Slonimsky, Sergei Mikhailovich
SLONIMSKY, SERGEI MIKHAILOVICH
SLONIMSKY, SERGEI MIKHAILOVICH (1932– ), Russian composer, pianist, and musicologist, son of the writer Mikhail *Slonimski and nephew of Nicolas *Slonimsky. Slonimsky was born in St. Petersburg and studied composition (at the age of 11) with Shebalin (in Moscow from 1943 to 1945) and later with Volfenson, Evlakhov, and Arapov in St. Petersburg, as well as piano with Nilsen. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1956, where he taught composition and became professor in 1976. The music of Mussorgsky and Prokofiev influenced Slominsky, yet he developed his own idiom based on Russian folklore, which he articulated in his works in a variety of compositional techniques.
Among his works are the operas Virinea (1967), The Master and Margarita (1972), Maria Stuart (1983), Hamlet (1990), and Ivan the Terrible (1998), the ballet Icarus (1970), ten symphonies (1958–92), instrumental concertos, symphonic chamber works, vocal and choral pieces in many genres, and music for the theater and cinema. As a musicologist, he wrote Simfonii Prokofieva (1964, based on his Ph.D. thesis) and essays on Mahler, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Balakirev, and Russian folklore. A volume of his reviews and memoirs, Burleski, elegii, difiramby v presrennoy prose ("Burlesques, Elegies, Dithyrambs in Contemptible Prose"), was published in 2000. He also devoted his energies to the revival of music by forgotten composers of previous generations. His creative work inspired unusually rich musicological research.
bibliography:
A. Milka: Sergey Slonimsky (1976); M. Rytsareva (Ritzarev): Kompozitor Sergey Slonimsky (1991); L. Gavrilova: "Ivan Grozny" Sergeya Slonimskogo (2000); M. Ritzarev: "Sergei Slonimsky and Russian 'Unofficial Nationalism' of the 1960–80s," in: Schostakovitsch und die Folgen: Russische Music zwischen Anpassung und Protest (E. Kuhn, J. Nemtsov, and A. Wehrmeyer, eds.) (2003), 187–210.
[Marina Rizarev (2nd ed.)]