Title: Valeriy Polekh: French Hornist Laureate of All Russia
Author: David Gladen
Publisher: ‎ iUniverse
ISBN: ‎ 1532042159
Language: ‎ English
Pages: ‎ 246
Genre: Biographical Translation
Reviewed by: David Allen

Read Book Review

David Gladen’s favor to his father-in-law, a noted horn player and personal friend of horn player Valeriy Polekh, is a gift to all readers as well. French horn player Polenkh’s autobiography is a timely and lovely reminder of the Russian spirit in days gone by: a world of music; a world of intellectuals and passionate souls variously in love, variously fevered, or otherwise consumed by the melodies of life.  Think onion domes and minarets. Think country dachas, ice sleds and dray horses.

Polekh’s narrative is pithy, direct, conversational. So is Gladen’s translation.  In skillfully crafted glissando prose, we learn of Polekh’s childhood, his early leanings, his time in music school. Polekh’s time with his estimable music Professor Ferdinand Ferdinandovich Ehkkert is likewise indelibly scored. The character sketches of important people on his journey are equally memorable and crafted with love, honor, humor, and respect.

Check out this description of Polekh’s father:  Mikhail Nikolaevich Buyanovskiy (Vitaliy’s father) was a French horn musician, teacher, Honored Artist, and the son of a flutist of the Court Orchestra. He graduated from the Petersburg Conservatory and was awarded the Gold Medal and Diploma of a Free Artist. As a result, his name was engraved on the marble plaque listing the graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory.

And this very upbeat decidedly continental description of a seminar at the academy:  For the occasion of the end of the seminar, Tanechka baked a wonderful pie. A small company assembled – about ten people. A horn player from the Republic of Georgia brought an excellent wine, a couple from the Asian republics obtained a basket of fruit. There also appeared strong wines, an olive salad, and various snacks.  

The intellectual and musical tradition which Polekh celebrates – a tradition of excellence, high art, and cosmopolitanism – wails for recognition. Polekh’s book delivers just that. This is the world originally brought to us by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Rimsky-Korsakov: a world of tears, laughter, music.

Best fit: Listen to Rachmaninoff while reading this book. It is filled with memory and harmony, a ‘dance to the music of time’ colored by nostalgia, affection, and deep triumph for reading and listening audiences everywhere.