Balakirev Biography and Creativity

Russian composer, pianist and conductor. The boy received such an unusual name from his mother, Elizabeth Ivanovna, in whose family it was traditional. Under her leadership, Balakirev began to study music, then continued his studies in Moscow with the famous teacher Alexander Dubyuk. At the age of 16, the young man yielded the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Institute and entered the Mathematics Department of Kazan University.

He had to earn a living by teaching music. Without studying in Kazan and two years, he returns to Nizhny Novgorod, where he begins to conduct the orchestra, speaking at the fair, in the theater and the noble meeting. The first creative experiments belong to this time: piano works, romances. The talent of a young man was highly appreciated by A. Smebyshev, the first Russian musicologist, also a Nizhny Novgorod, in whose house symphonic evenings were often held with the participation of a young composer.

He was entered into the musical circles of the capital and in the year brought to St. Petersburg Summer Milia. In the capital, Balakirev quickly gains fame as a performer and continues to compose. Brightly gifted, insatiable in knowledge, indefatigable in work, he was eager for new musical achievements. Therefore, when life brought him with C. Kui, M. Mussorgsky, and later with N.

Rimsky-Korsakov and A. Borodin, Balakirev united and led this small musical team, which went down in the history of music called “Mighty Pile” by critic B. Stasov and the “Balakirevsky circle”. Music friends and Stasov regularly gathered at Balakirev’s house. They talked, read a lot together aloud, but most of the time they gave an analysis of the prospects for the development of music.

It is interesting that none of the novice composers received a special education: Kui was a military engineer, Mussorgsky-retired officer, Rimsky-Korsakov-a sailor, Borodin-a chemist. Balakirev considered the formation of Russian music and the national music school the main task of his whole life. He actively participated in the work of not only “Kuchkust”, but also other composers, P.

Tchaikovsky, for example, telling them new topics and plots for creativity. When a circle was created, the conservatory in Russia did not exist yet; Later, the conservatory, founded by Anton Rubinstein in St. Petersburg, adopted the direction of development oriented to Europe, while Balakirev and his circle became the champions of the nationality in art.

By the year, Balakirev himself wrote 20 romances, among which such masterpieces as “Come to me”, “Selim’s song” “Song of the Golden Fish”. Balakirev’s symphonic works were performed in concerts: an overture on the topics of three Russian songs, an overture for Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear”. He also wrote many piano plays. In the year, Balakirev founded a “free music school”, and a few years later he refused to invite to become a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

Balakirev, according to contemporaries, was an ardent opponent of the conservatories, believing that talent is cultivated only at home by continuous self -education. In the city, he was invited to conduct the imperial Russian musical society. There sounded the music of the composers of the “mighty pile”, the premiere of the first symphony of Alexander Borodin took place.

However, two years later, Balakirev had to leave the conducting post: in the court circles they were dissatisfied with the composer’s sharp statements about musical conservatism. At the same time, the “mighty bunch” broke up: Balakirev’s students became experienced and independent composers. Balakirev radically changed his life and in July began to work as an ordinary employee in the office of the Warsaw Railway.

The composer became fanatically Orthodox believers. He was even preparing to accept tonsure, but through the efforts of the priest Ivan Verkhovsky he remained in the world. But the return to musical and public affairs occurred only by the end of the decade. In the year, Balakirev again headed the music school. By this time, passion and the boiling energy of a person who separated - even if not always consistently - progressive ideas of the x.

Balakirev is working on the completion of the Tamara symphonic poem according to the Lermontov poem of the same name, which first sounded in the spring of G. new, mainly piano plays and new editions of the already written overture on the theme of the Spanish march, the symphonic poem “Rus'”. In the middle of the x. Balakirev wrote 10 romances.

The composer's symphonic music won increasingly fame. She sounded not only in the capital, but also in the provincial cities of Russia, successfully performed abroad - in Brussels, Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Heidelberg, Berlin. Foreign recognition of his head of Russian music, as it were, compensated for the tragic detachment from the main direction in his homeland.

Miles Balakirev died in the year of 73 years. He was buried in the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. He did not have his wife and children. Balakirev’s composer heritage is not extensive, but very significant.He is the author of two symphonies; three overtures, including overtures on the topic of three Russian songs; symphonic poems “Rus'”, “in the Czech Republic”, “Tamara”; The author of orchestral, piano and vocal works, from which romances and songs are very popular.

A valuable musical contribution of the composer is considered to be the “Collection of Russian Folk Songs” prepared by him for the publication. But most often they recall his musical and public activity, commitment to the national idea in music and the role in the creation and activities of a “mighty pile”.