Interview

Zaderatsky’s Forgotten Voice An Interview with Jascha Nemtsov

by Alan Mercer

t a recent event held at the Par- is-based headquarters of the “Association Internationale ADmitri Chostakovitch,” musicologist and pianist Jascha Nemtsov spoke about his recent world premiere recording of Vsevolod Zaderatsky’s monumental Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues (1937–39), following on from his “Shostakovich Days” Gohrisch premiere performance of the work in 2015. He also played the frst eight preludes and fugues of the cycle to the delight of the enthusias- tic audience. Te DSCH Journal spoke with Nemtsov before the event, and began by asking how he discovered Zader- atsky and his music.

JN: As well as being a pianist, I am also a musicologist, and as such, I was asked by a very good friend, Manfred Sapper, chief editor of the magazine Osteuropa in Berlin, to write an article on composers in the Gulag: they were preparing a new edition dedicated to Varlam Shalamov. 1 I think that this 2 was published in 2007. And it was Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky was born in the Ukrainian city of on December 21, through my research for this article 1891. The pianist and composer was arrested several times and spent time in prison and that I discovered Zaderatsky. Stalin’s infamous Gulag Siberian camps. He died, shortly before Stalin, of a heart attack in , Ukraine, on February 1, 1953 DSCH: Had there been any previous publications concerning Zaderatsky? the end of the he wrote fall of the Soviet Union, and since the nothing at all about his father, and as beginning of the new millennium he JN: Yes, there had, and they had all far as I know, was not able to promote has been very active in promoting his been written by his son, Vsevolod his father’s music very much. I met father’s works, with several editions Vsevolodovich, who is now 81 years one of his former students from the published in and in Lvov, old, lives in Moscow, and is still active Soviet era, who’s now in her sixties, Ukraine. Te frst substantial articles as a professor at the Conservatory, and she told me that, although she on Zaderatsky were published in the teaching musical theory. Although he had studied with Professor Zader- magazine Sovetskaya Muzika, over is an infuential person in the musical atsky for some considerable time, he three issues, with the result that this life of the Russian capital now, and never once mentioned the name of turned out more like a biography than still writes a great deal, right up until his father. But this changed with the an article based on musical analysis.

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very close as a structural idea to one of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke—and in the same key—but at the same time, it is not necessarily the case that he was infuenced by Schumann.

DSCH: Would you say that the con- text in which he wrote this work led him to want to pay homage to other composers?

JN: Yes, and in a sense, this aspect is comparable to the cycle of Shosta- kovich’s Twenty-Four Preludes: afer a time of experimentation and afer consolidation, the composer comes back to the cradle, as it were, and to tonal language in a larger classical Jascha Nemtsov tradition. To my mind, this is the rea- son why Zaderatsky uses homages to DSCH: Is there an ofcial biography all I had known was that this was a several classical composers. of Zaderatsky? composer who had sufered in the Gulag, but when I saw his work itself, DSCH: Regarding the Prelude and JN: Yes, and again this was written by I was really surprised. And so the Fugue tradition, you write that Zader- his son: it was published three years question arose: should I study and atsky deserves a special place in the ago. He also published several literary play this music myself? And this was musical history of the twentieth cen- works by his father, who incidentally how I began work on the cycle of the tury: his cycle did predate those of was also a very gifed writer. Tere Twenty-Four Preludes which were Shostakovich and Hindemith. is an edition of his writings in Rus- written in 1934. sian, even though some of his early JN: Yes, but I don’t think Zaderatsky’s literary works were destroyed along DSCH: Did Zaderatsky’s son send adoption of the form was by chance. with his music when he was arrested you manuscripts? As a matter of fact, I have been think- in the 1920s. ing about this lately, in connection to JN: No, some of Zaderatsky’s works events taking place to celebrate 500 DSCH: You got to know the compos- had already been published in Mos- years since the Reformation in Ger- er’s son well? cow and in Lvov. many. One such event is an exhibition running at the Bach Museum in Eisen- JN: To begin with, it was difcult, DSCH: So back to your impression ach. Te exhibition is called “Luther, and I was only able to fnd a few ref- of the pieces—what surprised you Bach—and the Jews,” and for me this erences about him on the internet, most: the complexity, the originality, was a very disturbing event. Tere through his articles about his father. or the pianism? was a lot of press coverage, including I read then that the composer’s son an article in the German newspaper was still in Moscow and was teach- JN: For me, it was about individual Die Welt entitled “Genius with Brown ing at the Conservatory, and so one style. Inevitably, when you hear of a Spots”: it was an article about Bach. day, I telephoned and asked if I could new name that no-one knows of— Te article begins by stating that it is speak to Professor Zaderatsky, and to well, expectations are necessarily not now necessary to remove the “brown my surprise, I was given his private very high! One thing that struck me spots” from our culture and that “Bach number. So we talked, and I explained early on was Zaderatsky’s homages to is now also done.” Tey are actually that I needed material to further my other composers in his music, while trying to be courageous by criticis- studies. He was very pleased and told at the same time retaining a strong ing Bach as an anti-Semite. Tis is so me that he was happy that this work sense of his own personality—espe- ridiculous and also quite dangerous. was being carried out. He sent me cially in the Twenty-Four Preludes Te whole basis of this attitude is a great deal of material, including mentioned earlier where you can hear the subject of Bach’s Passions, which his article from Sovietskaya Muzika homages to Chopin, Schumann, and use texts from the holy scriptures. as well as several scores. I was truly Rachmaninov. Take, for example, the Tese people apparently would have amazed by the music when I saw it: F-major prelude: the movement is expected Bach to improve the texts

40 • Jan. 2017 • Nº 46 • DSCH JOURNAL Alan Mercer • Zaderatsky’s Forgotten Voice according to political correctness! It’s ridiculous, but I think it is also very typical of today’s Germany. So now I play this cycle by Zader- atsky, which is in a kind of dialogue with Bach, and I ask myself just why he wrote such a work when he was in the Gulag. And then why did Shosta- kovich write his preludes and fugues at the climax of the Stalin-led anti-Se- mitic campaign, and indeed why did Victor Ullmann use the name of Bach in one of his last compositions, the Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folk Song?3 Again, the fugue features in this work, and one of the subjects of the fugue is based on the name of Bach. Tis piece was written in the Ter- esienstadt Ghetto. And so all three The composer's son, Vsevolod Vsevolodovich Zaderatsky composers regarded Bach not only as a great composer, but also as a sym- because he was an excellent teller of frst, unpublished version, as for me bol for humanism, and of European stories. So much so that he was held it’s more pleasant and more appeal- culture as the culture of humanism. in high esteem, not only by his fel- ing to my eyes. In the case of Zaderatsky, I think this low prisoners, but also by the guards was the main reason for him to have themselves, who would also listen to DSCH: You also wrote about the chosen this form, clearly associated his storytelling. Zaderatsky was a very impact of Zaderatsky’s music never with Bach. When you refer to Twen- well-educated man and possessed the being performed in his lifetime: afer ty-Four Preludes and Fugues, you gif of communicating this knowledge he was released from the Gulag, his immediately think of Bach. So Zader- in a pleasant, accessible manner. So in music might have been published and atsky wrote his cycle because Bach was this way, he appeared to have been—to played, and his name become better for him a symbol of humanism, and I an extent—protected, which meant, known, but this didn’t happen, and he think it is most important to under- in particular, that as a privilege he remained almost unknown during his stand this. Of course, a composition received paper and a pencil, items lifetime. What is your understanding such as this is a microcosm, with so that were strictly forbidden. Tese of the circumstances that led to this many diferent facets. I believe that, were in fact blank telegraph forms as outcome and of the impact on the for him, with this music, he was cre- well as simple small blocks of paper: composer? Was it in any way volun- ating his own reality—his own world, nothing at all suitable for musical tary—was this for fear of speaking not afected by what was happening composition. When you see scans of out, do you think? to him through outside events and these documents, some are very, very circumstances. small and contain only two or three JN: You can only speculate about bars of music. He was made to prom- the reasons why there was such total DSCH: Did you learn about the con- ise the guards that he would not write neglect of Zaderatsky’s work. Yes, ditions in which he lived and worked words but only notes—only music. he lived in the Soviet Union, and and where he wrote the Preludes and yes, he was in prison, in the Gulag, Fugues? DSCH: So who actually reconsti- but he was only there for short peri- tuted the score? Did Zaderatsky do ods, and for most of his life, he lived JN: All that we know about this subject it himself? in diferent provincial cities. It was comes not even from a second-hand very unusual for a composer to be source, but a third-hand one! Tis was JN: No, it was preserved in the family completely unable to have his music because initially he spoke only to his archive as a bunch of papers, and in performed in public. His son thinks wife about his time in the Gulag. Many the end, it took over ten years, working that this may have been due to some years afer Zaderatsky died, his widow with computers, to compile and pub- secret order from the Soviet hierar- told their son about his father’s story; lish the work. Tis work was carried chy for his works not to be performed the boy was still a child when he died. out in Moscow prior to publication. in public because of certain links Te son reports that Zaderatsky had In fact, there are two diferent com- to the Tsar’s family.4 It is so hard to some kind of privileges in the camp puter settings. And I actually play the imagine how a composer could live

DSCH JOURNAL • Jan. 2017 • Nº 46 • 41 Zaderatsky’s Forgotten Voice • Alan Mercer without any possibility of his works like Shostakovich’s op. 87, played in afer he was released from prison in being heard by an audience. His son two groups of twelve? 1928: in fact, both the First and Sec- told me that Zaderatsky sometimes ond sonatas are actually the earliest played his works privately for his fam- JN: No, I don’t think so: you can regard compositions by Zaderatsky to have ily. Tis was his public. He once asked the C major as an introduction to the been preserved, and both of them are his son for his impression of some work, and the fnal prelude and fugue atonal. In the Second Sonata, there is a of the pieces, and his son shrugged certainly represents the fnale, with compositional idea, which, when you and said that he hadn’t really under- the bells—this is really conclusive. hear it in the sonata, is atonal—it con- stood the piece, or some sists of very fast passages suchlike remark. As a in the right-hand, with consequence, the com- no tonal centre at all. For poser became angry—so the Preludes and Fugues, angry at these remarks. the composer takes this He apparently cried out same idea, and by sim- “Durak!” [fool]. ply changing a number of very small details, it DSCH: To come back becomes a piece in G to the challenge of per- major, and the prelude forming the Preludes and in G is born. Tis is quite Fugues, what happened amazing, and throughout next? Zaderatsky fnds com- pletely diferent solutions JN: When I frst got the to build the work’s tonal score, my thought was, structures. “The challenge is too Tere were many wild big!”—this was my ini- experiments in music tial reaction. Te cycle is through the 1920s, 30s, huge cycle and extremely and 40s, and again afer complex; it is really more the War. But already in complex and demand- the 1920s and 30s there ing than Shostakovich. Manuscript of two pages from the Preludes and Fugues by Zaderatsky were many far-reach- Some of the movements ing attempts to change require big hands— the entire structure of which I don’t have. And Zaderatsky But you can play all the other pieces music—everything up to changing is fond of using tenths, which is quite in isolation—I’ve played excerpts sev- the tonal structures, including quar- a challenge as well. So for a time, I eral times. ter-tone music and so on. It is much thought perhaps somebody else ought more difcult, however, to fnd new to take on the piece, and lef the music DSCH: If you were to describe the forms of musical expression inside to one side for several months. But I work to someone who had not yet existing structures, so Zaderatsky— still had the music in my head, and heard it, how would you describe the and also Shostakovich—sought to so I took out the score once more, Zaderatsky Preludes and Fugues in push the boundaries here. played through the First Prelude and terms of their musicality, language, Fugue—and again concluded that the and tonality? DSCH: How much music was written piece was very complicated. But in before Zaderatsky was imprisoned? the end I fnally decided to learn the JN: Well, of course this is tonal music, whole cycle, which took me two-and- when you write a cycle in all the keys JN: Nobody knows, actually. I only a-half years. Some of the fugues were there must in some way be a connec- know that he wrote an opera called extremely tricky; not only did I have tion with the keys themselves [laughs]! Nose—just like Shostakovich! Tis to learn the notes themselves, and to But it is a very special tonality—which was destroyed in the 1920s along with get them “in my hands” as we say, but somehow sits on the border between a great deal of material that was lost I also had to build a conception of the atonal and tonal music. For exam- afer he was arrested in 1926—he was entire piece so that I could live with ple, he took the idea of the G-major 35 years old at the time. Te secret it, as it were. prelude from an early piano sona- police obliterated his whole archive— ta—I know the sonata well, as I am all of his manuscripts perished. In DSCH: Can the work be divided into preparing it for the next recording. fact, he tried to commit suicide in groups of preludes and fugues, rather Te Second Piano Sonata was written prison because, for him, this was the

42 • Jan. 2017 • Nº 46 • DSCH JOURNAL Alan Mercer • Zaderatsky’s Forgotten Voice loss of his whole life’s work. He tried time when Zaderatsky was living in DSCH: Tell us something about your to commit suicide, but luckily he was the city. Zaderatsky was banished soon own life. You were born in the Far rescued. Afer spending two years in afer this, but it is certainly possible East of Russia? prison, he wrote the two sonatas I that both composers were present at mentioned earlier: they are entirely that performance, and also through JN: Yes, I was born in 1963 in the city of atonal, and his son supposed that this their membership of the Association. Magadan, which was the administra- would have been typical of his musi- Zaderatsky was a very good friend of tive centre of a large Gulag region—I cal language before he went to prison, Mosolov, although I don’t know how don’t have any memories of the place like many other Russian avant-garde close Shostakovich was to Mosolov. because I was one-and-a-half years old composers. Te sonatas are dated July Zaderatsky spent four years in Mos- when I moved to Leningrad in 1965. and August 1928. cow from the end of 1930 to 1934, But my father told me a lot about his when he was banned from Moscow. experiences in the Gulag, and of being DSCH: Do these works also relate It is very probable that Zaderatsky arrested and subsequently tortured. to his time in prison—is there anger was inspired by the Shostakovich cycle He was kept for six months in prison in there? of preludes, because it was regarded before being deported to Siberia. So as being a very important work at this was an important topic during my JN: It is difcult to say. Tere is, of the time. life as a child growing up at this time. course, a great deal of very dark music, In my family, we were all very critical but many other Russian composers DSCH: You mentioned your work of the Soviet regime and ideology. wrote dark music. It’s not that unusual. regarding composers who had been in the Gulag in the camps—you wrote DSCH: Was it clear early in your life DSCH: We were talking about Bach the article for Osteuropa. Have you that you had a musical destination? earlier—are there any specifc pas- also researched other works that were sages in the Preludes and Fugues that written in the camps? JN: No, not at all. Until I was twelve, include clear references to Bach? Any- music was more of a hobby. I was more thing that you can single out? JN: Not works written in the camps, interested in the humanities, in sub- no. I did write about a composer jects such as history and philosophy; JN: I’m not a Bach specialist or scholar, who was in the Gulag—Alexander I was also interested in mathematics. but in truth, there is nothing specifc Weprik—but it was not in connection In the Soviet Union at the time, how- that I could really point out. Tere with his Gulag works. A researcher ever, Jews were not allowed study the is a strong sense of Bach’s work here: named Inna Klause from Göttingen topics they necessarily wanted to study, for example, the B-minor fugue is wrote an excellent dissertation on the and especially in such disciplines as reminiscent of Bach because of the subject that was later published. It history or philosophy, given that this chromatic motifs in the subject, and includes extensive research about all was a part of Soviet ideology and there are certain subjects in the fugues aspects of musical life in the camps.6 Jews were not trusted to connect with that are reminiscent of Bach or of In this context, we must mention this ideology. My mother prepared baroque music in general. But Zader- Weinberg, who was also persecuted, as me very early for this and encour- atsky’s treatment of the fugue form is well as Mosolov and Protopopov. Te aged me to study music. My frst and quite diferent in this work: it actually latter is a very interesting composer. only teacher at the Conservatory was corresponds to a romantic treatment Alexander Icharev—he was not a big of the fugue, rather like César Franck, DSCH: And this reminds us of Wein- name, but he was a good teacher. He and there are octaves and chords in berg’s opera Te Passenger. was well-known in St. Petersburg, but almost every fugue. Shostakovich not internationally. wrote a more traditional form of fugue. JN: Yes, although it’s a typical exam- ple of the reality of life in the Soviet DSCH: So you must have felt the infu- DSCH: Is there any way of knowing Union at the time of its composition. ence of contemporary composers who whether Shostakovich and Zader- Te composer writes an opera about were working during that time? atsky met? Auschwitz but with no Jewish char- acters: it’s what you might call a little JN: Well, no, because my early musi- JN: It is quite possible, because Zader- strange! In Germany, it’s known as the cal career was rather unusual, and I atsky was a member of the Association “Holocaust Opera,” but it is not about didn’t really participate in musical of Contemporary Music in Moscow.5 Jews—there is only one Jewish woman life in Russia at all. I studied there Shostakovich lived in Leningrad but who plays a marginal character in the and lived there, but I didn’t have any ofen went to Moscow, and it was opera—it’s about Poles and Germans. connections to musical life itself—I there that he performed his Twen- Weinberg was not allowed to write an was, in fact, isolated. It was only afer ty-Four Preludes during the same opera about the Jews. I moved to Germany that I began to

DSCH JOURNAL • Jan. 2017 • Nº 46 • 43 Zaderatsky’s Forgotten Voice • Alan Mercer be part of musical life. By then, I was studies. Of course, he was import- composer’s voice, and also in the letters thirty years old. In Russia, there were ant—but he was not part of my soul, that have been published. Tis book is several circumstances due to which I my personality. It was only afer many very important. I am a scholar myself, was not able to establish myself and to years that I felt diferently towards but I have to say that I really do not be in contact with noteworthy people. him, probably as part of my own care whether this book is deemed to I was a very shy person and stayed on maturing process. Only in the last be authentic or not. For musicians, it my own. Moving to Germany was like ten years has he become one of the can be so extremely helpful to under- a second birth for me—a new life with most important musical fgures for me. stand Shostakovich’s personality, the new possibilities. Apart from the Twenty-Four Preludes, spirit of his music, and its historical I have performed the Sollertinsky Trio context. In the end, these are the most DSCH: You have a strong empathy many times and the Quintet, the Pre- important things. It is a very impres- with, and interest in, Jewish music ludes and Fugues, the Violin Sonata, sive book, and one that infuenced me and Jewish culture. and some smaller pieces. I have also very much. It is so important to me. played the First Piano Concerto, but JN: Jewish culture and the Jewish not in public. DSCH: You mentioned a new record- identity, yes, of course. And for me, ing of Zaderatsky music? Jewish music is part of Jewish identity. DSCH: And the From Jewish Folk Poetry cycle? JN: It will be a box of fve CDs: there DSCH: Shostakovich’s afnity with will be a new edition of the Twen- Jewish culture is well documented JN: I have only played this for myself— ty-Four Preludes and Fugues, and also although not altogether understood— it would be great to perform this in the cycle of Twenty-Four Preludes. do we actually know what the origins public. It is difcult to fnd the right Tis will be an anthology including of this afnity and empathy may have opportunity, but I will try to do this. three of the piano sonatas and a num- been? What are your thoughts? ber of piano cycles and miniatures. DSCH: What other aspects of Shos- JN: I think that for him it was a takovich studies are of interest to you? DSCH: Piano cycles? symbol—the principal topic of Shosta- kovich’s works is the notion of the JN: I know that there is an ambiva- JN: Yes, there are two large cycles for person and the power. Te massive, lent attitude towards Shostakovich’s piano: I actually performed one of inhuman power that is set to annihi- memoirs by Solomon Volkov, but for them in France. Its title is Homeland, late the human being. I think the Jews, me this book was like a revelation. I and it is available on YouTube. Tis for him, were a symbol of the sufer- read some of the chapters up to three is extremely interesting music, with ing and a symbol of this unprotected times, and I genuinely like this book a many vivid pictures; I would call this human being. By the way, Shostakov- great deal. We really feel Shostakovich’s “plastic” music. It’s rather like a large ich was not my favourite composer personality in here—this sarcasm is tableau, very much in the style of pro- until I was a bit older—during my the sarcasm you can recognise in the gramme music.

Notes 1. Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (Russian: Варлам Тихонович Шаламов; 1907–1982): a Russian writer, jour- nalist, poet, and Gulag survivor, baptised as Varlaam. 2. Jascha Nemtsov, “‘Ich bin schon längst tot’: Komponisten im Gulag: Vsevolod Zaderackij und Aleksandr Veprik” [“I am already dead”: Composers in the Gulag: Vsevolod Zaderatsky and Aleksandr Veprik], Osteuropa 57, no. 6 (2001): 315–39. 3. Variations and Fugue from Ullmann’s last work, his Seventh Piano Sonata, dated 22 August 1944. Te fugue is based on Yehuda Sharret’s Song of Rachel, a popular Zionist anthem. Te work was dedicated to Ullmann’s three eldest children: his youngest son, Pavel, had died in the camps at the age of three, and son Max died in Auschwitz at twelve. 4. Speculation is that Zaderatsky was targeted because in 1915 and 1916 he gave music lessons to the son of Czar Nicolas II Tsarevich Alexei, the heir to the throne until the murder of the entire ruling family in 1918. 5. Association for Contemporary Music (ACM) founded in 1923 by Nikolai Roslavets to allow composers to focus on the musical avant-garde. Its members included Mosolov, Popov, Shcherbachov, Myaskovsky, Shebalin, and Shostakovich. 6. Inna Klause, Der Klang des Gulag: Musik und Musiker in den sowjetischen Zwangsarbeitslagern der 1920er- bis 1950er-Jahre [Te sound of the Gulag: music and musicians in the Soviet forced labour camps of the 1920s to 1950s] (Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2014).

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