New Russia

Musical Times, Spring 2003 by Vijvers, Willem

A history of Russian music: from Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar Francis Maes Translated from the Dutch by Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans University of California Press (Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 2002); xiv, 427pp; L29.95, $45. ISBN 0 520 21815 9.

In recent years general histories of Russian music have appeared in several countries, including Germany (Redepenning, vol. 1, 1994), Denmark (Stahl, vol.1, 1995, vol.2, 1997) and Italy (Bortolotto, 1999). But until now no single-volume history has been available in English. This gap has at last been filled through this translation of Francis Maes's Dutch-language book, first published in 1996, originally the result of his work with Richard Taruskin as a Fullbright Research Fellow at the University of California during the early 1990s. This translation, which reads more smoothly than the original, has been updated on some minor points, a few paragraphs have been added (for example, a page on Soviet policy in nonRussian regions (p.258)), and others have been deleted (including some repetitive explanations - for example, pochvennichestvo).

A few mistakes were also present in the original, some of which have been corrected in this translation. (On the other hand, the erroneous statement on p.35, `The new tsar, Nicholas's younger brother [sic], Alexander II', does not occur in the earlier Dutch edition.) Nevertheless, Maes's book is, on the whole, an admirable achievement and certainly worth reading by the nonspecialist, who will be introduced to Russian music without being confronted with serious errors of fact.

At the same time, however, he or she will probably get a rather one-sided view of its development. According to Maes, there are two fundamentally different approaches to the study of nineteenthcentury Russian music: the 'old' one, which slavishly copies the opinions of the Russian critic Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906) and is adopted by Soviet authors, and the `new, American-- led one. Maes believes that the `two historical viewpoints are so contradictory that they cannot be possibly reconciled.' This is a somewhat exaggerated statement. Stasov held more balanced views than is apparent from the polemical articles which are repeatedly cited, while contemporary German and Russian writers do not, in general, simply duplicate Stasov's opinions. Maes is particularly critical of Dorothea Redepenning, whose 1994 book he has previously condemned as obsolete (see his article in the International Journal of Musicology 6 (1997), pp.377-94).

Maes's admission, `That I identify myself completely with the new approach, elaborated above all by American musicologists, will be obvious', is hardly contestable, but by ignoring most of the recent research in other countries and concentrating on Taruskin's publications, he presents a biased view. For example, although Maes devotes a hundred pages out of 374 to the birth of Russian opera in the nineteenth century, he does not provide any information on those composers which Taruskin himself did not cover. Thus, Reinhold Glier is mentioned six times (though nothing is said about his compositions), and Lyapunov is merely presented as the man who completed Balakirev's Piano Concerto (referred to twice, on pp.69 and 168). Of Glazunov's works only his First Symphony (written in his school days) and Stenka Razin are cited in passing (even his Violin Concerto is missing). Kalinnikov is not included at all, Gretchaninov is one of the many composers who are only listed, and Medtner's works are not even mentioned (but then in Defining Russia musically (p.318) Taruskin calls him `the poor man's Rachmaninoff'). Yet there is much namedropping of rather obscure Russians about whom we learn nothing. Maes also approaches twentieth-century music through Taruskin's research, and Soviet musical policy is discussed extensively.

This polemical attitude is conspicuous throughout the book. For example, on p.140 we read: `Uncritical biographers, who prefer rumor to verifiable sources, claim, of course. ....'. Favourite victims of Taruskin, such as the Tchaikovsky biographer David Brown and the Shostakovich expert Ian MacDonald, receive the familiar treatment at the hands of Taruskin's disciple. One is reminded of those of Stasov's disciples who tried to emulate their mentor by attacking others in print.

The bibliography lists the sources used but does not provide the reader with useful hints for further reading. Literature is mainly in English, though several German publications are cited, including Kashkin's memoirs (Berlin, 1992), which Maes fails to mention is vol.6 of an extensive series of translated Russian sources (with good introductions) published by Ernst Kuhn Verlag. Even more surprising is the omission of Stuart Campbell's Russians on Russian music (Cambridge UP, 1994). Of course, Taruskin's publications are plentiful, but references to his articles and the books in which they were collected (published since the appearance of Maes's Dutch original) are mixed arbitrarily.