About
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
(1840-1893)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky studied piano from an early age, although it was not until
the age of 23, after starting work as a junior civil servant, that Tchaikovsky began studying composition at the St Petersburg
Conservatoire. He subsequently taught for a decade at the newly opened Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky was the first composer
to produce a form of nationalist Russian music that was also influenced by Western European traditions. With this prominent
Western influence Tchaikovsky experienced greater popularity in Western Europe than in Russia early in his career. His extensive
compositional output includes 7 symphonies, 11 operas, 5 suites, 3 piano concertos, 3 ballets, 20 choral works and more than
100 songs and piano pieces.
Read Tchaikovsky's obituary from The Musical Times in 1893.
ADOLPHE ADAM
(1803-1856)
Adolphe Adam spent his early years in Paris before studying composition with Boieldieu at
the Paris Conservatoire. In the summer of 1826 Adam met the librettist Eugène Scribe who was to become a collaborator
on many future operas. These include Le mal du pays, ou La batelière de Brientz (1827) and Pierre et Catherine
(1829), which was his first work to be accepted by the Opéra-Comique. Pierre et Catherine was performed over
eighty times paired with Auber’s La fiancée. In 1839 Adam moved to St Petersburg where he composed the
ballet La fille du Danube. It wasn’t long before he returned to Paris where he composed his most popular ballet,
Giselle. Adam’s large compositional output includes nearly seventy operatic works.
LEO DELIBES
(1836-1891)
The French composer Léo Delibes began studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire
at eleven where he was taught by Adolphe Adam. At seventeen he was appointed rehearsal accompanist and chorus master at the
Théâtre-Lyrique. Nearly all his music was written for theatre - whether opera, operetta or ballet - and performed
at either the Bouffes-Parisiens or Opéra-Comique in Paris. His most famous ballets include Coppélia and
Sylvia. Other notable works by Delibes include the opera Lakmé, with its famous Flower Duet.
VASILY KALINNIKOV
(1866-1901)
During his childhood Vasily Kalinnikov studied at a seminary in Oryol, Russia. Later,
he began studying at the Moscow Conservatory, but had to leave when he could no longer afford the fees. Nevertheless, he was
awarded a scholarship to the Philharmonic Society Music School in Moscow where he learnt bassoon and composition and in 1892
he became the director of the Mailïy Theatre and Moscow Italian Theatre after a recommendation by Tchaikovsky. In the
autumn of 1893 Kalinnikov became ill with tuberculosis and moved to Crimea to live in the warmer climate. Despite his
illness Kalinnikov continued to compose, and his most significant work is his First Symphony, composed in Crimea between 1895
and 1896. The influence of Debussy is notable within the work as are the many typical Russian themes.
NIKOLAY RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844-1908)
Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov studied at the School for Mathematical
and Navigational Sciences in St Petersburg before joining the Imperial Russian Navy. It was after a meeting with Balakirev
that he was persuaded to pursue his passion for composition when on leave. Together with Borodin, Balakirev, Mussorgsky
and Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov was one of The Five (also known as The Mighty Handful), a group of five composers who met in St Petersburg
who sought to compose in a specifically Russian style.
Scheherazade has become one of his most popular compositions, but Rimsky-Korsakov is also famous for re-orchestrating and finishing works by other composers in The Five. For example, he completed Borodin’s Prince Igor and re-orchestrated Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. As a teacher at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov had many distinguished pupils including Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinksy and Alexander Glazunov.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
(1810-1856)
Robert Schumann was born in Germany and studied law in both Leipzig and Heidelberg. After
university he studied the piano with the well respected teacher Friedrich Wieck, but was unable to pursue a career as a virtuoso
pianist due to two weak fingers in his right hand. Nevertheless, as a composer he wrote many works for the piano, including
Papillons and Carnaval. In 1840 he married Wieck’s daughter Clara, who inspired many of the 125 songs
he wrote that year. In the following year he sketched his first symphony in just four days and then scored it in only three
weeks. Throughout his life Schumann’s compositional output remained high. He helped to develop the many genres in which
he composed and his compositional style and informed musical criticism has had a profound influence on many generations of
composers, including Tchaikovsky.
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
(1906-1975)
Shostakovich was born in St Petersburg in 1906, began studying at the Petrograd Conservatory
at 13, and went on to complete studies in piano in 1923 and composition in 1925. His many compositions include fifteen symphonies,
six concertos, fifteen string quartets, seven operas as well as numerous film scores and works for solo piano. Composing during
Stalin’s dictatorship with its extreme cultural control meant that works he released for public performance were subjected
to political attack, with his second opera Lady Macbeth condemned for being ‘anti-democratic’ and ‘formulistic’.
This political pressure caused him to hold back works like his fourth symphony and his Violin Concerto until Stalin’s
death, and instead to take up a teaching position at the Leningrad Conservatory. After Stalin’s death in 1953
came an era of renewed contact with the West, and Shostakovich was able to visit England and the US between 1958 and 1960,
forging a friendship with Benjamin Britten.
IGOR STRAVINSKY
(1882-1971)
Igor Stravinsky was born in St Petersburg, where he later studied law at the University
and composition privately with Rimsky-Korsakov. After the 1917 revolution he moved to Western Europe before emigrating to
the USA in 1939.
Stravinsky is often regarded as one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. His
three ballets, The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911/1947) and The Rite of Spring (1913), are frequently
performed across the world. The Rite of Spring was particularly controversial with its revolutionary rhythmic structure
that provoked riots at the premiere. In the 1920s Stravinsky developed a neo-classical style using traditional classical forms
such as the fugue and concerto grosso. Later his experimentation with serialism in the 1950s saw him breaking traditional
musical boundaries once more.
SERGEY TANEYEV
(1856-1915)
Sergey Taneyev began studying at the Moscow Conservatory at the young age of 9 where studies
included piano lessons with Nikolay Rubinstein and composition with Tchaikovsky. He formed a strong friendship with Tchaikovsky,
which led to Taneyev performing the Russian premiere of many of Tchaikovsky’s works for piano and orchestra. On Tchaikovsky’s
retirement In 1878 Taneyev became the Harmony Teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, and Director from 1885 to 1889 until he
resigned to focus on composition.
Taneyev’s compositions include four symphonies, the opera The Oresteia as well as six string quartets and a comprehensive book on counterpoint, a method that greatly interested him. Taneyev was one of the few people whose musical criticism Tchaikovsky respected, and even welcomed.
