky was there. A cultivated man, he immediately recognized the young harpist’s unusual talent. When she graduated from the conservatory, Lunacharsky gave her a scholarship to continue her education in Germany. There she studied for two years with Professor Max Saal and gave a few concerts which were applauded by the German press.

Dulova returned to the Soviet Union in 1930 [1929. — N. Sh.], a mature musician with a good repertory. In 1932 and thereafter she was a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater orchestra, and in 1935 won first prize at the countrywide competition of musicians in Leningrad. Two years later she began to teach at the Ippolitov-lvanov College of Music, and since 1944 [1943. — N. Sh.] she has been a professor at the conservatory.

Virtuosity

A great musician always enlarges the potentialities of his instrument. It becomes part of his hands, his thoughts, his very soul. He enriches the musical language of his time no less than the composer, for it is the performer who translates the abstract laws of counterpoint into objective reality. It is not uncommon for a work to be composed for a particular performer. For Dulova, Sergei Vasilenko and Alexander Mosolov wrote harp concertos; Alexander Baltin, a sonatina; Yevgeni Golubev, a quintet (for harp and string quartet); and Georgi Kreitner, Ivan Shishov, Andrei Volkonsky and Nina Makarova, musical pieces. Dulova herself has arranged for the harp several works written for other instruments and for the orchestra.

The place in musical history of even great performers is measured, in part, by the pupils they train. Dulova’s pupils are in the leading Soviet orchestras. Their solo performances are praised by audiences and critics, and many of these pupils are teachers in their own right.

In September 1965, our harpists entered their first international competition. It was held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Many of their fellow contestants arrived with experience at international competitions and festivals. The Soviet Union was represented by DuIova’s pupils Emilia Moskvitina, Natasha Shameyeva (Strebkova) and Natasha Tsekhanovskaya. Though this was their initial big test abroad, they came through with flying colors, winning the second, third and fourth prizes respectively. The first prize went to Martine Gcliot, a French pupil of Professor Pierre Jamet.

Our Interview

The first international competition of harpists to be held in Connecticut has been organized by the Hartt College of Music of the University of Hartford. It will take place this month. Vera Dulova is a member of the jury.

I asked her in an interview, «What place would you say the harp has in modern music?»

«In the last two or three decades it has become a more important solo instrument. Before then, it was considered a salon instrument, on which the daughters of rich and aristocratic families strummed their ‘nocturnes.’ Now the repertory for the harp has been much enlarged. Prokofiev, Khachaturyan, Hindemith, Casella and many others have composed for the instrument. Paul Creston wrote an interesting rhapsody for the harp, which Khachaturyan likes very much. The famous composer once dropped into my class and heard one of my pupils playing it. ‘What charming music!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s so new, and yet the novelty does not outshine the music.’ Marcel Grandjany, American composer and harpist, composed a lovely Fantasia on a Haydn Theme. There are some interesting arrangements for the harp by Professor Aristid von Wurtzler of Hartt College from the work of Handel, Corelli, Vivaldi and other composers. In short, solo harpists now have a large repertory to choose from.»

«I suppose the harp also has a larger place in the modern orchestra?»

«Unfortunately not. The older composers wrote far more interesting orchestra scores for the harp. This is especially true of the ballet. Take Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker, for instance. They all have lovely solos and variations and enchanting adagios. Glazunov’s ballet, Raymonda, and Asafyev’s ballet, Fountain of Bakhchisarai, have brilliant scores for the harp. At one time it was traditional for a ballet to have solos for the harp, violin and cello. Unhappily, contemporary ballet composers have abandoned this tradition. I say unhappily because the harp adds a very beautiful and warm tonal effect to the orchestra score.»