RUDOLF BARSHAI was born in Russia on September 28, 1924, and studied viola and composition at the Moscow Conservatory, among others, with Dmitri Shostakovich. After performing as a violist, he formed a string trio with Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonid Kogan and was a member of the Borodin Quartet from 1945 to 1953. He founded the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in 1955 and was its conductor he until his emigration to Israel in 1977. He then conducted numerous international orchestras, including the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, of which he was chief conductor from 1982 to 1986.

He lived in Switzerland since the late 1980s. Barshai’s distinctive external feature was his close-cropped black lip mustache, which at the end of his life stood in stark contrast to his white hair. Those who met him were immediately fascinated by his elegance on the one hand and his incomparable vivacity in storytelling on the other. Jan Brachmann recalls one such encounter in his obituary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: «A fine smile played around his lips, and in cheerful German he, the Russian from the North Caucasus, then recited all the captivating stories about the eternal self-dissatisfaction of the century pianist Svyatoslav Richter or about the unexpected spontaneity of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, his teacher, whom Barshai loved above all.»

Barshai’s emigration to Israel in 1977 had many motivations, some of which were also related to Shostakovich, whom he admired. Thus, against the strongest resistance of the political authorities, the conductor Barshai was able to perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 op. 135, written for him and his Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Jan Brachmann adds in his newspaper article: «While (Barshai’s violin teacher) Leo Zeitlin was still a member of the ‘Society for Jewish Folk Music’ founded in 1908 in Saint Petersburg during the late tsarist era, his student had been warned of political anti-Semitism especially after the murder of the Jewish actor Solomon Mikhoels by Stalin’s followers in 1948.

After Shostakovich’s death, Barshai emigrated to Israel, where he conducted the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and has performed as a guest conductor all over the world. “

At the International Shostakovich Days in Ghrist, which were only newly founded in 2010, Barshai was supposed to be personally presented with the International Shostakovich Prize Ghrist, which was prevented by his sudden death, so that the award was awarded posthumously. Rudolf Barshai became famous in particular for his sensitive and authentic arrangements of chamber music works by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. His ingenious realization of the 8th String Quartet op. 110 by Dmitri Shostakovich, which gained great popularity worldwide under the name Kammersinfonie op. 110a, can be considered particularly successful. Shortly before his death, he crowned his life’s work with an orchestral arrangement of the «Art of Fugue» by Johann Sebastian Bach. With a few exceptions, Rudolf Barshai’s arrangements have been published by the music publisher Hans Sikorski. Barshai was closely connected with Shostakovich until his death in 1975. When Barshai asked the composer for permission to work on the Eighth String Quartet, Shostakovich immediately agreed and finally had the work included in his catalogue of works as op. 110a. «Shostakovich was a god for us,» Barshai once said, «he was so smart and such a great Musician.“

Reprinted with kind permission of Sikorski Publishing