San Diego Violinist’s Return to Moscow Proved an Emotion-Filled Trip

When Igor Gruppman agreed to help the San Diego Symphony negotiate the participation of Soviet Union instrumentalists in the Soviet arts festival, he did not realize that the process would begin an unnerving journey into his own past.

“When you leave, you tell yourself that you’re never going to see this part of your life again,” Gruppman said. “If you don’t steel yourself before you leave, you’re not likely to survive in your new environment.”

A native of Kiev, capital city of the Soviet Ukraine, Gruppman studied violin under the legendary Leonid Kogan in Moscow. Shortly after completing his studies, Gruppman and his wife Vesna, also a violinist, left the Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States.

Gruppman, named San Diego Symphony concertmaster in 1988, knew his fluent Russian would expedite the symphony’s musical and contractual arrangements with Soviet musicians, but he was unprepared to return to the world he had left 10 years ago.

In July, Gruppman accompanied symphony Executive Director Wesley O. Brustad on a trip to Leningrad and Moscow to sign the contracts that would bring musicians to San Diego’s Soviet arts festival. That journey was Gruppman’s first trip back to the Soviet Union.

“Going back was like going into another incarnation, entering the ‘Twilight Zone,’ ” Gruppman explained. “It was the eeriest feeling in my life. The week Wes and I spent in Moscow was an emotional roller coaster, filled with all kinds of contradicting emotions. One second I was paranoid; the next I was extremely happy; then I would be very angry.”

Fortunately, Gruppman was welcomed by the Soviet musicians.

“A lot of people were trying just that much harder to say there were no hard feelings. Of course, this is a totally different era and a different atmosphere from when I left.”

In spite of the warm glasnost welcome, Gruppman was glad to have Brustad there as an emotional anchor.

“It was frightening, hanging onto my present identity while peeking into my past. I was scared, although perhaps spending a month there would have evened out those feelings.”

In spite of the last-minute cancellations of two Soviet guest conductors, the symphony’s array of visiting Soviet artists attests to the astute negotiations of Brustad and Gruppman, who observed that in the Soviet Union, most arrangements are sealed with a handshake after intense deliberation.

“A contract with the Leningrad Philharmonic, for instance, would not be worth anything without a good relationship between the parties,” Gruppman said. “After all, if anything happens, where do you go to appeal breach of contract?”

Last week, noted Moscow pianist Nicolai Petrov played the West Coast premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s Second Piano Concerto with the symphony. Tuesday, the Soloists of Leningrad, a recently formed Soviet chamber orchestra, will make its North American debut in Symphony Hall. Friday through Sunday, the Soloists of Leningrad will join the San Diego Symphony in a joint concert under the baton of Vassili Sinayski. This program will include newly commissioned works by a Russian and an American composer. The Russian composer, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, turned out to be a former schoolmate of Gruppman.

“When I was asked to call Tarnopolsky because of this commission, I found out that we had studied together in Moscow. We were dorm buddies--he lived across the hall from me. Now, he is on (the American publisher) G. Schirmer’s list of the three leading composers in the Soviet Union,” Gruppman noted.

In an aptly symbolic performance in this concert, Gruppman and Michael Gantvarg, leader of the Soloists of Leningrad, will share the solo roles in J. S. Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins. This concerto, however, will only be the beginning of a musical relationship between Gruppman and the Leningrad musicians.

“Vesna and I were invited to play with the Soloists of Leningrad in Leningrad Hall and with the Moscow Philharmonic in our old conservatory hall next season,” he said. “We will be playing individually and together. And we already have commissioned Vladimir Tarnopolsky to write a new work for two violins for us. We will also commission a piece from an American composer for these concerts.”

Not much of Gruppman’s family remains in the Soviet Union, although he has an aunt there with whom he is close.

“Most of my family has emigrated to various places in the world, but my friends and colleagues from school are still there,” he said. “When I left, we had to discontinue all communication for their sake. For me, it will really be an exciting comeback.”