Veniamin Basner
Veniamin Efimovich Basner (
Early life and initial success
Veniamin Basner had been playing the
Basner made his first experiments in composition at the age of fifteen.
In 1955 he was a prize-winner, for his Second String Quartet, at the International Composers' Competition in Warsaw. Biographer Alexander Uteshev has remarked that this marked the start of his most intense period of creative activity.[2]
Basner and Shostakovich
Veniamin Basner, while still a student, met Dmitri Shostakovich, under whose advice his formation as a professional composer was furthered. They became personal friends. Basner’s widow, Lusha Basner, has elaborated on how Basner became Shostakovich’s student: "Basner wanted to take composition lessons from Shostakovich, but didn’t dare to approach him. Shostakovich, who was a sensitive person, noticed this and helped Basner by asking him to light his cigarette. That’s how Shostakovich became Basner’s teacher."[3]
Another in his circle of friends was Mieczysław Weinberg who, as revealed by Lusha Basner, entrusted his archive to Basner after he was released from his arrest in 1953. At the time Basner held an influential position in the Composers’ Union - and "Weinberg trusted him."[4]
Much later, Basner and Weinberg were amongst the six friends of Shostakovich (the others being
Compositions
Basner’s musical output spanned a wide spectrum in terms of genre and emotional substance. It encompasses, at the more academic end, thirteen works for
He drew particular inspiration from the events and pathos of the
The most important and impressive quality of Veniamin Basner's music, suggests Uteshev, is “an inspired lyricism [which] powerfully permeates all his art.”
Recordings
Recordings include:
- Suites for Films Leningrad Philharmonic.
- String Quartets recorded by the Taneyev Quartet.
- Valery Gavrilin recorded a ‘’First German Notebook’’ in 1981, with Sergei Leiferkus (baritone) and Irina Golovnyova (piano), Sound-producer Gerhard Tses. Included are recordings of songs by Vladimir Shcherbachov, Veniamin Basner, Yuri Falik. Compozitor, St. Petersburg
- In 2004 the Amsterdam-based Jewish Music Projects compiled (2004) a programme Zun mit a regn (Sun and Rain) - the Jewish element in the music of Mieczysław Weinberg, Veniamin Basner and Dmitri Shostakovich. Basner’s 1950 Poem for violin and piano (Opus 7 No 1) was featured.[5] The programme was originally inspired by an invitation to participate in a St Petersburg festival commemorating the 80th anniversary of the birth of Veniamin Basner.[6] CDs have subsequently been produced, in 2009, which also include three Russian songs by Basner from the 1994 musical Yevreiske Styastye (Jewish Luck) after the novel Mendel Marantz, by David Freedman, libretto by Boris Pantser.[7]
References
- ISBN 978-1442268425.
- ^ Veniamin Basner – Biography by Alexander Uteshev
- ^ Henny van de Groep 2005 DSCH Review: “Zun mit a regn” and interview of Sofie van Lier. DSCH Journal 23:13-17 (July 2005)
- ^ Henny van de Groep 2005 DSCH Review: “Zun mit a regn” and interview of Sofie van Lier. DSCH Journal 23:13-17 (July 2005)
- ^ “Zun mit a regn” - the Jewish element in the music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Veniamin Basner and Dmitri Shostakovich
- ^ Henny van de Groep 2005 DSCH Review: “Zun mit a regn” and interview of Sofie van Lier. DSCH Journal 23:13-17 (July 2005)
- ^ Release of Jewish Music Projects Foundation CDs
External links
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