Natan Grigorievich Rakhlin (Natan Rakhlin).

Nathan Rakhlin

People’s Artist of the USSR (1948), laureate of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1952). “One evening I went with my comrades to the city garden. The Kyiv Opera Orchestra was playing in the sink. For the first time in my life I heard the sound of a symphony orchestra, I saw instruments that I did not even suspect existed. When Liszt’s “Preludes” began to play and the French horn began its solo, it seemed to me that the ground was slipping from under my feet. Probably, from that very moment I began to dream of the profession of a conductor of a symphony orchestra.

Rachlin was then fifteen years old. By this time he could already consider himself a musician. In his native town of Snovsk, in the Chernihiv region, he began his “concert activity”, playing the violin in films, and at the age of thirteen he became a signal trumpeter in the team of G. Kotovsky. Then the young musician was a member of the brass band of the Higher Military School in Kyiv. In 1923 he was sent to the Kyiv Conservatory to study the violin. Meanwhile, the dream of conducting did not leave Rakhlin, and now he is already studying at the conducting department of the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute under the guidance of V. Berdyaev and A. Orlov.

After graduating from the institute (1930), Rakhlin worked with the Kyiv and Kharkov radio orchestras, with the Donetsk Symphony Orchestra (1928-1937), and in 1937 became the head of the Ukrainian SSR Symphony Orchestra.

At the All-Union Competition (1938), he, along with A. Melik-Pashayev, was awarded the second prize. Soon Rakhlin was promoted to the ranks of the leading Soviet conductors. During the Great Patriotic War, he led the State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR (1941-1944), and after the liberation of Ukraine, he directed the republican orchestra for two decades. Finally, in 1966-1967, Rakhlin organized and headed the Kazan Symphony Orchestra.

All this time the conductor gave many concerts in our country and abroad. Each performance by Rakhlin brings joyful discoveries and great aesthetic experiences to music lovers. Because Rakhlin, having already achieved universal recognition, tirelessly continues his creative search, finding fresh solutions in those works that he has been conducting for decades.

The well-known Soviet cellist G. Tsomyk, who repeatedly took part in the conductor’s concerts, characterizes the artist’s performing image: “Rakhlin can be safely called an improvisational conductor. What was found at the rehearsal is only a sketch for Rakhlin. The conductor literally blossoms at the concert. The inspiration of a great artist gives him new and new colors, sometimes unexpected not only for the musicians of the orchestra, but even for the conductor himself. In the performance plan, these finds were prepared during rehearsals. But their special charm is in that “slightly” that is born in the joint work of the conductor and the orchestra here, in the hall, in front of the audience.”

Rakhlin is an excellent interpreter of a wide variety of works. But even among them, his readings of the Passacaglia by Bach-Gedicke, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony, the symphonic poems by Liszt and R. Strauss, the Sixth Symphony, Manfred, Francesca da Rimini by Tchaikovsky stand out. He constantly includes in his programs and works by Soviet composers – N. Myaskovsky, R. Glier, Y. Shaporin, D. Shostakovich (the first version of the Eleventh Symphony), D. Kabalevsky, T. Khrennikov, V. Muradeli, Y. Ivanov and others.

As chief conductor of the Ukrainian Symphony Orchestra, Rakhlin did a lot to popularize the creativity of the composers of the republic. For the first time, he presented to the listeners the works of prominent composers – B. Lyatoshinsky, K. Dankevich, G. Maiboroda, V. Gomolyaka, G. Taranov, as well as young authors. The last fact was noted by D. Shostakovich: “We, Soviet composers, are especially pleased with N. Rakhlin’s loving attitude towards young music creators, many of them gratefully accepted and continue to accept his valuable advice while working on symphonic works.”

The pedagogical activity of Professor N. Rakhlin is connected with the Kyiv Conservatory. Here he trained many Ukrainian conductors.

Lit.: G. Yudin. Ukrainian conductors. “SM”, 1951, No. 8; M. Goosebumps. Nathan Rahlin. “SM”, 1956, No. 5.

L. Grigoriev, J. Platek, 1969