Russian violist and conductor Rudolf Barshai has died in
Switzerland. He had been struggling with health problems for the
last year.
Born in 1924, Barshai studied violin with Lev Zeitlin and viola
with Vadim Borisovsky at the Moscow Conservatory before starting
his career as a solo and ensemble player in 1945. As a violist he
was a founding member of the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet – which
became the Borodin Quartet – and the Tchaikovsky Quartet. He also
played chamber music with Gilels, Richter, Oistrakh, Kogan and
Rostropovich.
After studying conducting with Ilya Musin, he formed the Moscow
Chamber Orchestra, which toured widely abroad. In the late 1960s he
began conducting major symphony orchestras in the USSR and in 1969
conducted the premiere of his close friend Shostakovich's 14th
Symphony.
Barshai left Soviet Russia after Shostakovich's death in 1975 and
held conducting positions in Israel, the UK, Canada and France. He
made acclaimed orchestrations of instrumental and chamber works,
notably Shostakovich's Eighth Quartet, and shortly before his death
he completed an arrangement of Bach's The Art of Fugue.
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