Soviet Mozart. Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky

Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky (full name Yitzhak-Ber ben Bezalel-Yosef Dunaevsky; 1900-1955) - Soviet composer and conductor, music teacher. Author of 11 operettas and 4 ballets, music for dozens of films and many songs. People's Artist of the RSFSR and laureate of 2 Stalin Prizes (1941, 1951). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of the 1st convocation.

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Isaac Dunaevsky, which we will discuss in this article.

So, here is a short biography of Dunaevsky.

Biography of Isaac Dunaevsky

Isaac Dunaevsky was born on January 18 (30), 1900 in the town of Lokhvitsa (now Poltava region, Ukraine). He grew up and was brought up in the Jewish family of Tsale-Yosef Simonovich and Rozalia Dunaevskaya. The head of the family worked as a small bank employee.

Childhood and youth

Isaac grew up in a musical family. His mother played the piano and also had good vocal abilities. It is worth noting that four of Dunaevsky’s brothers also became musicians.

Even in early childhood, Isaac began to show outstanding musical abilities. Already at the age of 5, he could select various classical works by ear, and also had a talent for improvisation.

When Dunaevsky was about 8 years old, he began learning to play the violin with Grigory Polyansky. A couple of years later, he and his family moved to Kharkov, where he began attending a music school to study violin.

In 1918, Isaac graduated from the gymnasium with honors, and the following year from the Kharkov Conservatory. Then he received higher education, choosing a legal specialty.

[edit] Essays

Operettas

:

• “Both ours and yours” (1924)
• "Grooms" (1927)
• "Straw Hat" (1927)
• "Knives" (1928)
• "Polar Passions" (1929)
• "A Million Torments" (1932)
• "Golden Valley" (1937)
• "The Way to Happiness" (1940)
• "Free Wind" (1947)
• "Son of a Clown" (1950)
• "White Locacia" (1955) (unfinished).

Ballets

:

• "A Faun's Rest" (1924)
• "Murzilka" (1924)
• "The Bride and the Automatic" (1934)
• "Jackie - 14-year-old sailor"

Music for performances

:

• "Tartuffe" (Molière)
• "The Marriage of Figaro" (Beaumarchais)
• "Princess Turandot" (Gozzi)

Movies

:

1. 1933 - “First Platoon”
2. 1934 — “Twice Born”
3. 1934 - “Jolly guys”
4. 1934 - “Golden Lights”
5. 1935 — “The Way of the Ship”
6. 1935 — “Three Comrades”
7. 1936 - “Goalkeeper”
8. 1936 - “A Girl Hurries to a Date”
9. 1936 — “Children of Captain Grant”
10. 1936 — “Seekers of Happiness”
11. 1936 - “Beethoven Concert”
12. 1936 - “Circus” (Stalin Prize, first degree, 1941)
13. 1937 — “Teremok”
14. 1937 — “Daughter of the Motherland”
15. 1937 - “Our Circus” (short film)
16. 1938 — “The Rich Bride”
17. 1938 - “Volga-Volga” (Stalin Prize of the first degree, 1941)
18. 1939 — “Youth of Commanders”
19. 1940 — “Concert on the Screen”
20. 1940 — “My Love”
21. 1940 — “Shining Path”
22. 1947 — “Spring”
23. 1947 - “New Home”
24. 1949 - “Kuban Cossacks” (Stalin Prize of the second degree, 1950)
25. 1949 — “Mashenka’s Concert”
26. 1954 — “Replacement player”
27. 1954 — “Test of Loyalty”
28. 1957 - “White Acacia”
29. 1961 — “Free Wind”
30. 1972 — “Only You”
31. 1983 — “Free Wind”
32. 1986 — “In Search of Captain Grant”

Songs

• “My Moscow” (“My dear capital”), which became the official Anthem of Moscow in 1995
• “Song of the Motherland” (from the film “Circus”; text by V.I. Lebedev-Kumach), which served as the call sign of the All-Union Radio.
• “Eh, good!”
• “March of the Jolly Guys” (from the film “Jolly Guys”)
• "Song about Kakhovka"
• "Sports March"
• "Song of the Cheerful Wind" (from the film "Children of Captain Grant")
• "Song about the Captain" (from the film "Children of Captain Grant")
• “Oh, the viburnum is blooming”
• "What were you like"
• “Song about Stalin” (text by M. Inyushkin)
• "March of Enthusiasts"
• "Roads and Roads"
• "Road Song"
• “The Far Gatehouse” (text by E. Dolmatovsky, 1939)
• "Fly, pigeons"
• "Waltz Evening"
• "School Waltz" (1950)
• "Silence"
• "Do not forget"
• "Zazdravnaya"
• “Resort” (text by V. Volzhenin)
• “Youth” (text by V. I. Lebedev-Kumach)
• “How nice it is all around”
• "The starlings have arrived"
• "March of the Young People"
• "Stars of our dear Motherland"

Music

Even in his youth, Dunaevsky dreamed of a musical career. Having become a certified violinist, he got a job in an orchestra. Soon the guy was invited to the Kharkov Drama Theater, where he worked as a conductor and composer.

It was during this period of biography that the professional career of Isaac Dunaevsky began. Along with his work in the theater, he gave lectures on music, was the leader of army amateur performances, collaborated with various publications, and also opened music clubs in military units.

Later, Isaac was entrusted with managing the provincial music department. In 1924, he settled in Moscow, where even greater prospects for self-realization opened up for him.

At the same time, Dunaevsky took the post of head of the Hermitage Theater, and then headed the Satire Theater. The first operettas came from his pen - “Grooms” and “Knives”. In 1929 he moved to Leningrad, where he worked as a composer and chief conductor of the Music Hall.

The very first production of “Odyssey”, set to the music of Isaac Dunaevsky and representing a satirical parody, was almost immediately banned. Around the same time, his fruitful collaboration with Leonid Utesov began.

It is curious that, along with director Grigory Alexandrov, Isaac Osipovich became the founder of the genre of Soviet musical comedy. Their first joint film project, “Jolly Fellows” (1934), in which the key attention was paid to songs, gained enormous popularity and became a classic of Russian cinema.

After this, Dunaevsky contributed to the creation of such films as “Circus”, “Volga-Volga”, “Shining Path”, etc. It is noteworthy that he also took part in voicing movie characters.

During the period 1937-1941. the man led the Leningrad Union of Composers. Few people know the fact that he maintained friendly relations with Mikhail Bulgakov.

At the age of 38, Isaac Dunaevsky became a deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. At this time he returned to writing operettas. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), he served as artistic director of the railway workers' song and dance ensemble, giving concerts in different cities of the USSR.

The song “My Moscow”, which was sung by the whole country, became especially famous among Soviet listeners. In 1950, Dunaevsky was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.

It is important to note that despite the popular love and high position, the master often faced difficulties characteristic of that era. Many of his works were banned due to the fact that they were written based on Jewish themes.

Death

In 1955, on July 22, Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky passed away. The composer was discovered by the driver; no one else was home at that moment. The death of the famous composer was immediately surrounded by rumors and speculation. Versions about suicide and even the murder of Dunaevsky were voiced, but none of them found official confirmation.

It was announced that the life of Isaac Osipovich was ruined by heart failure. The maestro's grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. Photos and records with recordings of the great composer can still be found in the collections of music lovers.

In memory of the talent of Isaac Dunaevsky, the street on which his apartment was located was named after the composer in the capital. There are such streets and alleys in Novosibirsk, Alma-Ata, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don. Also, two memorial plaques are dedicated to the memory of Dunaevsky. One is located in Kharkov, on the wall of the house in which the Dunaevsky family lived. The second memorial plaque to Isaac Dunaevsky can be seen in St. Petersburg, on what is now Gorokhovaya Street.

Personal life

Over the years of his personal biography, Isaac Dunaevsky was officially married twice. His first chosen one was Maria Shvetsova, but their union did not last long.

After this, the guy married the ballerina Zinaida Sudeikina. Later, the couple had their first child, Evgeniy, who would become an artist in the future.

By nature, Isaac was a very loving person, and therefore was in relationships with various women, including dancer Natalya Gayarina and actress Lydia Smirnova.

During the war years, Dunaevsky began a dizzying affair with ballerina Zoya Pashkova. The result of their relationship was the birth of a boy, Maxim, who in the future would also be a famous composer.

It's time to rejoice

Maxim Dunaevsky was not very old when it became finally clear that his son was following in his father’s footsteps. He wrote music first for the theater, and then for The first film in which the music of Maxim Dunaevsky Jr. was heard was the film “Blue Hares, or a Musical Journey,” released in 1972. But the film “The Three Musketeers” brought real success to the composer. The songs were already familiar to the advanced Moscow public - most of them had already been performed at the play “The Three Musketeers” in the Youth Theater. But the vast majority of Soviet citizens heard them on screen for the first time - and the sparkling, cheerful film was appreciated.

Songs from the movie “The Three Musketeers” quickly became popular, they were sung, parodied, and the words were changed. No connections would have brought such unfading popularity to the composer.

Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky0

It's been 120 years since the birth of a man whose name alone immediately brings a smile to your face. Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky. Several generations of our compatriots grew up listening to his music. The films “Jolly Fellows”, “Spring”, “Children of Captain Grant”, “Circus”, “Volga-Volga”, “White Acacia”... The songs that were first heard on the screen began an independent long life, independent of the cinema that gave birth to them. Much has been written about the composer Dunaevsky, but somehow that part of his life that relates to Kharkov has gone into the shadows

Kharkov period

Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky

Isaac Dunaevsky was born on January 30, 1900 in Lokhvitsa, a small Ukrainian town in the Poltava region. (In the very center of the town, on what is now Gogol Street, there is a house of the Dunaevsky family. There is a memorial plaque on it).

Father Joseph (Tsali) Simonovich (1865-1934) served as a cashier at the Mutual Credit Society. Mother Rosalia Isaakovna (1874-1964) was involved in raising children, sang well, played the old clavichord and violin. Isaac's grandfather was the cantor of the local synagogue. He not only sang, but also composed songs.

Music sounded constantly in the Dunaevsky family, and the father’s brother, Uncle Samuil, who lived with them, played a significant role in this. My uncle had a gramophone, the only one in Lokhvitsa. Isaac believed that his uncle was a magician - he organized home musical evenings, at which he gave explanations for the works he performed. With bated breath, his nephews listened to the music and explanations of his uncle. Isaac was then greatly impressed by Tchaikovsky’s romance “Crazy Nights,” recorded on a disc performed by A.M. Davydova.

The family attended all the performances of visiting Ukrainian troupes. Of course, this could not but affect the children.

From the age of 5, Isaac picked out everything he heard in the house and city by ear on the clavichord. At the age of 6, he listens to piano works by Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, played by N.N. Dyakov, director of the Lokhvitsa People's House, invited to Boris for piano lessons (by this time the old clavichord had been replaced by a piano ordered from Kyiv). By this time, he had mastered sheet music, became interested in the violin, and together with his older brother Boris gave concerts in Lokhvitsy. He began taking violin lessons at the age of 8 from Grigory Polyansky.

“It’s difficult for me to say now how Polyansky played from the point of view of technique and skill. Perhaps he didn't play very well. Then, when I was already a student at the conservatory, I heard almost all the world’s violinists. But then, when Polyansky played, it seemed to me that there was nothing better in the world... I think that it was at this time and precisely during these years that my love for melody, for melodiousness, arose, which greatly influenced my composing work" ( From the memoirs of Dunaevsky). Isaac began composing music at the age of 10; it came easily to him.

Unexpectedly, his mathematical abilities also appeared. In the spring of 1910, together with his older brother, Isaac passed the entrance exams to the newly opened real school in Lokhvitsa. But they were not accepted into the school because of the “percentage norm” that was established for Jews in Tsarist Russia.

The guys were not upset, because if they failed, they were supposed to be taken to Kharkov, where they would study music. To obtain the “right of residence” in Kharkov, Boris had to urgently master the profession of “apprentice bookbinder,” and Isaac was assigned to him as an “apprentice bookbinder.” According to the recollections of his elder brother Boris, when they arrived in Kharkov, the entrance exams to the music school had already ended, but they were still allowed to take the tests: “The director of the school, Ilya Ilyich Slatin, examined us. Isaac was enrolled in the violin class of teacher Gorsky. I was accepted into Chebotareva’s class.”

On the same day, the father purchased for the brothers a school uniform of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS) with gilded lyres on velvet buttonholes and gilded buttons on black jackets. The boys, happy, walked along the streets of the big city. After a measured provincial life in Lokhvitsa, they were greeted by the ebullient atmosphere of Kharkov, a large cultural center with its university, institutes, theaters, and outstanding figures of science, art, and literature.

The teachers at the music school were divided into senior and junior. All the elders had higher musical education received at Russian or foreign conservatories. The school accepted persons at least 10 years old; upon enrollment, they received the status of students or volunteers. Students attended classes in all subjects, artistic and scientific, as defined by the curriculum. Volunteers were divided into two categories. The first included those who attended a class in a selected special subject, who could attend all classes of compulsory subjects (or some of them of their own choice); in the second - those who studied, in addition to the music school, in other educational institutions. The full course in artistic subjects lasted 6 years (lower, secondary and higher departments, each for 2 years) and in scientific subjects 4 years. There was also a preparatory department with a one-year training period. The academic year began on September 1 and ended on June 1. The novelty of the situation in the music school, new people stimulated Isaac’s studies in the class of the “senior ordinary teacher of violin and viola” Konstantin Kiprianovich Gorsky. The elder brother Boris, no less successfully, studied in the class of “junior piano teacher” Alexandra Yakovlevna Chebotareva. Upon completion of the preparatory department (based on the results of semi-annual and spring exams), Isaac was immediately transferred to the third year. However, violin lessons with teacher K. Gorsky brought less and less satisfaction. This began to be felt especially acutely by the little violinist after the winter holidays spent in Lokhvitsa: the dry and somewhat pedantic music school teacher Gorsky was too different from the impetuous, emotional Lokhvitsy violinist G. Polyansky.

Joseph Achron

Fortunately, in 1913, by chance, Dunaevsky found himself in the class of a new teacher, Joseph Yulievich Akhron, invited from St. Petersburg - a brilliant violinist, cultural musician and composer, a student of the famous violinist L. Auer.

He was a very demanding, strict and at the same time charming teacher, who brought an atmosphere of true art to the school. Studying with Achron was extremely interesting. His brilliant play was endlessly captivating and could not help but arouse the desire to imitate him. From this moment begins the brightest time of classes with the “regular teacher of violin and viola” I.Yu. Achronom, to whom Dunaevsky assigns a special place in his memoirs: “He was not only my teacher, but also an older friend - an educator; I owe my musical culture to him, as well as my first compositional works of a completely professional nature...”

Back in Lokhvitsa, it was decided: if the boys were accepted into the Kharkov Music School, then at the same time as studying music they would prepare to enter the gymnasium. Finally, this preparation is over. In addition to studying at the music school, classes were added to the private men's gymnasium "Society of the 2nd Group of Teachers", where the Dunaevsky brothers entered in 1912 (the eldest Boris - in the fifth grade, the younger Isaac - in the third). Admission to the gymnasium freed boys from attending general education subjects at the music school. Unlike state educational institutions, this gymnasium had a rare atmosphere for that time, which had a significant influence on the formation of the worldview of the future composer. The teaching staff of the gymnasium consisted mainly of young, progressive-minded people; subsequently some of them became prominent scientists. Among them are academicians L.A. Bulakhovsky, V.P. Buzeskul, A.I. Beletsky, professor M.P. Samarin, P.M. Erokhin and others.

The director of the gymnasium, Nikolai Nikolaevich Knorring, a versatile educated person and an excellent amateur musician, paid great attention to the aesthetic education of students. He was the initiator of many musical endeavors at the gymnasium and himself led the student string orchestra. The Dunaevsky brothers immediately became actively involved in the musical life of the gymnasium and often performed at evenings: first with solo numbers (Boris as a pianist and reciter, Isaac as a violinist). Later, as members of a trio, quartet and string orchestra. In this orchestra, under the direction of the author, the first works of the young Dunaevsky were performed.

“Isaac’s musical talent unfolded before my eyes,” N. Knorring recalled about this time. “Given his abilities, one could expect that he would develop primarily into a virtuoso violinist... But Isaac was drawn to creativity. ... His experiments in the field of composition began to attract attention ... I really loved his improvisation: when he came to me on some business, I sat him down at the piano and forced him to play something of his own ... "

Here, in the gymnasium, Isaac Dunaevsky made a brilliant performance as a lawyer at the “trial” - a debate over Boris Godunov, arranged in a history lesson. Here, for his excellent studies when moving from class to class, he repeatedly received awards in the form of claviers of operas and other music publications. Here, after graduating from the gymnasium, Dunaevsky conducted choral singing lessons, replacing Pyotr Ivanovich Kravtsov, a famous Kharkov doctor and musician.

“But the memory of the evenings is especially dear to me,” recalls Knorring, “when, usually on Sunday, the Dunaevsky brothers came to my home with their instruments... and we indulged in playing music with pleasure.” In this home quartet, the first violin part was played by Isaac, the second by N. Knorring, the viola by Boris, the cello by V. Kavraisky, a school friend of N. Knorring, who lived with him at that time (later rear admiral, professor at Leningrad University, laureate of the State premiums).

Dunaevsky subsequently fearlessly corresponded with his beloved gymnasium teacher Nikolai Knorring, a Parisian emigrant, during Stalin’s times, which was then extremely dangerous

Many years later he wrote to N. Knorring: “Dear Nikolai Nikolaevich! ... I did not forget you and could not forget the wonderful memories of my gymnasium youth, our musical evenings, trips to you at Karpovka ... our return trips from you to Grekovskaya Street, when, full of musical impressions, we vying with each other on the night streets of Kharkov, involuntarily accelerating and slowing down the tempo of the step... Could you have thought thirty-five years ago that a little musician, a fan of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Borodin, could become a master of the “light genre”? However, it was my solid musical background that helped me and continues to help me create light music with serious means.”

Combining his studies at a music school and a gymnasium, Dunaevsky works a lot and hard. Already in his second year of study at the music school, he played violin concertos by Kreutzer and Mozart. The names of Isaac Dunaevsky, Eiba Lazarev, Anselm Svirsky and other students who studied in the class of I.Yu. Achrona are often found in student concert programs. I. Dunaevsky also takes part in public concerts of the most successful students of all courses and specialties. Isaac Dunaevsky's successful performances in student concerts quickly attracted the attention of listeners - fellow students, teachers and music lovers. Dunaevsky’s father was often present at these concerts, who came to Kharkov for “inspection” purposes. One day, while Isaac IV was performing part of Godard’s “Romantic Concerto,” a string on the violin broke. It was not possible to continue playing on three strings. But the performer still finished the concert after 2-3 numbers, replacing the broken string on the violin, which caused delight from the audience.

Another performance was even more successful with the Mendelssohn Concerto (this time, just in case, a spare violin was prepared). Despite the fact that applause was strictly prohibited in the school’s concert hall, the audience applauded. Ilya Slatin, after consulting with Achron, who was sitting in the hall behind him, sent someone backstage with permission for Isaac to go into the hall and bow to the audience. “An embarrassed, smiling Isaac appeared on the stage and bowed awkwardly. - recalled his brother Boris. “Soon my father arrived, and Joseph Yulievich, citing the student’s success, insistently demanded that Isaac’s practice violin be replaced with a concert instrument. This is how the Amati violin was purchased. The new instrument sounded great." (Amati violins, chamber type, are distinguished by their grace of form, beauty and tenderness of sound).

From performance to performance, the young violinist’s performing skills improve, and the musical horizons of the future composer expand. In addition to classes, the entire musical life of Kharkov contributed to this. Only in the 1913/14 season. in the musical collections of the Kharkov branch of the Russian Musical Society, works by Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Liszt, Rubinstein, Weber, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and others were performed. The orchestra was conducted by Malko, Vasilenko, Slatin; Beethoven's sonatas were performed by professors of the Petrograd Conservatory A.N. Esipov and L.S. Auer, and Concerto for violin and orchestra by P.I. Tchaikovsky was performed by I.Yu. Achron.

The teacher’s concert performances were a great incentive for Dunaevsky to work on himself. This is also evidenced by Isaac’s concert repertoire for the 1915/16 academic year - the last year of classes with I.Yu. Achronom, who left his service at the music school on June 1, 1916 to perform military service.

...It is interesting to note that during these same years, Dmitry Klebanov, David Pritsker, Oles (Alexander) Chishko, Alexey Ryabov, who later became famous composers, studied and performed in concerts at the Kharkov Music College.

Dunaevsky displays extraordinary performing abilities. His concert repertoire includes serious works of violin literature (up to the Tchaikovsky Concerto), but the young musician is increasingly fascinated by creativity.

The name of Dunaevsky, as an interesting performer and aspiring composer, is becoming increasingly famous in the artistic and musical circles of the city. He is invited to participate in concerts of professional artists. So, in 1916, at an evening in favor of the wounded, Isaac Osipovich performed with the artist of the Kharkov Drama Theater Evgenia Leontovich; she read T. Shchepkina-Kupernik’s poem “The Brussels Lacemakers” to his music. During these years, the emotional, romantically inclined Isaac experienced his first strong passion for Evgenia Leontovich, a theater star of Kharkov during the Civil War. Most of the plays of this period are filled with a feeling of sadness and melancholy, dedicated to “She, the one, the only...”

In the same year, 1916, Professor Akhron was mobilized to the front (the First World War was going on) “... I was orphaned,” the composer recalled. “The new teachers could not replace Akhron for me.”

October was approaching, which, instead of the “right to residence,” gave the right to a free and happy life. In the spring of 1917, the Kharkov Music School was transformed into a conservatory, where Dunaevsky was transferred. In the same year, the Conservatory named after Kharkov Philharmonic Society began operating. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov. Subsequently, both conservatories merged into a single educational institution.

Dunaevsky needed to systematically and professionally study composition; he attends a free composition class with Semyon Semenovich Bogatyrev. He tries his hand at a wide variety of genres - he writes romances, instrumental pieces, works for quartet and string orchestra.

For 7 years from 1910, the Dunaevsky brothers lived in Kharkov in the family of Moisei Ilyich Derkovsky on the street. Grekovskaya, 12, apt. 1.

st. Grekovskaya, 12, apt. 1.

This family loved music; the owner's two daughters, Lyubov and Cecilia, studied piano, and Derkovsky himself had a pleasant tenor. Together with his brother and the children of his landlady, Isaac attended the morning performances of the N. Sinelnikov Drama Theater.

The Derkovskys were like family to the brothers. In January 1927, Isaac wrote to them from Moscow: “I owe a lot to you, my beloved second mother Fanny Yakovlevna, to you - dear sisters, to you, of thy blessed memory, Moses Ilyich, and to you, who has gone to another world, Arisha! To all of you, who warmed my childhood soul with real affectionate warmth. I cherish in my soul this holy corner of my eternal gratitude and love for you...”

In this building on the street. Gamarnika, 2 there was a gymnasium

Simultaneously with his musical studies, in 1918 Dunaevsky graduated from high school with a gold medal and entered the Faculty of Law at Kharkov University. He is confident that a musician must not only bring culture to people, but also must himself be an educated, comprehensively developed person. True, after studying for about three years, he left his studies at the university’s Faculty of Law to devote himself entirely to music.

In 1919, after graduating from the Kharkov Conservatory, the 19-year-old musician returned to Lokhvitsa. Isaac Dunaevsky accepted the October Revolution and Soviet power with enthusiasm. He gives lectures at the Lokhvitsa People's University, publishes articles in the local newspaper Izvestia, and a youth circle "Theater and Music" gathers in the Dunaevskys' house. Isaac performs on the stage of the People's House performing musical works. His name is well known in Lokhvitsa - during his years of study in Kharkov, coming home on vacation, he more than once took part in various concerts and amateur performances.

Isaac Dunaevsky. 1919

By the summer of 1919, the life of the district town had become stormy and tense - there was a civil war. On July 1, 1919, in the article “Strike and Response,” I. Dunaevsky writes with alarm and indignation about the capture of Kharkov by the Denikins.

In the fall of 1919, he returned to Kharkov again - a new period in his life began. Childhood and years of study passed, and with them, youth ended. The civil war tore Isaac away from his family, who supported him financially. An independent path in life and art began.

Dunaevsky was hired as accompanist of the orchestra, invited on a one-time basis to the drama theatre, by his familiar conductor Joseph Efimovich Weissenberg. At this time, the play “The Imaginary Invalid” by Moliere was on the stage of the theater, the music for which was written by Kharkov composer Boris Yanovsky. The score included a large lyrical violin solo.

The talented musician entered the orchestra of the drama theater as a violinist, which was under the artistic direction of one of the most prominent figures in the Russian theater, Nikolai Sinelnikov, who drew attention to him and invited Dunaevsky to write music for one of his performances. The young composer's debut was successful, and soon he was offered to work in the theater in several positions at once: head of the musical department of the theater, composer and conductor. From this moment Dunaevsky's ascent to the pinnacle of musical fame began. “Here I begin my composing career,” writes I. Dunaevsky in his memoirs, “i.e. I am becoming a professional composer. ...The Sinelnikov Drama Theater was rightfully considered the pride of Kharkov. When I was just a boy, I attended the matinee performances of this theater with the children of my landlady. As we got older, we were already trying to get to his premieres, which were on Fridays. Needless to say, I was impressed by the performances with the participation of exciting actors... but the greatest decoration of the theater was Sinelnikov himself. We, young theatergoers, already understood at that time how significant the role of this director was in the theater that he created and which for many years he steadfastly maintained at a high artistic level.”

Dunaevsky had to compose a wide variety of music: overtures, songs, dances, parodies. Any other musician who received a classical education at a reputable conservatory would consider it an insult to work in these genres, but Isaac thought differently. He worked with gusto, even composing music for “terevsats” - theaters of revolutionary satire. Much later, he himself would be surprised at this transformation and write in one of his letters: “Could you have thought thirty-five years ago that a little musician, a fan of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Borodin, could become a master of the light genre? But it was my solid musical background that helped me and continues to help me create light music with serious means.”

In Kharkov, Dunaevsky fell in love for the first time and got married for the first time. Her first true love was Vera Yureneva, a magnificent actress with whom the whole city fell in love. But he married a music school graduate, Maria Shvetsova, in 1921; this marriage did not last long.

In the same year, 1921, universal conscription was introduced; 21 was the age of conscription into the army. There was only one way to avoid the army - to become a civil servant, and not just an employee, but an important person, an employee of the People's Commissariat. There were several commissariats in Kharkov that could grant a deferment. One of them was the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. Some of Dunaevsky's school friends had already served there and helped to provide him with patronage for an official job with a work schedule from ten to nineteen hours and a lunch break. The young composer abruptly changes his profession and becomes the corresponding secretary of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade of the Ukrainian SSR. As Isaac Osipovich himself admitted, he traded music for a secretary’s job and a steady food ration. One day, having forgotten himself, he drew a line of music in the corner of a business letter and sketched out a simple musical phrase that was born in his head, and sent the letter to Moscow. The answer came by telegram: “Answer what the eight bold dots and five parallel lines in the left corner of the message mean. Such a code is not known to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. Let me know what you want to say."

In 1922, those who worked in the state Soviet theater, which was considered an ideological institution, were entitled to absentee armor from the army. Dunaevsky fell under it. The new theater promised billions of theatrical salaries, for which little could be bought, and without a solid food ration, which was due to the working secretary-correspondent, he was threatened with a half-starved existence. But this did not stop Dunaevsky - Sinelnikov himself called him to his place. Called as a composer! He will write music, and not sit with papers in the People's Commissariat!

In 1924, a group of Kharkov actors was invited to work in Moscow theaters. In May 1924, Dunaevsky also left for Moscow. V.Ya. specially came to Kharkov for him. Henkin, who headed the theater in the Moscow Hermitage Garden by the summer of 1924. Already after the first programs of the theater, critics called Dunaevsky “an original composer and conductor who has no rivals of his kind.”

...There were still years ahead of the life and work of I. Dunaevsky, ahead was the creation of operettas, music for films and bright songs that radiated light, joy and warmth, ahead there was still national recognition of the composer’s merits in the development of Soviet musical culture.

But Kharkov will not leave Isaac Osipovich. His second wife will be Zinaida Sudeikina, a St. Petersburg ballerina who was born in the village of Andreevka, Zmievsky district, Kharkov province, and was raised by her mother’s sister in Petrograd. Zinaida studied at the choreographic school for a government fee, because was talented, but the revolution shattered her dream of the imperial stage. I had to return home to Andreevka, then to Kharkov, where the young ballerina became a soloist in operetta, at the same time studied with the ballerina Olga Sedova and taught her students. The graceful beauty, Zinaida Sudeikina, changed many studios, theaters and cities until she met her destiny - Isaac Dunaevsky.

In “An Unsent Letter to T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik" Dunaevsky wrote:

“...My biography, published at different times in popular brochures, only briefly touches on the sweetest in memories and most significant in its influence on the formation of my creative personality and style of the era of my life associated with the theater. ...With your book you stirred up the dormant world of my own memories, meetings, creative joys, big and small experiences of my once young heart.

I remembered the Sinelnikov Theater, which raised me. I remembered the wonderful actors and actresses I had seen in the past, many of whom I had worked with. ...I remember how brilliantly Victor Petipa played The Eaglet, with whom I have many memories of working together. ...Your "Stormy Wind" actress E. K. Leontovich played charmingly... I was a little partial to this sweet, charming woman in real life, and I remember dedicating some work to her on the day of the benefit performance. ...But I not only knew Yureneva well. It was love, more unique in strength. Even now it seems to me that she took my life in my 20s and gave me another. I owe the meeting with her one of my best works: the music of the “Song of Songs” translated by Efros... “The Song of Songs” lies far hidden with me, like a tender and fragile memory of my distant and sad love. Yureneva was a huge actress.”

Thus ended the period of Isaac Dunaevsky’s life in Kharkov, the city that became the cradle, the beginning of his creative path. Ahead were years of living and working in Moscow and Leningrad, popular recognition, envy and criticism.

There were many critical moments and dramatic pages in Dunaevsky’s personal and public life, but they are a separate discussion and not for this article. He always remained himself. Continuing the traditions of Johann Strauss, Dunaevsky raised dance music to unattainable aesthetic heights. His waltzes, marches and gallops are brilliant images of true artistry and impeccable taste. “He came to “light” music fully armed with the technical means that Russian composers - symphonists of the 19th century possessed,” wrote Professor N. Shafer about him.

In the memory of people, Isaac Dunaevsky forever remained “sunny” because he created his own special world - joyful and life-affirming. Few people know that the legacy left by Dunaevsky is not only music, but also his letters, reading which you discover a completely different Dunaevsky. His letters reveal his nobility and extraordinary literary talent, his willingness to communicate with people.

Over the years he came to Kharkov. At the end of 1954, at the request of Kharkov radio, Isaac Osipovich wrote the following:

“I am often asked the question: with which cities, with which places in our country are the most valuable and vibrant periods of my life associated? I never think about naming the city Kharkov first.

And indeed, if you don’t count the small town of Lokhvitsy in the Poltava region, where I was born and lived the first ten years of my life, Kharkov is the city of my childhood, my youth, my studies, my first creative works. Kharkov is the city in which my feelings, my tastes, my consciousness were formed. Kharkov is a city in which the power and greatness of the October Revolution is, a city in which I first heard the hot, inviting revolutionary word, which sank deeply into my young soul, my creative consciousness, then still just fermenting. Kharkov is the city in which I began my professional working life, in which my creative aspirations gradually took shape.

That is why Kharkov is near and dear to me. It was like that to me in years gone by, when it was a dusty, disorganized city. It became even more dear to me when, during the years of Soviet power, it was decorated with huge houses, the width of squares and asphalt streets, shady parks and public gardens. He became even dearer to me when I saw with my own eyes how he rose from the ruins left as a legacy from the fascist scoundrels, how quickly and beautifully he healed the wounds inflicted on him by the war. Every corner of old Kharkov is dear to me, but everything new that I encounter in Kharkov at every step is infinitely dear to me...”

Dunaevsky passed away suddenly on July 25, 1955, while working on the score of the operetta “White Acacia.”

His friend Joseph Prut, writer, journalist, screenwriter, in his book “Unyielding” describes the moment of Isaac Osipovich’s death as follows:

“He died tragically at the age of 55... He had many plans. I prepared material for him for an operetta called “Her Blue Eyes.”

With his passing, the song left the country. This is how we felt, who loved him and who knew him well.

Novodevichy Cemetery. A grave has been dug, and the mother is standing - an 80-year-old woman. She is supported by Isaac's brother Zinovy. And she must see how the coffin will now descend with her son, with her pride, her boy, who suffered so much in his life, who drank grief both with women and with his children...

When we brought the coffin to the grave pit to lower it, we realized that a second death was about to happen: the mother’s heart could not stand it, it would burst!..

The mother made some unnatural movement, and the young conductor of the military orchestra standing nearby realized this. He shouted - Pipes!

And 16 pipes took off. He shouted - That's it!

And 16 trumpets sounded the march: “It’s easy on the heart...”

And now 120 musicians played “Light in the heart from a cheerful song!..”

The mother choked, as an attack chokes, from the greatness of her son’s music - and endured.

This is how we saw off Isaac Dunaevsky"

Before leaving for Moscow from 1923 to 1924, Isaac Dunaevsky lived in a house on the street. Yaroslav the Wise (formerly Petrovskaya), 24, apt. 4 (right wing on the first floor)

house on the street Yaroslav the Wise

Memorial plaque

On October 14, 1989, a memorial plaque with a high relief of the composer was unveiled on the house. The house changed its owners several times. Currently there is a fashionable women's store here, but the high relief still reminds us of the famous Kharkov resident. The Kharkov Holocaust Museum is located across the house from Dunaevsky’s former abode and has more than once updated the knocked-down letters on the memorial plaque, and about five years ago it returned the knocked-down board, which was preserved by the store employees, to its place.

Of course, this part of the house looks completely different than it did during his lifetime - the windows have been converted into the entrance and storefronts, but the memorial plaque remains in its original place. I am sure that Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky himself would have smiled in the vicinity of fashionable, slender girls in the display windows of his former abode - he always appreciated youth and beauty and was an unsurpassed singer of joy in music.

The house where Dunaevsky lived

I thank Irina Anatolyevna Kalacheva for kindly providing photographs from the family archive and methodological recommendations prepared in 1985 by a member of the Union of Composers of the USSR, Yuvenaly Timofeevich Kalachev, dedicated to Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky.

The article was written in January 2015.

Original: https://z.berkovich-zametki.com/y2020/nomer1/volovik/