Georgy Sviridov

Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (Russian: Георгий Васильевич Свиридов, "Ge'orgy Vasil'jevič Svirídov"; (December 16, 1915 – January 5, 1998), also transliterated "Georgy Vasil'yevich Sviridov", "Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov", "Georgy Vasil'evich Sviridov", "Georgii Sviridov" or "Gyorgy Sviridov", was a Russian and Soviet neoromantic composer.

Early Life and Youth

Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov was born in 1915 in the town of Fatezh in the Kursk guberniya of the Russian Empire. His father, Vasily Sviridov, a sympathizer of the Bolshevik cause during the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution, was killed when Georgy was four. The family moved to Kursk, where Sviridov, still in elementary school, learned to play his first instrument, the balalaika. Learning to play by ear, he demonstrated such talent and ability that he was accepted into the local orchestra of Russian folk instruments. He enrolled in a music school in 1929, and following the advice of his teacher, M. Krutinsky, came to Leningrad in 1932, where he studied piano at the Leningrad Central Music College, graduating in 1936. From 1936 to 1941, Sviridov studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Peter Borisovich Ryazanov and Dmitri Shostakovich. Mobilized into the Soviet armed forces in 1941, just days after his graduation from the conservatory, Sviridov was sent to a military academy in Ufa, but was discharged by the end of the year due to poor health.

Musical legacy

In 1935 Sviridov's composed a cycle of lyrical romances based on the poetry of Alexander Pushkin which brought him first critical acclaim. During his studies in Leningrad Conservatory, 1936 – 1941, Sviridov experimented with different genres and different types of musical composition. He completed Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936 – 1939), Symphony No. 1 and the Chamber Symphony for Strings (1940). Later Sviridov would turn to the rich Russian musical heritage, including the folk songs, for inspiration.

Among Sviridov's most popular orchestral pieces are the Romance and the Waltz from his "Snowstorm", musical illustrations after Pushkin (1975), that were originally written for the eponymous 1964 TV film ("Метель") based on the short story from Pushkin's "Belkin's tales" ("Повести Белкина"). A short segment from his score for the 1967 film "Time, Forward!" ("Время, вперед!") was selected as the opening theme for the main evening TV news program Vremya ("Программа "Время"; "Время" means "Time") and became the staple of Soviet life for several generations.

Poetry always occupied an important place in Sviridov's artistic universe. He wrote songs and romances to the lyrics of Mikhail Lermontov (1938, 1957), Alexander Blok (1941), William Shakespeare (1944 – 1960), Robert Burns (in Russian translation, 1955). Despite the popularity of Sviridov's instrumental works, both the composer himself and the music critics regarded vocal and choral music to be his main strengths. "Pathetic Oratorio"(1959) after Vladimir Mayakovsky has been called a masterful musical rendering of one of the most popular Soviet poets. Sviridov's prolific vocal chamber and vocal symphonic output includes Oratorio "To the memory of Sergei Yesenin" (1956), Little Cantata "Wooden Russia" (1964) after Yesenin, Cantata "Songs of Kursk" (1964), "Spring Cantata" (1972) after Nikolai Nekrasov, songs, romances, and cantatas after Fyodor Tyutchev, Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Blok, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Prokofiev, Robert Rozhdestvensky. He also wrote one opera, "Twinkling Lights" (1951).

While Sviridov's music remains little known in the West, his works received high praise in his homeland for their memorable lyrical melodies and national flavor.

Honors and Awards

In 1946 Sviridov was awarded the State Stalin Prize for his Piano Trio, heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky. Lenin Prize of 1960 was bestowed on the composer for his "Pathetic Oratorio". Georgy Sviridov was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1968 and 1980 and honored with the title People's Artist of the USSR. He became a Hero of Socialist Labor (1975) and was twice awarded the Order of Lenin.

Asteroid 4075 Sviridov, discovered by the Russian astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina in 1982, was named in honor of Georgy Sviridov.

Death

The composer died of a heart attack in Moscow, January 5, 1998, where he had lived since 1956.

List of Works

*Seven Small Pieces for piano (1934-1935)
*Six Romances on Texts by Pushkin for voice and piano (1935)
*Seven Songs after Lermontov (1938)
*Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936-1939)
*Chamber Symphony for strings (1940)
*Three Songs after Alexander Blok (1941)
*Piano Concerto No. 2 (1942)
*"Othello", incidental music after Shakespeare (1942)
*"Shakespeare Suite" for singer and piano (1944)
*Piano Sonata (1944)
*Piano Trio (1945 - rev. 1955)
*String Quartet No. 1 (1945-1946)
*Two Partitas for piano (1946 - rev. 1957, 1960)
*String Quartet No. 2 (1947)
*Children's Album, seventeen pieces for piano (1948 - rev. 1957)
*Symphony No. 2 (1949/Unfinished)
*"Country of My Fathers", poem after A. Issaakian for tenor and bass with piano accompaniment (1949-1950)
*"Bright Lights", operetta in three acts after L. Sacharov and S. Poloski (1951)
*"Ruy Blas", serenade (1952)
*Songs after Burns for bass and piano (1955)
*"The Decembrists", oratorio (1955)
*"Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin", oratorio for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra (1956)
*"My Father is a Farmer", song cycle after Yessenin for tenor and baritone with piano accompagniment (1957)
*"Suburb-Lyrics", seven songs after A. Prokofiev and M. Issakovsky for singer and piano (1938-1958)
*Eight Romances to words by Lermontov for bass and piano (1957-1958)
*Five Choruses to Lyrics by Russian Poets (1958)
*Oratorio Pathetique after Mayakovsky for bass, mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1959)
*Song about Lenin ("We Don't Believe") after Mayakovsky for bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1960)
*"St. Petersburg Songs" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, violin, cello and piano (1961-1963)
*"A Voice from the Chorus", monolog after A. Blok for bass and piano (1963)
*"Songs of Kursk", cantata after folktexts for mixed chorus and orchestra (1964)
*"Wooden Russia", cantate to words of Yesenin for tenor, men's chorus and orchestra (1964)
*Triptych, a small symphony for orchestra (1964)
*Music for chamber orchestra (1964)
*Music to the Film "Snow Storm" after Pushkin (1964)
*"Sad Songs", small cantata to words of A. Blok for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra (1962-1965)
*"It's Snowing" small cantata to words of B. Pasternak for female chorus, boys'chorus and orchestra (1965)
*"Time, Forward!", suite of the film score (1967)
*"Five Songs about Russia", oratorio after Blok for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1967)
*"Four Folksongs" for chorus and orchestra (1971)
*"The Friendly Guest", cantata to words of Yesenin for solovoices, chorus and orchestra (1971-1976)
*"Spring Cantata" to words of Nekrasov for mixed chorus and orchestra (1972)
*Concerto in Memory of A.A. Yurlov for unaccompanied mixed chorus (1973)
*Music to the Play "Czar Fyodor Ioannovich" after Tolstoi (1973)
*"The Birch of Life", cantata to words of A. Blok for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1974)
*Three Miniatures for solo voices and mixed chorus (1972-1975)
*"Snow Storm", musical illustrations after Pushkin for orchestra (1975)
*"Songs of Petersburg" after A. Blok for bass and piano (1975)
*Three Pieces from "Children's Album" for mixed chorus a cappella (1975)
*"Ode to Lenin" after R. Rozhdestvensky for narrator, chorus and large orchestra (1976)
*"Cast of Russia", poem after Sergei Yesenin for tenor and piano (1977)
*Hymns to the Motherland for chorus (1978)
*Twenty-five Choruses for bass and piano (1939-1979)
*"Pushkin's Garland", choral concerto on verses by Alexander Pushkin (1979)
*"Nightly Clouds", cantata after A. Blok for mixed chorus a cappella (1979)
*Ten Songs after Alexander Blok for singer and piano (1972-1980)
*"Ladaga", poem for chorus after A. Prokofiev (1980)
*"Songs From Hard Times", concerto after Alexander Blok for chorus a cappella (1980-1981)
*"Russia Cast Adrift", cycle on poems by Sergei Esenin for baritone and piano (1987)
*"Petersburg", a vocal poem (1995)

External links

* [http://www.nflowers.ru/engl/cd/28.html] Petersburg Musical Archive
* [http://www.classicalarchives.com/main/s.html#SVIRIDOV] Classical Archives - Georgy Sviridov
* [http://www.classic-music.ru/sviridov.html] Георгий Васильевич Свиридов (1915–1998) (Russian)
* [http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/animation-day/ Canadian animated film set to the music of "Forward, Time!", using the motifs of 1920s art]