SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
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1799–1837, Russian Russian composers of the High Romantic era were able to enjoy a ready-made source of stories for operas in the works of Alexander Pushkin. His first success was the romantic poem Ruslan i Lyudmila (1820), which Glinka used for his opera of the same name, first performed in 1842. Pushkin produced not only poetry, but essays ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(A-lex-an’-der Bô-ro-den’) 1833–87 Russian composer Borodin joined Balakirev’s circle known as ‘The Five’ while an army doctor in 1861. He later became a professor of chemistry and founded a school of medicine for women in St Petersburg, yet in his spare time composed a highly polished, if small, output. His melodic style draws on folk music reworked into compelling ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Al-yek-san-der Där-go-mezh’-ke) 1813–69 Russian composer From a landowning background, Dargomïzhsky was renowned in the salons of St Petersburg as a performer and composer, while pursuing a civil service career. Emulating the example of his contemporary Glinka, Dargomïzhsky followed his first opera Esmeralda (1839) with two works of overtly Russian character based on Pushkin, Rusalka (1856) and The Stone ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Al-yek’-san’-der Kon-stan-te-no’-vich Gla’-zoo-nof) 1865–1936 Russian composer Glazunov was heir to the nationalism of ‘The Five’ and the cosmopolitanism of Tchaikovsky. He studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and completed many of Borodin’s works after he died, notating the overture to Prince Igor from memory. In the 1880s and 1890s he enjoyed international fame for works such as the tone-poem Stenka Razin (1885), the ballet ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Vocals, 1900–54) Alger ‘Texas’ Alexander’s broad-toned, pugnacious vocal delivery recalled older work songs and field hollers, while his themes evoked the hard-travelling lives of migrant workers and hoboes. His recordings on OKeh in the 1920s paired him with sophisticated instrumentalists such as Clarence Williams, Lonnie Johnson and King Oliver. In his later years, he often worked ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

1833–87, Russian Alexander Borodin was the illegitimate son of the Georgian Prince Luka Gedianov. As was customary in nineteenth-century Russia, his irregular birth was concealed by registering him under the name of a serf owned by the prince. Borodin was in no way deprived by this lowly status, and his talent for music was actively encouraged. Even so ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Composed: 1869–70, completed 1874–87 Premiered: 1890, St Petersburg Libretto by the composer, after Vladimir Vasil’yevich Stasov Prologue Ignoring an eclipse of the sun, Prince Igor prepares to leave Putivl’ for a campaign against the pagan Polovtsï, accompanied by his son Vladimir. Skula and Yeroshka, two musicians, decide to desert. Igor refuses to listen to the ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1813–69, Russian Alexander Dargomïzhsky belonged to an aristocratic family in St Petersburg. He entered government service, but resigned his post in 1843. The musical training he received in his youth enabled him to build a reputation as a pianist and his acquaintance with during the winter of 1833–34 with Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–57) involved him in the movement to ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Composed: 1866–69, completed by Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov 1870 Premiered: 1872, St Petersburg Libretto set directly to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin’s verse tragedy Act I Don Juan has been exiled from Madrid for murdering Don Alvaro, the commander. He has now returned in secret, accompanied by his servant Leporello, to see an old flame, the actress Laura. ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1871–1942, Austrian Dedicated to opera as a conductor and composer, Zemlinsky attracted critical acclaim, yet by the time of his death he was all but forgotten. He had his second opera, Es War Einmal (‘Once Upon a Time’, 1899), conducted and revised by Gustav Mahler for its first performance at the Vienna Court Opera in 1900. Zemlinsky ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Al-eks-an’-der A-gre-ko-la) c. 1446–1506 Franco-Flemish composer Probably born in what is now Belgium, Agricola was employed by, or associated with, some of the most brilliant courts in Europe, including those of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in Milan, Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Burgundy and the French royal court. He composed Masses, motets, chansons and ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Al-yek-san’-der Skre-a’-bin) 1872–1915 Russian composer and pianist Scriabin’s early music, nearly all for piano, is close to Chopin, but his philosophical and religious views (he was influenced by Nietzsche and, more strongly, by theosophy) brought a rhapsodic and visionary quality that continued to intensify throughout his short life. Convinced that music has a religious power and ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(A-lek-san’-der Zem-lin’ske) 1871–1942 Austrian composer Zemlinsky was a friend, teacher and (for a while) brother-in-law of Schoenberg; unlike him he never severed his stylistic roots in the music of Strauss and Mahler. His work was long neglected or ignored, but recent interest in his four string quartets, his operas – notably Eine florentinische Tragödie (‘A Florentine Tragedy’, 1917) ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

b. 1932 English composer A member of the Manchester New Music Group, Goehr studied also in Paris with Messiaen. He attended the Darmstadt Summer School in 1956, but ultimately found its orthodoxy too dogmatic. Works such as the Little Symphony (1963) instead attempt a synthesis of serial elements with modality and traditional formal models. The music of Johann Sebastian ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘You Better Move On’, 1962 Co-founder of the famed Muscle Shoals recording studio, Arthur Alexander’s ‘You Better Move On’ was a No. 24 US hit that showcased his country-soul roots. Despite being covered by The Rolling Stones (and having other songs covered by Elvis Presley and The Beatles – the latter covering his biggest hit, ‘Anna (Go To Him)’, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley
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