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By Olga Fyodorova
On March 18, 1958, the Conservatory Big Hall in Moscow was seeing the grand
opening of the First Tchaikovsky International Competition. Down in the
hallway, young music buffs were casting admiring glances at the venerable
members of the jury leisurely strolling by…
“Look, who’s that skinny upright old man over there? Looks like a mannequin
from the museum, really…”
“Come on, it’s Alexander Goldenveizer, that’s who!”
“That famous fellow from the Conservatory? Never seen him so close before.
He appears so no-nonsense and reclusive standing there all by himself,
talking to no one…”
“No, he only looks that way, really! They say Goldenveizer is a real darling!
He once rubbed shoulders with Leo Tolstoy himself, was his guest and even
wrote a book of memoirs about the great writer – a book so fascinating
you can hardly tear yourself away from it… His other pal was Sergei Rakhmaninoff,
they are almost peers and onetime Conservatory students. When Rakhmaninoff
emigrated after the revolution, Goldenveizer was one of the handful of
Russians who dared to keep corresponding with the man…”
“Others were just scared because with Josef Stalin in the Kremlin, you
could easily wind up in jail or a labor camp for having contacts with an
?migr?…”
“Fortunately, Goldenveizer was spared this sorry lot. He spent all
his life teaching at the Conservatory and giving concerts. Have you ever
heard him play? He stopped giving concerts a while ago…”
“Only on the radio. By the way, they are going to play him again tonight.
I hope I will get home before it starts…”
As a child, Alexander Goldenveizer was steeped in piano music his mother
loved to indulge in. Small wonder that the boy was getting increasingly
interested in the instrument. He had a perfect musical ear and his teachers
said he would someday make a great player.
Graduating from the Conservatory at the age of 20, Alexander Goldenveizer
gave his first solo concert in Moscow. At 22 he also obtained a Conservatory
diploma as a composer.
He studied hard all his life, first from his Conservatory teachers, then
world-renowned masters and even from his more endowed students. Alexander
Goldenveizer trained a total of 200 students many of whom later made
excellent musicians...
It was in 1896 that the 21 year-old pianist Goldenveizer first met Leo
Tolstoy. A devout fan of classical music, the great novelist enjoyed rubbing
shoulders with musicians, especially the pianist and composer Sergei Taneyev
who once brought along his young student. The Tolstoys liked Alexander
Goldenveizer very much and he eventually became a dear friend of the whole
family. Leo Tolstoy and Alexander corresponded for many years running,
up until the writer’s death in 1910.
Each time he came to the Tolstoy’s Yasnaya Polyana estate, they invariably
asked him to play something. Alexander happily obliged playing both for
the family and the peasants who flocked in from nearby villages. Alexander
usually accompanied those improvised concerts with brief lectures about
composers and their music.
A born teacher, Alexander Goldenveizer never missed a chance to talk music
to any audience, even those who knew nothing about classical music, like
factory and rail workers and even sobriety club members, always finding
a shortcut to the hearts and souls of his listeners…
Hard driven and enthusiastic, Goldenveizer worked hard to expand the community
of classical music lovers and was also behind the idea to establish the
Moscow philharmonic society as the city’s first serious music organization.
Being a member of their first art panel, he worked on the society’s concert
programs and went out lecturing and giving concerts…
He started teaching when he was still a Conservatory student, earning his
bread by first giving private lessons and then teaching at Moscow’s Orphans’
Institute. In 1906 he landed a teacher’s job at the Conservatory eventually
rising through the ranks to become the head of their piano department and
even spending some time as the Conservatory’s Rector. His biggest pride,
however, was his position of a Moscow Conservatory Professor.
The students were initially a bit scared of this stern-looking, always
buttoned-up man. After the first few lessons, however, they realized
what a dear person he was, kind and always ready to help. Fully aware of
this, the students responded with kind affection and heartfelt devotion…
Alexander Goldenveizer kept a close eye on his student’s progress, corresponding
with many of them and inviting graduates to come over to his apartment
where he immediately laid the table putting a giant shining samovar right
in the middle. They talked and talked and talked and then moved on to the
grand piano for an improvised concert that could stretch out well into
the night...
Alexander Goldenveizer spent his days honing his playing skills, teaching
at the Conservatory and meeting the right people. In the evening
he either went to the concert hall (to play himself or listen to other)
or just stayed at home composing – that’s exactly where his onetime training
in composing came in, by the way.
Even though his compositions lacked the originality of the greats, each
had a hook of its own…
Goldenveizer didn’t like it when people called him a composer. “I write
just for the fun of it,” - he often said, - “not for my contemporaries
or posterity…”
His best pieces were inspired by his wife of almost 25 years. A talented
and charming woman, she devoted herself wholly to the man she loved, living
a quiet and unimposing life. She died as quietly as she lived leaving her
husband lost and heartbroken. He never fell for another woman and never
married again because none of the women he met was nearly as perfect as
she had been …
Until his very last day he was agile and bubbling with activity, reading
avidly, never missing a theater premiere, playing chess, writing for the
newspapers, going to concerts, all kinds of concerts, not just piano ones…
He sat on the juries of all national piano competitions and then of the
First Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, admired by his near and dear, friends
and colleagues and thousands of fans everywhere…
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