Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Biographies<br />
four decades, Shostakovich<br />
felt like a prisoner in his own<br />
country. He was a member<br />
of the Communist Party, was<br />
awarded the Order of Lenin<br />
in 1966, and wrote many<br />
works praising the state and<br />
its leaders. However, there is<br />
also music that bravely runs<br />
against it.<br />
Richard Strauss (1864 -<br />
1949) received piano, violin<br />
and composition lessons from<br />
outstanding musicians from<br />
the Munich Court Orchestra<br />
in which his father played<br />
horn. A protégé of the famous<br />
conductor Hans von Bülow,<br />
he served successively as<br />
conductor in Meiningen,<br />
Munich and Weimar and<br />
became chief conductor<br />
of the Vienna State Opera<br />
in 1919. Along with Gustav<br />
Mahler, he represents the<br />
late flowering of German<br />
Romanticism, in which<br />
pioneering subtleties of<br />
orchestration are combined<br />
with an advanced harmonic<br />
style. His individual,<br />
lushly Romantic style of<br />
composition was increasingly<br />
seen as old-fashioned in a<br />
post-war musical world that<br />
had rejected tonality.<br />
British composer John<br />
42<br />
Tavener (1944 - 2013) studied<br />
piano, organ and choral<br />
conducting at the Royal<br />
College of <strong>Music</strong> where he<br />
also received composition<br />
lessons from Lennox Berkeley.<br />
In 1977, he converted to the<br />
Russian Orthodox Church<br />
and liturgical traditions<br />
became a major influence on<br />
his work. In 2000 Tavener<br />
left Orthodox Christianity to<br />
explore a number of other<br />
different religious traditions,<br />
including Hinduism and<br />
Islam. Tavener’s music<br />
was influenced by Olivier<br />
Messiaen and Arvo Pärt<br />
among onthers.<br />
Russian composer Pyotr<br />
Tchaikovsky (1840 -<br />
1893) studied at the St.<br />
Petersburg Conservatory.<br />
Once Tchaikovsky graduated<br />
he accepted the post of<br />
Professor of <strong>Music</strong> Theory. He<br />
was financially supported by<br />
the wealthy widow Nadezhda<br />
von Meck. Tchaikovsky<br />
traveled extensively and<br />
was also influenced by much<br />
Western music in his work.<br />
He displayed a wide stylistic<br />
and emotional range, from<br />
light salon works to grand<br />
symphonies. Some Russians<br />
did not feel it was sufficiently<br />
representative of native<br />
musical values and expressed<br />
suspicion that Europeans<br />
accepted the music for its<br />
Western elements.<br />
Performers<br />
Pavel Kolesnikov was born<br />
in Siberia and currently lives<br />
in London. He experienced<br />
his major breakthrough in<br />
2012 with his sensational<br />
win in the prestigious<br />
Honens International Piano<br />
Competition. He performs<br />
regularly with other<br />
musicians, including pianist<br />
Samson Tsoy, cellist Narek<br />
Akhnazarian and the Hermes<br />
String Quartet. With violinist<br />
Lawrence Power, he recorded<br />
all of Johannes Brahms’ violin<br />
and viola sonatas. In 2019,<br />
he launched the <strong>Ragged</strong><br />
<strong>Music</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> in London<br />
with Samson Tsoy and also<br />
received the Critics’ Circle<br />
Young Talent Award for<br />
piano the same year, for his<br />
highly original interpretations<br />
and artistic vision.<br />
Pianist Samson Tsoy was<br />
born in Kazakhstan, and<br />
moved to London in 2011. He<br />
is lauded for the originality
Change language