“Gubaidulina’s work is not the kind of thing you put on during morning yoga,” wrote Zachary Woolfe in his March 13 New York Times obituary for the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. The eminent musician had died the day before leaving a legacy of powerful music and an extraordinary personal history.
That legacy has been extended by Holly Quist, visiting professor of piano at Fort Lewis College. Quist paid tribute to her musical mentor Sep. 28 at the FLC Faculty Showcase. She performed the majestic “Chaconne.” Since then, she has expanded her lecture-recital format and taken a Russian music program on the road.
If you go
WHAT: Fort Lewis College Faculty Recital, Holly Quist, piano.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Roshong Recital Hall, 105 Jones Hall, FLC, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $15 at the door; FLC students, 18 and younger free.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.fortlewis.edu/music or call 247-7087.
“I’ve presented this lecture recital at three conferences around the country,” Quist said. “I’m excited to share an extended version of this performance with the FLC and Durango communities.”
At 3 p.m. Sunday in Roshong Recital Hall, Quist will present: “Defiance! Learning from the music of Sofia Gubaidulina and her Soviet-era Contemporaries.” After opening remarks, Quist will perform “Chaconne” plus two other works by Gubaidulina, the first movement of the Piano Sonata (1965) and “Toccata-Troncata” (1971). In addition, she will discuss and perform Galina Ustvolskaya’s 1988 Piano Sonata No. 6 and Elena Firsova’s 2002 work titled “For Alissa.”
“The defiance found in Gubaidulina’s music and the music of Galina Ustvolskaya and Elina Firsova is relevant and crucial to our understanding of how composers, specifically women, have expressed their musical artistry and human spirit boldly against societal and governmental opposition,” Quist said.
Born in 1931, Gubaidulina matured as a musician in the aftermath of Josef Stalin’s death. Compared to earlier composers like Shostakovich, she may have experienced limited freedom. Still, in the 1970s, Gubaidulina ran afoul of the Soviet Composers Union and was blacklisted for not getting state approval when her music was played at a contemporary music festival in Germany. From the 1960s on, as the obituary makes it clear, the composer’s travel, publication and performance opportunities declined drastically. Gubaidulina framed her constrictions differently, saying: “Being blacklisted and so unperformed gave me artistic freedom.”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Gubaidulina was free to travel and permanently moved to Germany, where she died last spring.
Quist will discuss how Gubaidulina’s music mysteriously embodies spiritual qualities: struggle and transcendence – and how that became a form of political resistance. As an adult, the composer chose to be baptized into Russian Orthodox Christianity, which also put her at odds with the Soviet government. The “Toccata-Troncata,” the “interrupted” toccata, might be construed as a metaphor for censorship, Quist said.
“Current events including the abolishing of the rights of marginalized gender identities to health care, the banning of books, the overturning and refusal of educational funding and support, and the control of performances at nationally renowned venues, all provide reasons for the pertinence of learning about these women and their music,” she said.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
