Georgy Sviridov

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Georgy Sviridov
Georgy Sviridov in 1946
Born
Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov

(1915-12-16)16 December 1915
Fatezh, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died6 January 1998(1998-01-06) (aged 82)
Moscow, Russia
Resting placeNovodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
OccupationComposer

Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (Russian: Георгий Васильевич Свиридов[n 1]; 16 December 1915 – 6 January 1998) was a Soviet and Russian neoromantic composer. He is most widely known for his choral music, strongly influenced by the traditional chant of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as his orchestral works which often celebrate elements of Russian culture.

Sviridov employed, especially in his choral music, rich and dense harmonic textures, embracing a romantic-era

basso profundo, but also the influence of Eastern European folk music, 19th-century European romantic composers (especially Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), and neoromantic contemporaries outside of Russia. He wrote musical settings of Russian Romantic poetry by poets such as Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Tyutchev, and Alexander Blok
. Sviridov enjoyed critical acclaim for much of his career in the Soviet Union and Russia.

Early life and youth

Sviridov was born in 1915 in the town of

Leningrad Conservatory under Pyotr Ryazanov, then Dmitri Shostakovich. Mobilized into the Red Army 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 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, such as his Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936–1939), Symphony No. 1 (1936–1937), and the Chamber Symphony for Strings (1940). Later Sviridov would turn to Russian musical heritage, including folk songs, for inspiration.

Among Sviridov's most popular orchestral pieces are the "Romance," "Waltz," and "Winter Road" from his suite The Blizzard, musical illustrations after Pushkin (1975), that were extracted from his score for the eponymous 1964 film based on the short story from Alexander Pushkin's The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. A short segment from his score for the 1965 film Time, Forward! (Время, вперёд!) was selected as the opening theme for the main evening TV news program Vremya (Время, 'time') and became a staple of Soviet life for several generations.[citation needed]

Poetry always occupied an important place in Sviridov's music. He composed songs and romances to the lyrics of

Alexander Prokofyev, 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 melodies, national flavor, and expression of Russia and the Russian soul. His piece Winter Road was allegedly plagiarized by Tappi Iwase and used as the theme for the popular video game series Metal Gear Solid.[2]

Honors and awards

In 1946 Sviridov was awarded the

Hero of Socialist Labor (1975) and was twice awarded the Order of Lenin
.

Asteroid

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

Death

Sviridov died of a heart attack in Moscow, where he had lived since 1956, on 6 January 1998.[citation needed]

Filmography

List of works

Orchestral

  • Chamber Symphony for strings (1940)
  • Symphony No. 1 (1936–1937; previously lost, score rediscovered posthumously)
  • Symphony No. 2 (1949; unfinished)
  • Triptych, a small symphony for orchestra (1964)
  • Snow Storm (also translated as The Blizzard), musical illustrations after Pushkin for orchestra (1975)

Concertante

  • Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936–1939)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 (1942)

Chamber

  • Piano Trio (1945 - rev. 1955)
  • Piano Quintet in B minor (1945)
  • String Quartet No. 1 (1945–1946)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1947)
  • Music for Chamber Orchestra (1964)

Solo piano

  • Seven Small Pieces for piano (1934–1935)
  • Seven Songs after Lermontov (1938)
  • Piano Sonata (1944)
  • Two Partitas for piano (1946, revised 1957 and 1960)
  • Children's Album, seventeen pieces for piano (1948, revised 1957)
  • Ruy Blas, serenade (1952)
  • Partita in E minor
  • Partita in F minor

Choral

  • The Decembrists, oratorio (1955)
  • Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin, oratorio for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra (1956)
  • Five Choruses to Lyrics by Russian Poets (1958)
  • Oratorio Pathétique to words by Mayakovsky for bass, mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1959)
  • Song about Lenin ("We Don't Believe") to words by Mayakovsky for bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1960)
  • Songs of Kursk, cantata after folk texts for mixed chorus and orchestra (1964)
  • Wooden Russia, cantata to words by Yesenin for tenor, men's chorus and orchestra (1964)
  • Sad Songs, small cantata to words by A. Blok for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra (1962–1965)
  • It Is Snowing, small cantata to words by Boris Pasternak for female chorus, boys'chorus and orchestra (1965)
  • Five Songs about Russia, cantata to words by Blok for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1967)
  • Four Folk Songs for chorus and orchestra (1971)
  • The Friendly Guest (also translated as The Radiant Guest), cantata to words by Yesenin for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1971–1976)
  • Spring Cantata to words by Nekrasov for mixed chorus and orchestra (1972)
  • Concerto in Memory of Alexander Yurlov [ru] for unaccompanied mixed chorus (1973)
  • The Birch of Life, cantata to words by A. Blok for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1974)
  • Three Miniatures for solo voices and mixed chorus (1972–1975)
  • Three Pieces from Children's Album for mixed chorus a cappella (1975)
  • Ode to Lenin to words by R. Rozhdestvensky for narrator, chorus and large orchestra (1976)
  • Hymns to the Motherland for chorus (1978)
  • Pushkin's Garland, choral concerto on verses by Alexander Pushkin (1979)
  • Night Clouds, cantata to words by A. Blok for mixed chorus a cappella (1979)
  • Ladoga, choral poem for chorus to words by A. Prokofiev (1980)
  • Songs From Hard Times, choruses to words of A. Blok for chorus a cappella (1980–1981 and later)
  • Hymns and Prayers, words from liturgical poetry, for unaccompanied choir (1980–1997)

Opera

  • Bright Lights, operetta in three acts after L. Sacharov and S. Poloski (1951)

Miscellaneous music

  • "Othello", incidental music after Shakespeare (1942)
  • Original soundtrack to The Blizzard (1964) film after Alexander Pushkin's story
  • "Time, Forward!", suite of the film score (1967)
  • Music to the Play "Czar Fyodor Ioannovich" after Tolstoi (1973)

Songs

  • Six Romances on Texts by Pushkin for voice and piano (1935)
  • Three Songs to words by Alexander Blok (1941)
  • "Shakespeare Suite" for singer and piano (1944)
  • "Country of My Fathers", song cycle after A. Isaakian for tenor and bass with piano accompaniment (1949–1950)
  • "Songs to Words of Robert Burns" for bass and piano (1955)
  • "My Father is a Farmer", song cycle to words by Yesenin for tenor and baritone (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)
  • "St Petersburg Songs" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, violin, cello and piano (1961–1963)
  • "Petersburg Songs" to words of A. Blok for bass and piano (1961–1963)
  • "Russia Cast Adrift", better "Russia Now Launched", song cycle to words by Yesenin for tenor and piano (1977)
  • Two Songs to words of A. S. Pushkin (1975–1980)
  • Nine Songs to Words of A. Blok (1972–1981)
  • Twenty-five Songs for bass and piano (1955–1981)
  • "Petersburg", song cycle to words by A. Blok (1963–1995)

References

Notes

  1. ^ His name is also transliterated as Georgi and his patronymic as Vasil'yevich, Vasilievich, and Vasil'evich.

Citations

  1. ^ Свиридов Георгий (Юрий) Васильевич - Герои страны (in Russian)
  2. ^ "Report: Konami Didn't Use Metal Gear Solid Theme In MGS4 Due To Plagiarism Accusations". Gamasutra. 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2018-08-19.

External links

Media related to Georgy Sviridov at Wikimedia Commons

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