Revol Bunin, Viola Concerto, Rudolf Barshai, Viola. p 1 of 4

Part 1: Andante-Allegro (part 1 of 2 parts of this movement; total time of this movement is 12:57)

Revol Samoilovich Bunin (1924 - 1976) was born in Moscow, on April 6, 1924 in a family of professional revolutionaries. His parents named him after the October revolution, Revol (his friends always called him "Volik"). His father, Samuil Markovich, was the "old timer", a member of the Communist Party from before the revolution and was a professor of social economics at of the Moscow Institutes. Volik was 6 when he started to write music and he started by writing scores. In the after revolution Soviet Union, there was no specialty paper to write music on, surely, there was no note paper to write scores for a 6 year old, so young Bunin, would sit down and draw lines on a plane paper to make his own notes. He composed marches, waltzes, minuets and Polkas. Bunin's mother was always very ill and she passed away when he was 14. His upbringing was entirely in the hands of his father. When Volik's mother was dying, she asked him to play a piano. He played Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mussorgsky through the night and in the morning, he had an asthma attack, his first, that later proved fatal for his life. In 1938 Revol started his studies at the Composers' faculty of the Music School of the Moscow Conservatory under professor Ilya Litinsky. During his third year of studies he was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory and continued his studies under professor Vissarion Shebalin, who was, at the time, Conservatory's director. In 1941, when World War II started in Russia, he was summoned to first work at the military factory in Moscow and, then, was drafted to the active duty, but, taking into account his musical gift, he was stationed near Moscow, so he could continue to attend the classes. He was decommissioned, due to his ill health, in March of 1943. In June of 1943 Shostakovich came to teach at the Moscow Conservatory and Revol Bunin was the first student selected by the great composer to be his pupil. Bunin wrote in his article "With great appreciation" in "The Soviet Music" Magazine (September 1976) - "... We were more and more conquered by Shostakovich's works. Secretly, I was dreaming to become his student. Finally, this happy day came on June 7th, 1943, class room number 31... At the piano a friendly man, dressed in a gray-colored modest suit , wearing horn-rimmed spectacles. He looked very young, nothing like the old eminent scholars of the Conservatory. He asked me in details how old I was, when I started to compose, who were my teachers, if I studied polyphony and so on; he subjected me to a small exam - I had to read a score of Haydn symphony, to tell him what was the difference between a Passacallia and Chiaconne, to give examples, known to me, of a mirror reprise in symphonic allegri and give examples for use of French horns and trumpets in a rare formation (H, Fis). Shostakovich was interested if I read a lot and if I liked Chekhov and Leskov..." It happened, that for a while, Bunin was Shostakovich's only student. Revol graduated from the Conservatory in 1945 with honors. Shebalin (director of the Conservatory) could not forgive Bunin's defection to the class of Shostakovich from his own and did not allow his name to be added to the "Golden Board" of exemplary students. In 1947 Bunin moved to Leningrad, where he taught music arrangement at the Leningrad Conservatory and assisted Shostakovich as a co-professor of composition. Same year his 2nd Symphony was premiered in Leningrad, under the button of a legendary conductor Evgeny Mravinsky. In 1948 he moved back to Moscow and worked as an editor at the State Music Publishing. After infamous government decree, that set stringent regulations on music and art in the former Soviet Union, Shostakovich was dismissed as the professor in the Conservatory. Consequently, his assistant, Bunin, has also lost his position and became, for a while, persona non-grate. He had to make his living by writing scores for other composers, mainly protegees of other Soviet Republics. His music has won on several occasions the "Stalin Prize", but Bunin's name didn't appear on these awards nor was mentioned to the selection committee, however, he was always rewarded by the "composers" for his silence. Revol Bunin died on July 3rd, 1976 in Moscow. He was mourned by his wife, his friends and many students. He had no children. He was never awarded State honors, for he refused to join the Communist Party, in contrast with many of his colleagues. Bunin wrote music scores to 48 motion pictures, cartoons and documentaries. He left 45 major compositions, including 9 symphonies, numerous sonatas, quartets, trios, an opera, romances, several concertos for piano, violin. His viola concerto (Op. 22) was composed in 1953 and dedicated to his close friend, famed violist, Rudolf Barshai.

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[thaxdouglas]

beautiful-thanks for making the discovery possible for me!

[edgluhrs]

This is a terrific piece of music for the viola.

[nickklozik]

@alternativeviola i would love to have the pdf for this, nickklozik@yahoo.com, thanks

[grasserstain]

Can anybody tell me where to get this piece, I'm a viola major and I love to perform piece that aren't well known.

[grasserstain]

@alternativeviola mhiler@emich.edu Can you send me the pdf, this is such a beutifful piece, might play it for a college recital.

[alternativeviola]

I have PDFs for both the solo viola part and the piano score. If anyone wants it, message me your email and I'll send it to you ;)

[rotoize]

can anyone send me the scores of this piece?please, please!!

[inuzukaguy]

Hey, I've been trying desperately to locate this piece to no avail, four professors I've contacted didn't even know it existed. Any chance you could point me in the right direction? I'd go to great lengths to track this piece down!

[DreamMurksCoKg]

This piece is just amazing...I would love to play it...

But i asked in various stores and nobody found something about it...

Only his sonata is there...

So does anyone know if the piece is even printed yet?

[beanzaronii]

@music00000000 is there any way i could get the score from you?