Ivanov, Mikhail Mikhailovich
Ivanov, Mikhail Mikhailovich
Ivanov, Mikhail Mikhailovich, Russian musk critic and composer; b. Moscow, Sept. 23, 1849; d. Rome, Oct. 20, 1927. He studied mechanical sciences at the Technological Inst. in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1869, then went to Moscow, where he took private harmony lessons with Tchaikovsky. From 1870 to 1875 he lived in Italy, where he took music lessons with Sgambati. In 1875 he returned to St. Petersburg, where he obtained the position of music critic of the influential newspaper Novoye Vremya, which he held from 1880 to 1917. After the Revolution he emigrated to Italy, where he remained until his death. A critic of reactionary tendencies, Ivanov assailed the composers of the Russian national school. Endowed with a lively literary style, he made use of irony against any new musical developments; this in turn earned him the enmity of liberal musicians. He was also a composer of sorts, numbering a ballet, Vestal Virgin (St. Petersburg, Feb. 29, 1888), the operas Zabava Putiatishna (Moscow, Jan. 15, 1899) and Potemkin Holiday (St. Petersburg, Dec. 16, 1902), and a number of songs among his works. He publ. Pushkin in Music (St. Petersburg, 1899) and The Historical Development of Music in Russia (2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1910-12).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire