Let’s take another look at the history of the St.Petersburg Conservatory
and some of its graduates who are now the pride and glory of Russian music…
Topping this star-studded list is, of course, Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Entering
the conservatory as a virtual layman with a legal background, Tchaikovsky
graduated as a towering professional and was immediately invited to teach
at the newly opened Moscow Conservatory.
Tchaikovsky’s name is written in gold letters on a marble plaque listing
the gold medallists who at various times finished Russia’s first conservatory.
His portraits are in every classroom and his marble bust graces the conservatory’s
foyer.
Still a student, Pyotr Tchaikovsky started writing his first quartet, which
has since become recognized as an all-time classic.
The list of the conservatory’s best students also features the name of
composer Anatoly Lyadov. The son of a Mariinsky Theater conductor who immersed
himself in music early on, Anatoly Lyadov entered the conservatory as an
11-year-old composition major attending the class of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
At the age of 23, Lyadov became an honors graduate and, in that very same
year, started teaching at his alma mater to eventually become a father
figure of Russian music and one of this country’s finest teachers.
Even though less prolific compared to others, Anatoly Lyadov left behind
a great number of musical masterpieces, all so elegant and imaginative
and showing so much attention to detail.
This latter quality Lyadov was trying real hard to instill in his many
students, above all, in Nikolai Myaskovsky. A man of difficult circumstances,
Myaskovsky became professionally involved in music pretty much late in
life. At the age of 12, bowing to a family tradition, he entered
a military school, then moved on to finish an army engineers’ school in
St.Petersburg and entered the conservatory at the already advanced age
of 25.
Still a student, Nikolai Myaskovsky made a statement primarily as a composer
of large pieces with the symphony eventually becoming the focus of his
musical endeavor. It was in this philosophical genre that Myaskovsky, always
so tight-lipped and shy, was able to better bring out his beautiful soul
and vibrant mind.
Sergei Prokofyev was a fellow student and a close friend of Myaskovsky’s.
The friendship of these two outstanding and so different musicians lasted
a whole lifetime, until Myaskovsky’s very death.
A piano and composition major at the conservatory, Sergei Prokofyev attended
the class of famous performing pianist, Anna Yesipova, and of composer
Anatoly Lyadov, both of whom had a tough luck dealing with their enormously
talented but overly independent and abrasive student who was always on
the lookout for his own ways in music.
During his graduation exam, Prokofyev, eager to surprise his examiners,
played his own First Piano Concerto with its shockingly unorthodox intonation,
bubbling energy and fantastic flash. The young musician was in seventh
heaven throwing down everything he saw as outdated in music.
It wasn’t the last time, however, that Prokofyev was stunning everyone
with his audaciously novel forms and his one-of-a-kind playing …
Upon his graduation in 1914, Sergei Prokofyev was awarded the Anton Rubinstein
prize – a concert grand made by Schroeder.
Next on the list of the conservatory gold medallists we see the name of
Dmitry Shostakovich. Entering the conservatory at the age of 13,
he unveiled an impressive list of his own compositions already during his
entrance exams.
The year 1919... The “cradle of the Revolution” was in a state of chaos
and general disrepair. Many conservatory professors and students were going
days without food. For the young Shostakovish, this malnutrition resulted
in serious blood problems. Learning about this life-threatening disease,
the conservatory’s director, Alexander Glazunov, asked the Soviet government
for material assistance to the talented young musician. The authorities
obliged and the additional food ration saved the life of Russia’s future
classic…
Shostakovich was studying composition with Maximilian Steinberg who once
apprenticed with the great Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov himself. As a piano
major, he was attending the class of Professor Leonid Nikolayev who was
quick to appreciate his student’s exceptional pianistic talent. It was
at Nikolayev’s prodding that Shostakovish took part in the first Chopin
international piano competition in Warsaw and won a special award there…
His excellent playing abilities later stood Shostakovich in very good stead
each time he needed to showcase his compositional talent.
During his graduation exams Shostakovich presented his First Symphony,
which opened a whole new chapter in the history of Russian music. In 1925
the First Symphony literally sent the house down at the Philharmonic Big
Hall in Leningrad.
Years after, Dmitry Shostakovich started teaching at his alma mater where
he was very much taking heart in one of his best-loved composition students,
Georgy Sviridov. Sviridov hailed from Kursk in central Russia whose folk
songs and melodies later found their way into his best compositions…
It was a vocal cycle based on poems by the great Russian poet Alexander
Pushkin, that brought the young composer who was still going to the Conservatory
his first and well-deserved fame.
Graduating from the conservatory, Sviridov settled in Moscow spending the
rest of his life in the new capital. Memories of the grand city on
the Neva always deep down in his heart, he eventually wrote a wealth of
musical dedications to Russia’s northern capital, including the Petersburg
song cycle…
The Petersburg theme was also very much on the mind of another renowned
20th century composer, Andrei Petrov. Graduating in 1954, he had his conservatory
mentors applauding the amazing versatility of his compositional talent.
Andrei Petrov is the author of many symphonies, operas, ballets, theater
music, movie soundtracks and also a wealth of popular songs…
Friendly and very easy to get along with, Andrei Petrov has presided over
the city’s composers’ union for a whole 40 years now and sat on the jury
of countless festivals and contests.
He is conducting a composition class at the St.Petersburg conservatory
keeping alive the grand traditions of Russian compositional school and
the traditions of music education laid by Russia’s oldest conservatory…
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