Page 155 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 155
from courses to a conservatoir e ...
The first Soviet occupation turned the lives of the academic staff and
the students upside down. Emissaries from Moscow or their protégés were
sent to the Conservatoire, a circle of Marxism-Leninism was set up, and an
atmosphere of fear was felt everywhere: nobody wanted to be pushed into
cattle wagons and be exiled to Siberia. Musical compositions started to be
classified as appropriate and inappropriate, and formalistic and realistic.
Valuable Lithuanian compositions were taken from the State Radio to the
paper factory, thus the library of the Conservatoire also had to be revised.
The Bolshevik regime lasted for a year: on 22 June 1941 the Nazi Army
entered Lithuania. Part of the people were happy that the red terror came
to an end and naively believed in the possibility of agreeing with Germans
and restoring independent Lithuania.
Unfortunately, the brown terror started. The Conservatoire lost all the
Jewish teachers and students: all of them were taken to the ghetto. Most
of them perished there, and only a few survived. Some of the classrooms
were occupied by German soldiers; moreover, in accordance with the
instructions of the Nazi authorities, the works of Jewish and Russian
composers were removed from the academic syllabi and concert repertoires.
However, the Germans did not interfere with the very academic process as
did Russians before them; only in 1943, when they felt that the war situation
was becoming unfavourable for them, they took measures of repression
against Lithuanian intellectuals who refused to assist in the formation
of the SS divisions. In March, 46 people were arrested, including writers,
teachers, publishers, and priests, and imprisoned in Stutthof concentration
camp, while the universities operating in Lithuania as well as Kaunas
Conservatoire were closed. Gruodis gave lessons in his own home, but
the work was not really productive. The Conservatoire opened again in
the autumn of 1944, when the war was coming to an end. Its director was
graduate of Kaunas Conservatoire, violinist Kazys Matiukas (1909‒1978).
No stability or institutional development could be expected, as, with the
approach of the Red Army, part of the teachers and students fled to the West
along with multi-thousand crowds of Lithuanians. New academic staff and
new premises had to be found. The Conservatoire succeeded in getting
a three-storeyed palace, which had to be decorated with the portraits of
Stalin. The children of dispossessed kulaks were forbidden to study in the
Conservatoire. Not everyone was able to adjust to the conditions: in 1948,
Gruodis died, and Matiukas resigned from the position. The latter was
replaced by bassoonist Kazys Paulauskas (1903‒1977), alumnus of Klaipėda
153
The first Soviet occupation turned the lives of the academic staff and
the students upside down. Emissaries from Moscow or their protégés were
sent to the Conservatoire, a circle of Marxism-Leninism was set up, and an
atmosphere of fear was felt everywhere: nobody wanted to be pushed into
cattle wagons and be exiled to Siberia. Musical compositions started to be
classified as appropriate and inappropriate, and formalistic and realistic.
Valuable Lithuanian compositions were taken from the State Radio to the
paper factory, thus the library of the Conservatoire also had to be revised.
The Bolshevik regime lasted for a year: on 22 June 1941 the Nazi Army
entered Lithuania. Part of the people were happy that the red terror came
to an end and naively believed in the possibility of agreeing with Germans
and restoring independent Lithuania.
Unfortunately, the brown terror started. The Conservatoire lost all the
Jewish teachers and students: all of them were taken to the ghetto. Most
of them perished there, and only a few survived. Some of the classrooms
were occupied by German soldiers; moreover, in accordance with the
instructions of the Nazi authorities, the works of Jewish and Russian
composers were removed from the academic syllabi and concert repertoires.
However, the Germans did not interfere with the very academic process as
did Russians before them; only in 1943, when they felt that the war situation
was becoming unfavourable for them, they took measures of repression
against Lithuanian intellectuals who refused to assist in the formation
of the SS divisions. In March, 46 people were arrested, including writers,
teachers, publishers, and priests, and imprisoned in Stutthof concentration
camp, while the universities operating in Lithuania as well as Kaunas
Conservatoire were closed. Gruodis gave lessons in his own home, but
the work was not really productive. The Conservatoire opened again in
the autumn of 1944, when the war was coming to an end. Its director was
graduate of Kaunas Conservatoire, violinist Kazys Matiukas (1909‒1978).
No stability or institutional development could be expected, as, with the
approach of the Red Army, part of the teachers and students fled to the West
along with multi-thousand crowds of Lithuanians. New academic staff and
new premises had to be found. The Conservatoire succeeded in getting
a three-storeyed palace, which had to be decorated with the portraits of
Stalin. The children of dispossessed kulaks were forbidden to study in the
Conservatoire. Not everyone was able to adjust to the conditions: in 1948,
Gruodis died, and Matiukas resigned from the position. The latter was
replaced by bassoonist Kazys Paulauskas (1903‒1977), alumnus of Klaipėda
153
