In the article we will talk about Isaac Schwartz. This is a fairly popular Russian and Soviet composer. We will consider the creative and career path of this person, and also talk about his biography. We assure you that this story will not leave you indifferent. Walk his path with the composer, feel his life and plunge into the world of beautiful music!
Childhood
We will begin to consider the biography of Isaac Schwartz with the fact that he was born in May 1923 in the Sumy region of Ukraine. Born in a Jewish family. He already had two older sisters, Maria and Sofia. Since childhood, girls were instilled with an interest in music and reading, so Isaac quickly adopted it.
Grandfather on the part of his father had a dignity. At the beginning of the last century, he moved from the Baltic to the Poltava province. From there, in 1930, the family arrived in Leningrad, where they lived in the heart of the city, 80 km from Nevsky Prospekt.
It should be noted that Isaac Schwartz in the family was not considered particularly talented compared to his daughters. The boy studied at the House of Art Education and studied playing the piano. A little later, he took individual lessons from the pianist and teacher Leonid Nikolaev.
When the boy was 12 years old, he won the contest of young talents, which took place in the Leningrad Philharmonic. As the composer himself said, he never received a basic musical education in his childhood. A year later, a young guy starred in a movie called "Beethoven Concert."
Dark period
The bad period in the family came after the assassination of Kirov was committed. This event caused a series of reprisals in the city.
To begin with, we note that Isaac was very fond of his father. Joseph Schwartz was a philologist and professor at Leningrad University. He also had a beautiful strong baritone, but he did not realize it in music. So, in the winter of 1936, Joseph was arrested. In his old age, Isaac recalled that from shock and grief he cried every night for several months. And soon Joseph was convicted and exiled to the camp. As a result, in 1938 he was shot in Magadan.
Throughout his life, Isaac remembered the last meeting with his father, which occurred in a Leningrad prison. A family that was left without its breadwinner and all property was sent to Kyrgyzstan. The boy’s mother, Rachel Berger, had a diploma from the Kiev Commercial Institute. Initially, she taught mathematics and the Russian language, but in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, she had to work at a garment factory.
Already at the age of 14, Isaac gave the first piano lessons. He trained the offspring of officials. At the same time, his older sister Sofia was a student at the conservatory and a talented pianist. It was she who introduced her brother to the magnificent creations of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, etc.
Own way
In 1938, Isaac Schwartz, whose photo we see in the article, begins to study with Vladimir Fere. After that, he works as a taper in a summer cinema. There, Ivan Koval-Samborsky pays attention to him, who prophesies a great future for him. Subsequently, critics have repeatedly mentioned the youthful work of Isaac as a taper and will say that it was she who allowed him to feel the cinema.
Before the war, the hero of our article worked as accompanist at the State Theater of Kyrgyzstan.
War period
When the war began, Isaac already led the choir and orchestra. Once at the front, he became a sapper. In 1942 he was shell-shocked near Kharkov. About a year he was recovering in a hospital. After recovery, in 1943, he married Sonya Polonskaya, who was also a pianist. In fact, he knew her from childhood, so they were very close. Soon, the couple had a daughter, Galina.
Professional growth
In 1945, the composer Isaac Schwartz returned to Leningrad and entered the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory. There he studied in the class of Boris Arapov and Shostakovich. Already at that time, the music of Isaac Schwartz had a certain level, which his teachers noted. During his studies, he wrote romances to poems by Fet, Pushkin, Heine, etc. It is known that these romances in the future were performed by talented singers such as Nadezhda Velter and Sergey Shaposhnikov. It is also known that while studying at the observatory, Schwartz took lessons from Orest Yevlakhov. It was under his leadership that he wrote The Duma of the Homeland.
Earnings
In 1946, Isaac learns to play the accordion and regularly leaves for work on vacation. He goes to the village of Siversky, works in children's camps, at discotheques, in rest houses. In parallel, he teaches children.
The man writes his first serious work in 1954. He composes a symphony in F minor, which tells the story of a young man and his path. It was she who allowed him to get his first major success. The premiere took place in the autumn of that year, and then the symphony sounded many more times at the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Writing music for performances and ballets
2 years after his debut, the composer writes music for the play “Idiot”. After that, he works on the performances “Woe from Wit”, “For every sage is quite simple”, “Profitable Place”, etc. Isaac later notes that cooperation with theater directors had a positive impact on his professional growth. In total, he wrote musical accompaniment for 35 productions.
Movie work
As you already understood, Isaac Schwartz never stopped his professional and creative development. Music for films was given to him quite easily, so he quickly achieved success in this area.
In 1958, he was invited to write music for the film "Unpaid Debt." After this, several more proposals followed, which he gladly accepted. Isaac collaborated with completely different dissimilar filmmakers, each of whom had his own style and manner.
The tunes of Isaac Schwartz were very popular and popular. The directors noted that he knows how to choose music for absolutely any, even the most unusual and strange scenario. The man wrote musical accompaniment to more than 125 films, among which there are masterpieces of not only Russian, but also world cinema. Schwartz himself most liked writing music for romantic melodramas.
A family
Naturally, for Isaac Schwartz, music was almost everything, but nevertheless he strove for family life. So, he was married twice. As we said above, his first wife is Sonia Polonskaya. The couple was together from 1943 to 1960.
In 1979, the man married Antonina Nagornaya, who was an economist by training. He was 56 years old, and she was only 20, but they lived happily until his death. In 2011, she became director of the Isaac Schwartz Memorial Museum.
Collaboration with Bulat Okudzhava
Schwartz and Okudzhava were brought together not only by common creative interests, but also by fate. They were almost the same age, and their fathers were considered enemies of the people. Both lived far from their native lands, fought, and were wounded at the front. The collaboration of these masters was very fruitful. As a result, it turned out to create 32 songs and romances.
“Love and Separation” by Isaac Schwartz is a romance that he himself greatly appreciated and loved. It was written as a result of collaboration with Bulat Okudzhava. Among the favorite and significant works of this period are the following: “This Woman is in the Window”, songs from the “Straw Hat” tape, Vereshchagin’s song from the movie “The White Sun of the Desert”.
Isaac Schwartz: “White Nights”
Melodies of the White Night is a feature film that was shot by Sergei Solovyov in 1976. Its premiere took place in the fall of 1977. The music was written by Isaac Schwartz. As a result, this work was very much appreciated. Critics said the film was accompanied by truly divine music. It is believed that this is one of the best work of the composer.
After this triumph, he continued to cooperate with Sergei Solovyov. So, the hero of our article wrote music to many of his tapes, namely to the films “Proposal”, “Station Warden”, “100 days after childhood”, “Uncle Vanya”, “The Chosen”, “Heiress in a Straight”.
The songs and romances of Isaac Schwartz were very popular throughout his career. His success was not undulating, he always remained stable. In 1976, the Soviet-Japanese film "Dersu Uzala" received an Oscar. Schwartz wrote the music for him. The director of the film, Akira Kurosawa, came to the Soviet Union in order to work with various Soviet composers, and in the end his choice fell on Schwartz. He incredibly admired his elegy from the movie "Station Warden".
Confident Course Ahead
In 1988, the composer wrote the music for the film “Sentenced”. It was a tragic picture that echoed the personal grief of a man, namely the death of his father. In 1990, the documentary “Damn You, Kolyma!” Was shot. The composer took part in writing the music for this film and amazed everyone with his incredible improvisation.
Isaac received the Nika film award three times. The first time this happened in 1993 for the music for the films “Lunapark” and “White King, Red Queen”. The second time he was awarded in 2001 for the romance to the melodrama "Listen, is it not raining." Finally, for the third time, the man was awarded in 2002 for the music for the movie "Savage."
Schwartz said that he did not like television series and did not watch them. Nevertheless, ironically, it so happened that he connected his last works with TV shows. So, he wrote the music for the 12-episode series “The Chess Player” and the saga from the 4 episodes “The House on the Embankment”.
At an advanced age, he said that he could distinguish 2 of his favorite works - “Station Caretaker” and “Star of captivating happiness”.
Yellow stars
The last serious work of the composer is a concert for the orchestra "Yellow Stars" in 7 parts. The idea of ​​such a large-scale work came to him after reading the “Notes of the prisoner of the Kaunas ghetto”, which incredibly struck a man. Isaac was impressed by the moment when, on the eve of the execution of many people, a very cheerful Jewish holiday was celebrated. Critics called the Yellow Stars a hymn of wisdom, dignity and courage. In Moscow, the premiere took place in the fall of 2000.
Siversky Hermit
Since 1964, a man lived in a suburban area in the village of Siversky. There he spent about 45 years. The songs of Isaac Schwartz written here still excite and excite people who listen to them. It was here, 70 km from St. Petersburg, that he met with Vladimir Vysotsky, Akira Kurasava, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Sergey Solovyov, Andrey Mironov, Joseph Brodsky, Oleg Basilashvili and Bulat Okudzhava. We have listed far from all, because many famous cultural figures visited the Siversky Hermit, as it was called then. Interestingly, he maintained really friendly relations with all of them. So, in 1964, he connected his connections to help Brodsky return to Lenfilm.
It is interesting that Isaac Schwartz himself considered the work of such composers as Rodion Shchedrin, Mikael Tariverdiev, Gennady Gladkov unsurpassed. Despite the fact that Schwartz lived in a village near St. Petersburg, he had an apartment in the city itself. However, in it he appeared very rarely. He loved to spend creative gatherings and evenings in the Maykov library.
In addition to short trips to the Northern capital, Schwartz also went to his close relatives in Odessa, Kiev, Moscow. There he not only worked, but also rested, was treated. So, it is known that he was at the Cinema Veterans House, which was located near Stalin's dacha in Kuntsevo.
Death
Isaac Schwartz left this world on December 27, 2009. He died in a dream in the evening. The funeral took place after 3 days. A man is buried at the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg. According to his will, the funeral was held according to Jewish customs.
Character and habits
People who worked with this composer said that he was distinguished by politeness and patience. He was attentive to various objections, but he was always persistent in matters of principle. Before starting work, I tried to clarify all the controversial issues and nuances. Only after that he retired and began to create.
He loved to conduct himself and sing along with the orchestra. In bad periods of life, he pulled away from people who did not answer calls. He slept very little and constantly smoked, as his comrades recall.
His friends said that when Isaac spoke enthusiastically about something, he could not be interrupted in any case. Also, close people noted that he was very sociable, appreciated friendship and had incredible male attractiveness. He was famous for his addiction to women, but he was absolutely not arrogant.
He considered himself a follower of romantic traditions and fundamentally emphasized that he had never worked in experimental styles and in the style of musical modernism. When he wrote music for films, he always preferred an orchestra, if the budget provided for it. Not very fond of working with synthesizers.
He treated the various articles and assessments of his work quite calmly. He did not consider himself a superstar and regarded recognition with a slight mockery. Summing up, we note that Isaac Schwartz was an extraordinary person. He knew how to subtly feel music and life. He was a very intellectual and spiritual person, gifted with great talent.