Anton Arensky
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Anton Stepanovich Arensky (Russian: Антон Степанович Аренский) (July 12, 1861 – February 25, 1906), was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music.
Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine. With his father and mother, he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1879, where he studied composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1882, Arensky became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students there were Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Gretchaninov.
In 1895 Arensky returned to Saint Petersburg as the director of the Imperial Choir, a post for which he had been recommended by Mily Balakirev. Arensky retired from this position in 1901, spending his remaining time as a pianist, conductor, and composer.
Arensky died of tuberculosis in a sanatorium in in Perkijarvi, Finland. It is alleged that drinking and gambling undermined his health.
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[edit] His music
Pyotr Tchaikovsky was the greatest influence on Arensky's musical compositions. Indeed, Rimsky-Korsakov said, "In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten." The perception that he lacked a distinctive personal style contributed to long-term neglect of his music, though in recent years a large number of his compositions have been recorded. Especially popular are the orchestral Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky based on one of Tchaikovsky's Songs for Children, Op. 54.
Arensky was perhaps at his best in chamber music, in which he wrote two string quartets, two piano trios, and a piano quintet.
[edit] Selected works
[edit] Operas
- Son na Volge (Сон на Волге – A dream on the Volga, libretto by Anton Arensky after Alexander Ostrovsky's play "Voyevoda", 1888, premiere: January 2, 1891 [OS December 21, 1890], Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre)
- Rafael (Рафаэль – Raphael, 'the musical scenes from epoch of Renaissance', libretto by A. Kryukov, 1894 May 6 [OS April 24], 1894, Moscow, Conservatory)
- Nal' i Damayanti (Наль и Дамаянти – Nal and Damayanti, after Indian epos "Mahabharata", libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky after the novel by Vasily Zhukovsky, 1903, premiere: January 22, [OS January 9], 1904 Saint Petersburg), Moscow, Bolshoy Theatre)
[edit] Ballet
- Noch v Egipte or Egipetskiye nochi (Ночь в Египте or Египетские ночи – Egyptian Nights Opus 50 1900
[edit] Others
- Opus 2: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F minor
- Opus 4: Symphony No. 1 in B minor
- Opus 11: String Quartet No. 1 in G major
- Opus 15: Suite for Two Pianos No. 1 in F major
- Opus 22: Symphony No. 2 in A major
- Opus 23: Suite for Two Pianos No. 2 "Silhouettes"
- Opus 25: Cantata for the 10th anniversary of the Coronation
- Opus 25: Impromptu No.1 for piano solo
- Opus 32: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor
- Opus 33: Suite for Two Pianos No. 3 "Variations"
- Opus 35: String Quartet for Violin, Viola, and Two Cellos No. 2 in A minor
- Opus 35a: Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky
- Opus 41: Four Etudes for piano
- Opus 46: Cantata "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai"
- Opus 48: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra on Themes of Ryabinin
- Opus 51: Piano Quintet in D major
- Opus 54: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor
- Opus 62: Suite for Two Pianos No. 4
- Opus 63: Twelve Preludes for Piano
- Opus 61: Cantata "The Diver"
- Opus 73: Piano Trio No. 2 in F minor
