Stuchevsky, Joachim Kalmanovich

Joachim Stuchevsky was born in Romny ( Poltava province of the Russian Empire ) in a family of hereditary klezmer . His father Kalman-Leib Stuchevsky was a clarinet ^[1] . Joachim, like his younger brother Simon (in the future pianist, People's Artist of the RSFSR ), began learning music from childhood and soon played in Klezmer ensembles with his father. Starting at the age of five with a violin, Joachim went on to the cello. In Kherson , where his family moved in 1903 , he took cello lessons from A. V. Kuznetsov (a student of K. Y. Davydov ) and from A. A. Lukinich . From 1909 he studied at the Leipzig Consortium under Julius Klengel , graduating in 1912 .

At the end of the conservatory, Stuchevsky stayed in Germany to avoid military service ^[2] . He played in the Jena String Quartet and in the local symphony orchestra, and after the outbreak of World War I, as a Russian citizen, he had to leave Germany for Switzerland ^[2] , where he taught until 1924 in Zurich . During his stay in Zurich, he worked on a cello game textbook, which later became one of the main textbooks of the 20th century on this instrument (in particular, the Russian translation of the first two volumes was published in Moscow in 1934–35 ^[3] ). In addition to teaching, he also gave concerts as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles. During these years he began to cooperate with the Society of Jewish Folk Music, giving lectures and concerts of Jewish music ^[4] .

In 1924, Stuchevsky moved to Vienna . There he became a member of the Vienna String Quartet (otherwise known as the Kolisch Quartet), the first to perform works by the authors of the New Vienna School ( Schoenberg , Berg , Webern ). He was also a member of the Vienna trio and the Vienna duo, where his partner was pianist Friedrich Wührer . In Vienna, Stuchevsky became the organizer of the local Society of Jewish Music, as well as the Zionist newspaper Die Stimme. He paid considerable attention to the study of Jewish folklore , writing in these years a number of works that combined Jewish folklore motifs and traditional European musical forms. Among the works of this period are "13 Jewish folk melodies" (1924) and "Jewish Song" (1937) for cello and piano, "Four Jewish Dances" (1929) and "Palestinian Sketches" (1931) for piano and other works.

In 1938 , on the eve of the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany, Stuchevsky and his wife Julia, a soprano singer ^[5] , fled from Vienna to Palestine . There he became an inspector of the National Council (Vaad Leumi) of Jewish Yishuv for musical education ^[6] , and also conducted teaching work and gave concerts in cities and Jewish agricultural settlements. In addition to solo performances, he created with Joseph Kaminsky , accompanist for the violins of the Palestinian Philharmonic Orchestra , a string quartet, and also performed with pianist Michael Taube . Concerts in different localities were often organized at his expense ^[5] .

In the run-up to the creation of the State of Israel, and after its foundation, Stuchevsky continued the work of collecting Jewish folklore. First of all, he was interested in Hasidic melodies. In 1946 he released the collection “Folk Songs”, in 1950 - “120 Hassidic Melodies”, and in the early 70s - three volumes of “Hassidic Chants” ^[6] . In 1959, in Tel Aviv, he published his scientific works devoted to the klezmers and the musical folklore of the Jews of Eastern Europe ^[5] . He also continued to compose his own works, mostly remaining within the framework of small forms and remaining faithful to the late romantic style, which he never exchanged for new trends. Among the works of major genres of this period is the cantata “A Song of Light Tribulation” on the words of Shloyme Shenhud dedicated to the War of Independence fighters (1957); the symphonic poems “Safed” (1960) and “Israel” (1964; the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Prize); suites for cello and piano (“Israel”, 1942; “Hasidic”, 1946). His latest work was written in 1982, "Four Jewish tunes." His transcriptions for the cello of classical piano works became especially famous and entered the modern world cello repertoire. In the first decades after the founding of Israel, Stuchevsky also published a series of educational and pedagogical works for young musicians ^[6] .

The list is based on a biographical note compiled by prof. Iehoash Girshberg ^[5] .

Orchestral works

• Concertino for cello and orchestra (1957)
• "To youth" (1958)
• Fantasia for oboe, harp and string orchestra (1959)
• Concertant for flute and string orchestra (1963)

Chamber music

• “God, why did you leave us?” For cello and piano (1923)
• Four Jewish Dances for Piano (1929)
• “Hassidic dance” for piano (1934)
• “Views of Israel” for piano (1950)
• Kadish for cello and piano (1957)
• "Composition" for cello (1970)
• "Israeli Suite " for cello and piano (1977)

Vocal and Choral Music

• “A song for my heart” (words M. Stekelis, 1954)
• "Goryanka" (words by U. Ofek, 1955)
• Five Songs (1955)
• "Herzl" (words by A. Broydes, 1956)

During the post-war activities, Joachim Stuchevsky was awarded several Israeli and international awards. In 1963, he received the Pyatigorsky Prize, presented by the International Association of Cello in New York. Among the Israeli Stuchevsky awards are three Engel Prizes (1951, 1959 and 1965) and the Prize of the Association of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers in Israel (AKUM, 1973) ^[6] .

• Stuchevsky Yekhoyakhin - Article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• STUCHEVSKY Joachim Kalmanovich - Article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia
• Article Stuchevsky I. in the Musical Encyclopedia
• Stuchevsky, Joachim in the Jewish Virtual Library (eng.)
• Zvi Avni. Joachim Stuchevsky at the Israel Music Information Center website (eng.)
• Joachim Stuchevsky on the website Musica Judaica (eng.)