Sergei Slonimsky - Biography

Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky (Серге́й Миха́йлович Слони́мский, born August 12, 1932, Leningrad) is a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologist.

Biography

He is a son of Soviet writer Mikhail Slonimsky and a nephew of the Russian-American composer Nicolas Slonimsky. He studied at the Musical College in Moscow from 1943 until 1950. From 1950 Slonimsky was at the Leningrad Conservatory. He studied composition under Boris Arapov, Vissarion Shebalin and Orest Yevlakhov, polyphony under Nicolai Uspensky and piano under Anna Artobolevskaya, Samari Savshinsky and Vladimir Nielsen. Slonimsky is a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. While the majority of his students are Russian, Slonimsky teaches a large percentage of the international composition students at the Conservatory from countries including: Colombia, Korea, China, Italy, Germany, Iran and the United States.

Music and style

Sergei Slonimsky composed more than a hundred pieces: 5 operas, 2 ballets, 19 symphonies and works in all genres of chamber, vocal, choral, theatre and cinema music, including Pesn' Volnitsy (The Songs of Freedom, for mezzo-soprano, baritone and symphony orchestra based on Russian folk songs, 1962), A Voice from the Chorus, a cantata set to the poems by Alexander Blok, Concerto-Buffo, Piano Concerto (Jewish Rhapsody), Cello Concerto, 24 preludes and fugues, etc.

Mostly eclectic, he has experimented with a folkloric style as well as with 12-tone techniques and new forms of notations. He has also used forms and styles of jazz and neo-romantic music.

Operas

• Virinea, an opera in 7 scenes. Libretto by S. Tsenin after the novel by L. Seifullina (1967)
• Ioann the Terrible's vision Russian tragedy in 13 visions with 3 epilogues and overture. Libretto by Ya. Gordin after historical documents (1970)
• Tsar Iksion monodical drama after ancient myth and tragedy by Innokenty Annensky. Libretto by S. Slonimsky (1970) premiered January 31, 1981, Kuibyshev.
• Mary Stuart, a ballad opera in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Gordin after the novel by Stefan Zweig (1980)
• Master and Margarita, a chamber opera in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Dimitrin and V. Fialkovsky after the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1970), (1985) 25'
• Hamlet dramma per musica in 3 acts. Libretto by Ya. Gordin and S. Slonimsky after the Shakespeare's tragedy translated by Boris Pasternak, (1990)

Ballets

• Ikarus, a ballet in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Slonimsky after an ancient Greek myth (1971)
• Magic nut ballet, libretto by Michael Shemjakin, 2005, premiere May 14, 2005, Mariinsky Theatre

• Oxford Music Online, Slonimsky, Sergey Mikhaylovich, article by Larisa Danko.
• G. Abramovsky: ‘Simfoniya Sergeya Slonimskogo’, Sovetskaya simfon iya za 50 let, ed. G. Tigranov (Leningrad, 1967), 336–43

• D. Pabinovich and others: ‘Na obsuzhdenii “Virinei” S. Slonimskogo’ [In discussion of Slonimsky’s ‘Vireniya’], SovM (1968), no.4, pp.31–46 [incl. contribution by Slonimsky, 43–4]

• V. Smirnov: ‘“Virineya” S. Slonimskogo’, Voprosï teorii i ėstetiki muzïki, ed. L. Raaben, xi (Leningrad, 1972), 50–67

• A. Stratiyevsky: ‘Kantata S. Slonimskogo “Golos iz khora”’, Blok i muzïka, ed. M.A. Elik (Leningrad and Moscow, 1972), 229–45

• L. Rappoport: ‘Nekotorïye stilevïye osobennosti muzïki S. Slonimskogo i yego baleta “Ikar”’ [Certain particular stylistic features of the music of Slonimsky and of his ballet ‘Icarus’], Muzïka i zhizn′, ii (1973), 80–97

• Ye. Ruch′yevskaya: ‘O metodakh pretvoreniya i vïrazitel′nom znachenii rechevoy intonatsii, na primere tvorchestva S. Slonimskogo’ [On the methods of realization and the expressive significance of speech intonation, with examples from the work of Slonimsky], Poėziya i muzïka, ed. V. Frumkin (Moscow, 1973), 137–85

• A. Milka: Sergey Slonimsky, monograficheskiy ocherk [Slonimsky, a monographic sketch] (Leningrad and Moscow, 1976)

• A. Klimovitsky: ‘Opernoye tvorchestvo Sergeya Slonimskogo’ [The operatic work of Slonimsky], Sovremennaya sovetskaya opera, ed. A.L. Porfir′yeva (Leningrad, 1985), 24–59

• M. Rïtsareva: Kompozitor Sergey Slonimsky, monografiya (Leningrad, 1991)

• L.N. Raaben: O dukhovnom renessanse v russkoy muzïke 1960–80kh godov [About the spiritual renaissance of Russian music during the 1960s–80s] (St Petersburg, 1998)

External links

• Official Site of composer "Sergei Slonimsky" | Saint-Petersburg Contemporary Music Center
• Interview with Sergei Slonimsky | reMusik Journal
• Composer’s home page
• Ovar’s Russian collection