Articles by Aida Haidar,Fatima Kemelova

Entertainment

Yevgeny Brusilovsky: Composer Who Gave Kazakhstan First Opera

ASTANA — This year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Yevgeny Brusilovsky, the composer behind Kazakhstan’s first operas and orchestral works. His legacy includes nine operas, four ballets, nine symphonies, and around 500 songs and romances. Brusilovsky also co-authored the music of the national anthem of Kazakhstan, used from 1945 to 1992 and again from 1992 to 2006 (together with Mukan Tolebayev and Latif Khamidi). His name stands alongside the greats of Kazakh classical music, such as Yerkegali Rakhmadiyev, Bakhytzhan Baykadamov, and Sydyk Mukhamedzhanov. Brusilovsky was born on Nov. 12, 1905, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Between 1922 and 1924, he studied piano and composition at the Moscow Conservatory, then entered the Leningrad Conservatory to study under Maximilian Steinberg, graduating in 1931. Two years later, the Leningrad Union of Composers sent Brusilovsky to Almaty, where he became the musical director of the Kazakh Musical Theater and composed the first Kazakh opera, “Kyz-Zhibek.” From 1949 to 1951, he served as the artistic director of the philharmonic, while also teaching at the Almaty Conservatory starting in 1944. By 1955, he was a professor and head of the composition department there. From 1939 to 1948, he chaired the Organizing Committee of the Union of Composers of the Kazakh SSR, and from 1948 to 1953, he led its board. His operas include “Kyz Zhibek” (1934), “Zhalbyr” (1935), “Er Torgyn” (1936), “Aiman-Sholpan” (1938), “Golden Grain” (1940), “Guard, Forward!” (1942), “Amangeldy” (1945, co-authored with Tolebayev), “Dudarai” (1953), and “The Heirs” (1962). He also composed the music for the ballet “Kozy Korpesh and Bayan Sulu” (1967), among many others. “Kyz Zhibek” According to experts in classical music, the first Kazakh opera draws deeply on national folklore. Its score incorporates melodies of akyns (improvising poets), traditional ritual and labor dances, and folk games. Initially, the opera combined the lyrical poetry of doomed love, crushed by tribal customs, with admiration for the ritualistic beauty of Kazakh life. Later, Brusilovsky and the theater produced a revised edition. The opera, composed in four acts (five scenes), features a libretto by Gabit Musrepov based on the Kazakh folk epic “Kyz-Zhibek” (The Silk Girl), a story of loyal love and tragic fate. It tells of Zhibek and Tulegen, whose love is destroyed by the forces of hatred born of feudal tradition. The premiere took place in Almaty on Nov. 7, 1934, as a “musical drama” directed by Kuzmich. In 1936, the opera was performed in Moscow during the Decade of Kazakh Art, marking a milestone in the history of national music. The galloping Boz-Aygyr Brusilovsky also created the first examples of Kazakh chamber music – brilliant piano and violin cycles. His suite “Boz-Aygyr” (The Gray Horse) became a gem of any violinist’s concert repertoire and a landmark in the history of Kazakh chamber-instrumental music. He composed “Boz-Aygyr” between 1953 and 1954, during the period between his major opera, “Dudarai,” and his work on the film score for “Daughter of the Steppes.” The suite is based on a kui, an instrumental folk tune, by folk composer Rakhmet Amanbayev, first recorded by Alexander Zataevich. In a 2015 interview with Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, Naum Shafer, the creator of Kazakhstan’s only museum of vinyl records, a renowned musicologist and record collector who passed away in 2022, shared that Brusilovsky sought to transform this melody in various forms without losing its folk origins’ magic, while revealing its full color and inner energy. At the same time, Brusilovsky aimed to enrich Kazakh professional chamber music and contribute to the development of a national violin school. Preserving the folk heritage Opera and symphonies were not Brusilovsky’s only legacy. Collecting and recording Kazakh folk songs and küys was his lifelong passion; he preserved more than 250 of them. Shafer recalled Brusilovsky saying he felt lucky to have met Kazakh folk musicians such as Makhambet and Nausha Bukeykhanov, Kali Zhantleuov, Dina Nurpeisova, and many other dombra players who faithfully kept the folk traditions alive in remote villages. “I was fortunate to still hear the kobyz, the instrument of steppe shamans [baksys]. The horsehair strings gave it a muffled, mystical sound. The baksys knew its mysterious power,” Brusilovsky once said. According to Shafer, Brusilovsky revealed the spiritual depth of Kazakh folk music, elevating it to the level of world musical masterpieces. His third symphony, “Sary-Arka,” paved the way for Kazakh symphonism, a genre that did not exist in the country before him. He also arranged countless Kazakh folk songs for voice and piano, turning them into concert pieces worthy of professional performance. Brusilovsky gave many musicians opportunities who would later make their own mark. By founding the composition department at the Almaty Conservatory, he trained an entire generation, all major Kazakh composers were either his students or the students of his students. It was he who “discovered” the then-unknown Mukan Tolebayev and helped him write the opera “Birzhan and Sara,” shaping its melodic material and orchestrating it. One of his most significant contributions was the rehabilitation of the 19th-century legendary Kurmangazy, once dismissed as a “rebellious outlaw” of the Kazakh steppe. The later national recognition of Kurmangazy’s music and the naming of the Almaty Conservatory in his honor are among Brusilovsky’s greatest achievements. He also mentored a generation of Kazakh vocalists, including the legendary Kulyash Baiseitova. A legacy beyond measure Shafer reflected in an interview with Kazakhstanskaya Pravda that he was “privileged” to know Brusilovsky. “For about a year and a half, I would bring him my modest compositions, and he would spend hours with me, selflessly and patiently. Once, I asked him a rather naïve question: ‘Why did you stop writing Russian music?’” he said. “He looked at me sternly and, stammering as he always did when emotional, replied: ‘I have woven my personal destiny into the destiny of Kazakh culture.’” Brusilovsky was utterly devoid of arrogance, a trait often found among professional musicians who look down on talented amateurs. While he constantly urged his students to perfect their technique, he believed that the essence of composition lies in talent, cultural depth, and character. He once wrote in his “Five Notebooks,” published in 1997 in the Prostor magazine, “Does musical education alone make one a professional composer? Can’t a conservatory graduate still be an amateur? And conversely, can’t a folk musician who has devoted his life to music, mastered the dombra, and created brilliant works of true artistry, can’t he be a professional in his own right?” This statement captures the essence of Brusilovsky, an artist who rejected soulless professionalism and believed that true music must come from the heart.