Samuil Feinberg | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | Odessa, Russian Empire | 26 May 1890
Died | 22 October 1962 Moscow, Soviet Union | (aged 72)
Education | Moscow Conservatory |
Occupation(s) | Composer, pianist |
Awards |
Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg (Russian: Самуи́л Евге́ньевич Фе́йнберг, also Samuel; 26 May 1890 – 22 October 1962) was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
Biography
[edit]Born in Odessa, Feinberg lived in Moscow from 1894 and studied with Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory.[1] He also studied composition privately under Nikolai Zhilyayev.[2] He graduated from the Conservatory in 1911, after which he embarked upon a career as a solo pianist, while composing on the side. However, he was soon sent to fight in the First World War for Russia until he became ill and was discharged.[3] In 1922, he joined the faculty at the Moscow Conservatory, relaunching his pianistic career.[4] By 1930, due to the political repressions in Stalin's Russia, Feinberg's concert activities became limited. He made only two foreign trips in the 1930s: Vienna in 1936 and Brussels in 1938; hence he is generally not well known outside Russia. In 1946, he was awarded the Stalin Prize.[5]
Feinberg was the first pianist to perform the complete The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach in concert in the USSR.[6] He is most remembered today for his complete recording of it, and many other works from the classical and romantic eras. He also composed three piano concertos, a dozen piano sonatas (private recordings exist of him playing his piano Sonatas 1, 2, 9 and 12[7]), as well as fantasias and other works for the instrument. Pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva said that each of his sonatas was a "poem of life".[citation needed] Feinberg has been called "A musical heir to Scriabin",[8] who heard the young pianist play his fourth sonata and praised it highly.[9]
He was a life-long bachelor. He lived with his brother Leonid, who was a poet and painter. He died in 1962, aged 72.
Honours and awards
[edit]- Order of Lenin
- Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1937)
- Stalin Prize (1946)
Works
[edit]Compositions for solo piano
[edit]- Op. 1: Piano Sonata No. 1 (1915)
- Op. 2: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1915)
- Op. 3: Piano Sonata No. 3 (1917)
- Op. 5: Fantasia No. 1 (1917)
- Op. 6: Piano Sonata No. 4 (1918)
- Op. 8: Four Preludes (1920)
- Allegretto
- Misterioso
- Tumoltuoso
- Con moto
- Op. 9: Fantasia No. 2 (1921)
- Op. 10: Piano Sonata No. 5 (1921)
- Op. 11: Suite No. 1 (1922)
- Op. 13: Piano Sonata No. 6 (1923)
- Op. 15: Three Preludes (1922)
- Allegro affanato e molto rubato
- Andante con tenerezza
- Presto
- Op. 17: Two Cadenzas to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 (1930-1935)
- Op. 19: Humoresque
- Op. 19a: Berceuse
- Op. 21: Piano Sonata No. 7 (1925)
- Op. 21a: Piano Sonata No. 8 (1928)
- Op. 24a: Two Chuvash Melodies
- Op. 25: Suite No. 2 (1936)
- Op. 27a: Three Melodies (1938)
- Georgian Song
- Tartar Song
- Armenian Song
- Op. 29: Piano Sonata No. 9 (1939)
- Op. 30: Piano Sonata No. 10 (1940–44)
- Op. 31: 3 Transcriptions of symphonies of Tchaikovsky (1942)
- 'Andante marziale' from Symphony No. 2, Op. 17
- 'Waltz' from Symphony No. 5, Op. 64
- 'Allegro molto vivace' from Symphony No. 6, Op. 74
- Op. 33: Two Pieces (1947)
- Tale
- Procession
- Op. 35: Transcriptions of works of J.S. Bach (1925-1934)
- Op. 37: Transcription of Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548 by J.S. Bach (1937-1948?)
- Op. 38: Transcription of Largo from Organ Sonata No.5 in C Major, BWV 529 by J.S. Bach (1935-1938?)
- Op. 40: Piano Sonata No. 11 (1952)
- Op. 41: 4 Cadenzas to Mozart's Piano Concerto, K.467 (1952?)
- Op. 42: Transcription of Nocturne from String Quartet No.2, by A. Borodin (1942-1943?)
- Op. 43: 3 Transcriptions of Tchaikovsky's Songs, Op.54 (1942-1943?)
- Op. 45: Rhapsody on Kabardino-Balkarian Themes (1961)
- Op. 48: Piano Sonata No. 12 (1962)
Concertante
[edit]- Op. 20: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major (1931)
- Op. 36: Piano Concerto No. 2 in D major (1944)
- Op. 44: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (1947)
For piano and voice
[edit]- Op. 4: Two Romances after Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov
- Заклинание (Incantation)
- Из-под таинственной, холодной полумаски (Behind the Mysterious Cold Half-Mask)
- Op. 7: Three Romances after Alexander Blok
- Голоса (снежная ночь) – Voices (Snowy Night)
- И я опять затих у ног (снежная ночь) – Once more I'm silent at your feet (Snowy Night)
- В бездействии младом (стихи о прекрасной даме) – In Youthful indolence
- Op. 14: Four Romances after Valery Bryusov, Alexander Blok, and Andrei Bely (1917, unpublished)
- Op. 16: Three Romances after Alexander Pushkin (1923)
- Анчар – Anchar
- Друг мой милый – My Beloved
- Напрасно я бегу к Сионским высотам – In vain I hasten onto the heights of Sion
- Op. 18 – 5 National Songs (1932)
- Лох-Ломонд (Шотландская)
- Хоровод (Английская)
- Деревенская девушка (Английская)
- Похищение из Тюэри (Ирландская)
- Ночная песнь рыбаков (Валлийская)
- Op. 22: Two Songs after Aleksandr Zharov (1932)
- Op. 23: Three Songs (1938)
- Op. 23a: Song after Dmitry Dolgonemov (1934)
- Op. 24: 25 Chuvash Songs after Yuri Stremin (1935-1936)
- Op. 26: Eight Romances after Alexander Pushkin (1936)
- Не пой, красавица, при мне... – Do not sing, my beauty, to me
- Зимний вечер – Winter Evening
- Под небом голубым страны своей родной – Under the blue skies of her native land
- Туча – Cloud
- Три ключа – Three Springs
- Я помню чудное мгновенье – I Remember a Wonderful Moment
- Сожженное письмо – The Burned Letter
- Няне — Подруга дней моих суровых... – To Nanny – My friend through my travails, woes hardest..
- Op. 27: 12 Songs (1935-1937)
- Op. 28: Seven Romances after Mikhail Lermontov (1940)
- Дубовый листок – Oak Leaf
- Пленный рыцарь – The Imprisoned Knight
- Сон – The Dream
- Еврейская мелодия – Hebrew Melody
- Русалка – The River Sprite
- Нет, не тебя так пылко я люблю – No, it's not you I love so hotly
- Выхожу одни я но дорогу – Onto the Highway, on my own, I walk
- Op. 32: 3 Songs after Sergei Severtsev and Sergei Gorodetsky
- Op. 34: 6 Kabardian Songs (1941)
- Op. 39: 4 Songs after Yuri Stremin (1939)
- Op. 47: Maritsa, after Yugoslavian Folk Poetry (1958)
- Марица – Maritsa
- Первая любовь – The First Love
- Девушка и конь – The Horse and The Girl
- Разговор со смертью – Conversation with Death
- Македонская девушка – Macedonian Girl
- Уж как выпал снег... – Ah, How Fell The Snow
- Колыбельная – Lullaby
- Ожидание – Waiting
Violin sonatas
[edit]- Op. 12: Violin Sonata No. 1 (1912, incomplete)
- Op. 46: Violin Sonata No. 2 (1955–56)
References
[edit]- ^ Sokolov, M. G., ed. (1990). Pianists in Conversation (First ed.). Moscow.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Sitsky, Larry (1994). Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-garde, 1900–1929. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 183. ISBN 9780313267093.
samuil feinberg.
- ^ Figowy, Nicolo-Alexander (2020). Samuil Feinberg Piano Sonatas 1-6 (booklet notes). Marc-André Hamelin. Hyperion Records. CDA68233.
- ^ Cummings, Robert. "Samuel Feinberg". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ^ The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 1970–1979 (Third ed.). Samuil Feinberg.
- ^ Sirodeau, Christopher. "Samuil Feinberg". International Feinberg–Skalkottas Society. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ^ Samuil Feinberg plays Feinberg – home recordings! playlist on YouTube
- ^ Bogat, Leni. "Samuil Feinberg (1890–1962): Russian Pianist and Composer". Forte-Piano-Pianissimo.Com. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ^ Feinberg Sonata 4 published in 1918, Scriabin dead in 1915.
External links
[edit]- Skalkottas Feinberg Society
- Samuil Feinberg discography at Discogs
- Samuel Feinberg: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Works by or about Samuil Feinberg at the Internet Archive
- 'The Composer and The Performer' at Stanford School of Mathematics