Dudarova, Veronika Borisovna (1916—)

Russian conductor who was the first woman to head a major orchestra in the Soviet Union. Born on December 5, 1916, in Baku; studied piano with P.A. Serebriakov at the Leningrad Conservatory.

Became chief conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra (1960); designated a People's Artist of the USSR (1977); although she never visited the U.S. or Western Europe, achieved a considerable artistic reputation on the basis of her recordings and concert reviews.

Despite the proclamation of complete gender equality at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917, de facto discrimination against women continued in virtually all areas of life in revolutionary Russia. With the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922 came attempts to add a new dynamic to the process of social transformation, and considerable reforms took place over the next decade. The percentage of female literacy was dramatically improved during these years, and access to the arts was greatly expanded, particularly for talented young women and men of working-class origins. Like many gifted women of this era, Veronika Dudarova was able to take advantage of the expanded opportunities during this turbulent, often creative, period. She was born in Baku on December 5, 1916, and together with her family survived the difficulties of civil war, foreign invasion and famine. By the late 1920s, it was obvious that she was a highly gifted young musician.

Starting in 1933, Dudarova began an intensive course of piano study with P.A. Serebriakov at the Leningrad Conservatory. These studies ended in 1937, at which point she began to teach and concertize. Her ultimate goal, however, was not to become a celebrated piano virtuoso or respected pedagogue, but rather to wield a baton as head of an orchestra. Such ambitions for a woman in the Soviet Union were almost as unrealistic as in the capitalist West, for in the 1930s and 1940s it was simply assumed that women were constitutionally unqualified to become conductors of any distinction. Determined to conduct, Dudarova attended countless concerts, studied all the orchestral scores she could track down, and began to organize the next phase of her career.

The Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 drastically changed her plans. The 900-day siege of Leningrad ended normal musical life in that great city, and Dudarova continued her career in Moscow, which was spared from the worst effects of the war. With many male musicians at the front, she was able to pursue her conductorial goals, studying at the Moscow Conservatory with Leo Ginsburg. Her talent also came to the attention of the noted maestro Nikolai Anosov, who by 1944 felt she was ready to appear before a full symphony orchestra.

Dudarova gave her first public concert in 1947, to positive reviews. Throughout the 1950s, she rapidly expanded her repertoire and made a large number of recordings for the Soviet Melodiya recording firm, a few of which appeared on labels in the West. Her imaginative choice of repertoire was made evident by several of these recordings, including the folksy Chaikin Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra, and a recording of four of Tchaikovsky's least-known orchestral works (The Storm, Fate, The Voyevode, and the very early Overture in F major). As the highly respected chief conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra (also designated the "Moscow Region Orchestra"), she gave concerts that were well-attended and enthusiastically received by music lovers seeking an escape from life in a stagnating society.

Dudarova's achievements were first acknowledged in 1960 when she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Republic. Over the next decades, until the end of the Soviet era, she received numerous medals including the Order of the Badge of Honor. Never a political dissident, she joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1950. In 1977, she was declared a People's Artist of the USSR. Because her work was largely confined to Moscow, for most of Dudarova's career her international reputation was based on her recordings, concert reviews, and anecdotal reports of Western concert-goers who happened to attend one or more of her concerts while they were in the Soviet Union. Not until the freer atmosphere of the Gorbachev era was it possible for Dudarova to travel outside her country. One of the first of these travels, to Mexico in 1988, brought enthusiastic responses from critics and audiences.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought with it new artistic opportunities as well as myriad problems of daily survival. Despite her age, Dudarova continued her busy schedule of conducting. Reflecting her high status in the Russian musical world, she was chosen to conduct the memorial concert in October 1993 for the centennial of Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's death, held in the town of Votkinsk, where a museum was built on the site of the great composer's former manor house. Perhaps of even greater importance for posterity, in the early 1990s she made a number of highly acclaimed recordings, often of little-known Russian symphonic works. These recordings were released not only in Russia but throughout the world.

Probably the best of these recordings was her 1992 reading of Miaskovsky's Sixth "Revolutionary" Symphony. Conducting her newly created Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Dudarova gave a powerful interpretation of this dramatic work, composed in the first years of the Soviet experiment, and received laudatory reviews from critics. Her recording of Miaskovsky's epic work (it runs to 70 minutes) introduced music lovers to a masterpiece of 20th-century music. Distilling a lifetime of musical experience, and reflecting on an artistic life lived in a society known both for its cultural brilliance and political brutality, Veronika Dudarova inspired her musicians as they played the scherzo of the Miaskovsky symphony, which depicts the wind howling through his dead aunt's apartment, where her cold corpse still remains. Equally moving, the finale of the symphony incorporates a Russian folk song, "As the Soul Departs," gently sung by the choir. Fortunately for succeeding generations, the musicality of Veronika Dudarova will remain alive in this and other recordings created under her baton.

sources:

Artamonov, Alfred. "Tchaikovsky Musical Festival Opens in His Native Town," in TASS. October 26, 1993.

Ciechanower, Mauricio. "Sinfónica de Moscú: A los pies de una batuta femenina—Entrevista con Veronika Dudarova," in Plural. Vol. 18, no. 205. October 1988, pp. 59–62.

"Diaghilev Season," in Moscow News. No. 16, April 19, 1992.

Freed, Richard. "A Quiet 'Storm' From Veronika Dudarova," Washington Post. January 16, 1977, p. E5.

Kallinikov, Vasily Sergeyevich. Symphonies No. 1 in G minor, No. 2 in A [Olympia CD 511].

Miaskovsky, Nikolai. Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor, Op. 23 ("The Revolutionary") [Olympia CD 510].

Motte, Diether de la. "Neue Musik in Moskau," Musica, Vol. 39, no. 2, March–April 1985, pp. 178–181.

Robinson, Harlow. "Music Lightens the Rigors of Life in Moscow," in The New York Times. September 4, 1983, p. B13.

John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia