Piotr Stolyarsky

Infobox musical artist
Name = Piotr Stolyarsky


Img_capt = Piotr Stolyarsky
Background = classical_ensemble
Birth_name = Piotr Solomonovich Stoliarsky
Born = November 18 (30) - 1871
Odessa region, Russian Empire (Ukraine)
Died = April 29, 1944 (age 73)
flagicon|USSR|1941Sverdlovsk, USSR
Genre = Classical
Occupation = Pedagogue, Violinist
Years_active = 1893-1944

Piotr Stolyarsky (Piotr Solomonovich Stoliarsky)

(b.11-18 (30)-1871, (Lipovtsy), now Vinnitsa region near Kiev, Russian Empire (Ukraine) – (d.4-29-1944 Sverdlovsk), USSR -

Soviet violinist- eminent pedagogue, honored as "the People's Artist of UkSSR (Ukrainian SSR) (1939). Member of CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) from 1939.

Stolyarsky first studied with his father, then with S.Barcewitcz in Warsaw, and subsequently with Emil Młynarski and Josef Karbulka in Odessa.In 1893 graduated from Odessa music school. In 1893-1919 became a member of the Odessa Opera House orchestra. From 1898 commenced his pedagogical activity teaching children from the age of 4. In 1912 he opened his own music school. From 1919 he taught at the Odessa conservatory (where he became a professor in 1923). He founded the Odessa School of violin playing and became one of the founders of the Soviet violin school.

His students won top prizes among important competitions.

In 1935 Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw two of his pupils won prizes, David Oistrakh and Boris (Busya) Goldshtein.Official result; Ginette Neveu from France came first, David Oistrakh second,Henry Temianka won third, Boris Goldstein came in fourth and Josef Hassid from Poland received an honorary diploma.

In 1937, at one of the most prestigious international competitions of its time, the [http://www.cmireb.be/en/p/5/41/47/east_and_west.html International Ysaye Competition] , Stoliarsky students caused a sensation. Top prizes were garnered by David Oistrakh, Boris Goldshtein (Goldstein), Yelizaveta Gilels and Mikhail Fikhtengoltz. The Soviet Politburo was indeed riding the propaganda machine to its fullest.

"The results of the sessions created a profound impression: the Soviet school, with an assurance that bordered on arrogance, carried off all the prizes from the first down. The latter was awarded without the slightest discussion to the great David Oistrakh. Everyone else had to be content with crumbs; the Belgian violin school, though still a source of pride, failed, and its absence at the final was much commented on; Arthur Grumiaux and Carlo Van Neste, both young and inexperienced, were not able to convince the jury." [ [http://www.cmireb.be/en/p/5/41/44/50ans.html The Queen Elisabeth Competition] ]

In Soviet Union his (Stolyarsky's) name was always associated with the special pedagogic method for professional instruction(s) in music for gifted children (from an early age). Stoliarsky had superb personal qualities of a master teacher, highest musical instincts and organizational talent which made it possible for him to attain maximum results.

Among his star pupils were the legendary David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Samuil Furer, Boris Goldstein, Elizabeth Gilels (wife of the legendary Soviet violinist Leonid Kogan and sister to the eminent pianist Emil Gilels), Igor Oistrakh, Mikhail Fikhtengoltz and [http://www.violin-fund.ru/eng/competition/comp2/juri/grach.wbp Eduard Grach] who was one of his last pupils.

Name of Stoliarsky is also associated with the special musical school for gifted children in Odessa (which was opened in 1933 upon his initiative). He was awarded the "Order of the Red Banner of Labor".

Also see School of Stolyarsky (for gifted children).

References

* Violin Virtuosos (from Paganini to 21st century) - Henry Roth 1997 ISBN 1-8879395-15-0
*В сб.: Музыкальное исполнительство, в. 6, М., 1970, с. 162—193; - Гринберг М., Пронин В., В классе П. С. Столярского
*«Советская музыка», 1972, № 3. - Ойстрах Д., Фурер С., Мордкович Л., О нашем учителе. (К столетию П. С. Столярского)

External links

* [http://www.cmireb.be/en/p/5/41/44/50ans.html The Queen Elisabeth Competition]
* [http://www.moria.farlep.net/ru/almanah_02/02_11.htm Stolyarsky archives (in Russian)]
* [http://www.vor.ru/English/MTales/tales_013.html Stolyarsky and his students]
* [http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/166/VZR/o04.htm ДВА ФЕНОМЕНА СТОЛЯРСКОГО]

"The Russian performing school is a well-established notion in music that immediately brings to mind a veritable constellation of big names of whom Pyotr Stolyarsky is certainly one. Even though he was not really famous as a player, Stolyarsky trained dozens of very excellent violinists… Odessa is a very beautiful city on the Black Sea coast with gorgeous sand beaches, a seaport always bubbling with hectic activity, an equally bustling open market, a towering monument to Duc de Richelieu overlooking the magnificent bulk of the breathtakingly beautiful Opera house where violinist Pyotr Stolyarsky worked for a whole thirty years.Well, playing was his piece of bread, nothing more, unlike teaching where Stolyarsky’s talent was certainly second to none. He immediately knew a talent when he saw one, really… Taking a kid’s hand, he could tell then and there whether he or she would make a good player or not. Seeing the little David Oistrakh, the son of one of the theater’s singers, he told her the boy would someday become a wonder player. And like it always happened, his prophesy came perfectly true…

When David turned five, Stolyarsky took him up. Joyful, mischievous and noisy, the little David invariably stood still in front of his favourite teacher with his tiny violin in hand. Stolyarsky never forces his students to practice long hours always trying to get them interested and making each lesson look like a game to play… The kids adored their mentor who was their father, judge, almost a godlike figure, nothing less. David Oistrakh was at the top of Pyotr Stolyarsky’s class and he was forever grateful to his one and only teacher for everything he achieved in music…Stolyarsky was the first name Oistrakh mentioned in his interviews, someone he called one of the greatest music teachers who ever lived, and whose instructions he so amply used in his own teaching career…Well, Oistrakh was not exactly the teaching genius Stolyarsky once was. He never managed to get his son Igor really interested in the violin. The boy seemed to prefer the piano better and would only get back to the violin after meeting Stolyarsky. Igor was twelve and it seemed he was already too old to take up a new instrument, but working under Stolyarsky’s expert guidance, he managed to achieve in just a few short months what others normally took years to attain…

Several years later David and Igor Oistrakh teamed up on stage at the Conservatory Great Hall in Moscow to play the Double Concerto by J.S. Bach. Always handpicking the most talented children, Pyotr Stolyarsky eventually became a great expert where it came to working with phenomenally endowed youngsters. He also had developed a whole system of training that included music and general subjects. Joining Stolyarsky’s class was everyone’s dream in Odessa. The maestro was very finicky in his choice, though, always underscoring the role played by the mothers who are always by their kids’ side and who, he said, should be more than just doting moms but intelligent ones too, ambitious but demanding.

While the kids were in class, their mothers normally sat in the hallway discussing the problems of violin music and each being dead certain that her offspring was the most talented of them all…Stolyarsky worked with his most endowed students every single day and would even take some of them to his country dacha in summer. Among those lucky ones were Elizaveta Gilels and Mikhail Fikhtengoltz. In 1937 these two young prodigies won medals at the prestigious Eugene Izai international competition in Brussels. Back in Moscow they received a hero’s welcome and, buoyed by all that, gave a joint concert here.Elizaveta Gilels’ stage career proved pretty short-lived though. Marrying the famous violinist Leonid Kogan she had two children and very little time for music...

Mikhail Fikhtengoltz made an excellent career as both a virtuoso and a very expert interpreter of music of different times and styles. Like most of Stolyarsky’s disciples, he went right to the core of what he played…Pyotr Stolyarsky spawned a variety of differently-minded students and he managed to instill in each and every of them good taste and technical flash that were all his own, a quality that made them absolutely unrivalled wherever they played in the world.Eduard Grach was one of his last students and, just like everyone else, Stolyarsky also taught him to play the viola with exactly the same ease as he did the violin. This ability to play two instruments equally well stood Grach in very good stead when he set up his very own Moskovia string orchestra. Eduard Grach patterned the Moskovia on the student orchestras Stolyarsky one had, where the violinists and violists were his students all, and played with clockwork precision. Grach, too, made sure that almost all members of his orchestral lineup were his conservatory graduates. Most of them are honorable mentions of prestigious national and international competitions. Meaning that here too Eduard Grach keeps up the traditions laid down by his great mentor…

Pyotr Stolyarsky died in 1944 but his cause is still very much alive. The school he once opened in Odessa now bears his name; just like the young violinists’ competition he organized many decades ago. His teaching method still leads the way for new generations of musicians… "