Friedrich Lips was writing an "Unsent letter:" Remembering the Passing of Vladislav Solotaryov May 13th, 1975

From Dr. Herbert Scheibenreif

Dear Vladik! Exactly 50 years have passed since you left us. You were convinced in your heart that you would live to the age of Christ. I knew it, I was afraid of it, but it was not in my power to prevent the inevitable.

How has this half a century passed without you?I can tell you that I have published, performed, recorded on CDs almost all of your works (including both Concert Symphonies), wrote numerous Articles dedicated to you, and together with your admirers we published your diaries. In addition, thanks to you and your Third Sonata, which aroused the interest of our leading composers, headed by the brilliant Sofia Gubaidulina, in the bayan, we have entered the main path of development of our instrument. In different countries of the world, dissertations are written about you and your work.

 Vladislav Solotaryov

And, what is very important: after the excitement around your works, unusually bright for that time, having subsided, today they are performed in the educational process and concert practice as naturally as classical ones. I can say with confidence that thanks to you, the accordion has acquired such a strong and fresh impulse that your PHENOMENON has turned our worldview upside down and forced us to look at our possibilities and prospects in a new way.

…Sometimes I get asked a rhetorical question: how would the art of accordion have developed if you hadn’t left so early? I have one answer to that: you have to live a long time in Russia…

Dear Vladik! You have earned the love and recognition of a huge number of people with your work! We remember. We appreciate. We love. Let’s play.

Friedrich Lips and Vladislav Solotaryov

…When I am asked to express my opinion on the role of Vladislav Solotaryov and Sofia Gubaidulina in the history of the accordion, I formulate my answer briefly as follows: Solotaryov, with his work, raised the accordion and pushed it out of the sphere of purely accordion music into the world of chamber and academic art, and Gubaidulina, from the height of her authority and position, accepted the accordion from Solotaryov’s hands and helped him find his rightful place on the high academic stage.

Friedrich Lips