Are you here: crafts

06/30/2019 at 04:26 PM · VeraSchegoleva · 17 930

10 most famous Russian composers who have made a huge contribution to world cultural development

World classical music cannot be imagined without the works of composers from Russia.

This country with its culture and talents has always been one of the main "engines" of art and development.

Composers from Russia combined folk music with foreign art. They managed to combine the Russian spirit and the European form.

This article presents a list of the most famous composers from Russia who have made the greatest contribution to world cultural development.

10. Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin- a very significant musician in world culture, a Russian pianist and a popular composer. He was born in 1872, died in 1915.

His work was distinguished by deep poetry and originality. It was considered innovative even for the beginning of the 20th century.

The period from 1903 to 1908 became the most fruitful in the life of the composer. It was then that the "Satanic", "Tragic" piano poems, "The Poem of Ecstasy", the Third Symphony and many other of his works were created.

"Prometheus" is another masterpiece of the composer. It was in this creation that he deviated from the generally accepted tonal system.

Scriabin's harmonic language turned out to be completely renewed. The composer's work greatly influenced the symphonic and piano music of the 20th century.

9. Mikael Tariverdiev

Mikael Tariverdiev was born in 1931 and passed away in 1996. This is a People's Artist of the RSFSR, a Russian and Soviet composer.

Tariverdiev created concerts, symphonies, chamber vocal cycles, operas, ballets, romances. This composer wrote music for a number of performances and a large number of films ("Irony of Fate", "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and many others).

Tariverdiev's homeland is Tbilisi. The origin of Sato Akopova, the composer's mother, was noble, but during the years of the Civil War she began to get involved in the ideas of the Bolsheviks. Her husband was the red commander of the cavalry regiment.

Mikael became the only son of Sato. Wanting to give him a better education, she took him to a music school. Then Mikael got into a music school.

The musician wrote two one-act ballets in his youth. Then Tariverdiev moved to Moscow and entered the Gnessin Institute. There, the circle of his interests was finally determined: music for films, chamber vocal and operatic works.

8. Isaac Dunayevsky

Soviet conductor and composer Isaak Dunayevsky was born in 1900 and passed away in 1955.

People's Artist of the RSFSR, creator of famous music for films, 4 ballets and 11 operettas.

The future composer was born into a Jewish family. His musical talent manifested itself from an early age: the boy struck with the purity of his voice, easily reproduced complex melodies.

Dunaevsky studied at a music school, but law became his main specialty. However, then the young man still chose music.

He worked in the orchestra of the Kharkov Drama Theater, and then wrote music for one of the productions. After some time, Dunaevsky moved to Moscow, and there his talent was fully revealed.

7. Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky- composer from Russia, was a citizen of the United States and France. He was born in 1882, passed away in 1971.

His music combines a large number of styles. At the very beginning of his career, Stravinsky created works that bore a vivid imprint of Russian culture.

The later work of the composer was influenced by the New Viennese School, neoclassicism.
Stravinsky was born not far from St. Petersburg. At the university, he studied to be a lawyer, he studied music himself.

The composer subordinated the melodies to his own rules. He freely combined styles, forms and genres, so his work has always been difficult to classify.

6. Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninov created his own style, distinguished by originality and uniqueness. He combined the traditions of the St. Petersburg and Moscow composer schools. The composer was born in 1873 and died in 1943.

This brilliant musician and hereditary Russian nobleman began to symbolize Russian music throughout the world. When the composer graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky took the exam.

For a one-act opera, created as a graduation work, he gave the young Rachmaninov an A with several pluses. Then this opera was recommended for staging at the Bolshoi Theatre.

The Moscow public fell in love with the novice composer very quickly. Then Rachmaninov was overtaken by an internal and creative crisis, but he was able to overcome it and again won the status of a famous Russian.

The composer conducted a lot, wrote, gave concerts in Canada, America and European countries. After the 1917 revolution, Rachmaninoff left Russia with his family.

5. Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitry Shostakovich- Soviet pianist, composer, teacher, professor. He was born in 1906 and passed away in 1975.

Shostakovich studied at the Petrograd Conservatory from the age of 13. His graduation work was the First Symphony, which was received very well by the audience. Then this work became known outside the Soviet Union.

Shostakovich created a large number of musical works, including symphonies, ballets, operas, concertos, quartets, music for theaters and films.

His creations expressed the chronicle of the difficult events of the 20th century and the inner drama of man.

4. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in 1844 and died in 1908. This is a Russian musician, public figure, teacher, music critic, conductor.

This composer created symphonies, operas, sacred, vocal music, cantatas, instrumental concerts.

Rimsky-Korsakov was born into an old noble family. He worked in the navy, sailed to South and North America, but he did not leave the craving for the musical field.

When Rimsky-Korsakov returned to Russia, he turned to creating music and gained a reputation as a composer.

3. Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 and died in 1893. He was also a music critic, teacher and conductor.

A large number of genres are connected in the work of this great Russian composer. We can say that he was a psychologist, because with the help of creativity he analyzed the contradictory and complex phenomena of life.

Tchaikovsky traveled widely, worked as a touring conductor in Europe and Russia.

2. Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky created works in different genres: choirs, orchestral pieces, songs, romances,. This Russian composer was born in 1839 and passed away in 1881.

Russian national traits found a very bright and original expression in his work. The last years of Mussorgsky's life were overshadowed by addiction to alcohol and "nervous fever".

1. Mikhail Glinka

The work of this famous composer greatly influenced many famous musicians: for example, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky. Mikhail Glinka born in 1804 and died in 1857.

His musical works confirmed the mighty rise of national culture. This composer paid great attention to folklore, in his operas he discovered the world of folk tales, epic epic.

Glinka traveled extensively and lived in several European countries.

Readers' Choice:

World classical music is unthinkable without the works of Russian composers. Russia, a great country with talented people and its cultural heritage, has always been among the leading locomotives of world progress and art, including music. The Russian school of composers, whose traditions were continued by the Soviet and today's Russian schools, began in the 19th century with composers who combined European musical art with Russian folk melodies, linking together the European form and the Russian spirit.

A lot can be said about each of these famous people, all of them have not simple, and sometimes tragic fates, but in this review we have tried to give only a brief description of the life and work of composers.

1.Mikhail Ivanovich GLINKA (1804—1857)

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka is the founder of Russian classical music and the first domestic classical composer to achieve world fame. His works, based on the centuries-old traditions of Russian folk music, were a new word in the musical art of our country.
Born in the Smolensk province, educated in St. Petersburg. The formation of the worldview and the main idea of Mikhail Glinka's work was facilitated by direct communication with such personalities as A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Griboyedov, A.A. Delvig. The creative impetus to his work was added by a long-term trip to Europe in the early 1830s and meetings with the leading composers of the time - V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, F. Mendelssohn and later with G. Berlioz, J. Meyerbeer. Success came to M.I. Glinka after the production of the opera "Ivan Susanin" ("Life for the Tsar") (1836), which was enthusiastically received by everyone, for the first time in world music, Russian choral art and European symphonic and operatic practice were organically combined, as well as a hero appeared, similar to Susanin, whose image summarizes the best features of the national character. VF Odoevsky described the opera as "a new element in Art, and a new period begins in its history - the period of Russian music."
The second opera - the epic "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1842), the work on which was carried out against the backdrop of Pushkin's death and in the difficult living conditions of the composer, due to the deeply innovative nature of the work, was ambiguously received by the audience and the authorities and brought M.I. Glinka hard feelings . After that, he traveled a lot, living alternately in Russia and abroad, without stopping composing. Romances, symphonic and chamber works remained in his legacy. In the 1990s, Mikhail Glinka's "Patriotic Song" was the official anthem of the Russian Federation.

Quote by M.I. Glinka: "In order to create beauty, one must be pure in soul."

Quote about M.I. Glinka: "The entire Russian symphonic school, like the whole oak tree in an acorn, is contained in the symphonic fantasy "Kamarinskaya". P.I. Tchaikovsky

An interesting fact: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka did not differ in good health, despite this he was very easy-going and knew geography very well, perhaps if he had not become a composer, he would have become a traveler. He knew six foreign languages, including Persian.

2. Alexander Porfiryevich BORODIN (1833—1887)

Alexander Porfirievich Borodin, one of the leading Russian composers of the second half of the 19th century, in addition to his talent as a composer, was a chemist, doctor, teacher, critic and had a literary talent.
Born in St. Petersburg, since childhood, everyone around him noted his unusual activity, enthusiasm and abilities in various directions, primarily in music and chemistry. A.P. Borodin is a Russian nugget composer, he did not have professional musician teachers, all his achievements in music are due to independent work on mastering the technique of composing. The formation of A.P. Borodin was influenced by the work of M.I. Glinka (as well as all Russian composers of the 19th century), and two events gave an impetus to the close occupation of composition in the early 1860s - firstly, the acquaintance and marriage with the talented pianist E.S. Protopopova, and secondly, the meeting with M.A. Balakirev and joining the creative community of Russian composers, known as the "Mighty Handful". In the late 1870s and 1880s, A.P. Borodin traveled and toured extensively in Europe and America, met with the leading composers of his time, his fame grew, he became one of the most famous and popular Russian composers in Europe at the end of the 19th century. th century.
The central place in the work of A.P. Borodin is occupied by the opera "Prince Igor" (1869-1890), which is an example of the national heroic epic in music and which he himself did not have time to finish (it was completed by his friends A.A. Glazunov and N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov). In "Prince Igor", against the backdrop of majestic pictures of historical events, the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe entire work of the composer was reflected - courage, calm grandeur, spiritual nobility of the best Russian people and the mighty strength of the entire Russian people, manifested in the defense of the motherland. Despite the fact that A.P. Borodin left a relatively small number of works, his work is very diverse and he is considered one of the fathers of Russian symphonic music, who influenced many generations of Russian and foreign composers.

Quote about A.P. Borodin: "Borodin's talent is equally powerful and amazing both in symphony and in opera and romance. His main qualities are giant strength and breadth, colossal scope, swiftness and impetuosity, combined with amazing passion, tenderness and beauty." V.V. Stasov

An interesting fact: the chemical reaction of silver salts of carboxylic acids with halogens, resulting in halogen-substituted hydrocarbons, which he first investigated in 1861, is named after Borodin.

3. Modest Petrovich MUSSORGSKY (1839—1881)

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - one of the most brilliant Russian composers of the 19th century, a member of the "Mighty Handful". Mussorgsky's innovative work was far ahead of its time.
Born in the Pskov province. Like many talented people, from childhood he showed talent in music, studied in St. Petersburg, was, according to family tradition, a military man. The decisive event that determined that Mussorgsky was born not for military service, but for music, was his meeting with M.A. Balakirev and joining the "Mighty Handful". Mussorgsky is great because in his grandiose works - the operas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" - he captured in music the dramatic milestones of Russian history with a radical novelty that Russian music did not know before him, showing in them a combination of mass folk scenes and a diverse richness of types, the unique character of the Russian people. These operas, in numerous editions by both the author and other composers, are among the most popular Russian operas in the world. Another outstanding work of Mussorgsky is the cycle of piano pieces "Pictures at an Exhibition", colorful and inventive miniatures are permeated with the Russian refrain theme and the Orthodox faith.

There was everything in Mussorgsky's life - both greatness and tragedy, but he was always distinguished by genuine spiritual purity and disinterestedness. His last years were difficult - unsettled life, non-recognition of creativity, loneliness, addiction to alcohol, all this determined his early death at 42, he left relatively few compositions, some of which were completed by other composers. The specific melody and innovative harmony of Mussorgsky anticipated some features of the musical development of the 20th century and played an important role in the formation of the styles of many world composers.

Quote by MP Mussorgsky: "The sounds of human speech, as external manifestations of thought and feeling, must, without exaggeration and rape, become truthful, accurate music, but artistic, highly artistic."

Quote about M.P. Mussorgsky: "Aboriginally Russian sounds in everything that Mussorgsky did" N.K. Roerich

An interesting fact: at the end of his life, Mussorgsky, under pressure from his “friends” Stasov and Rimsky-Korsakov, renounced copyright on his works and presented them to Tertiy Filippov

4. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840—1893)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, perhaps the greatest Russian composer of the 19th century, raised Russian musical art to unprecedented heights. He is one of the most important composers of world classical music.
A native of the Vyatka province, although his paternal roots are in Ukraine, Tchaikovsky showed musical abilities from childhood, but his first education and work was in the field of law. Tchaikovsky is one of the first Russian "professional" composers - he studied music theory and composition at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory. Tchaikovsky was considered a "Western" composer, in contrast to the folk figures of the "Mighty Handful", with whom he had good creative and friendly relations, however, his work is no less permeated with the Russian spirit, he managed to uniquely combine the Western symphonic heritage of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann with Russian traditions inherited from Mikhail Glinka.
The composer led an active life - he was a teacher, conductor, critic, public figure, worked in two capitals, toured Europe and America. Tchaikovsky was a rather emotionally unstable person, enthusiasm, despondency, apathy, irascibility, violent anger - all these moods changed in him quite often, being a very sociable person, he always strove for loneliness.
It is a difficult task to single out something better from Tchaikovsky's work, he has several works of equal size in almost all musical genres - opera, ballet, symphony, chamber music. The content of Tchaikovsky's music is universal: with inimitable melodism, it embraces the images of life and death, love, nature, childhood, it reveals works of Russian and world literature in a new way, and reflects the deep processes of spiritual life.

Composer quote:
"I am an artist who can and must bring honor to his Motherland. I feel a great artistic power in myself, I have not yet done even a tenth of what I can do. And I want to do it with all the strength of my soul."
"Life has charm only when it consists of the alternation of joys and sorrows, of the struggle between good and evil, of light and shadow, in a word, of diversity in unity."
"Great talent requires great hard work."

Quote about the composer: "I am ready day and night to stand guard of honor at the porch of the house where Pyotr Ilyich lives - to such an extent I respect him" A.P. Chekhov

An interesting fact: the University of Cambridge in absentia and without defending a dissertation awarded Tchaikovsky the title of Doctor of Music, and the Paris Academy of Fine Arts elected him a corresponding member.

5. Nikolai Andreevich RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844—1908)

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov is a talented Russian composer, one of the most important figures in the creation of an invaluable domestic musical heritage. His peculiar world and worship of the eternal all-encompassing beauty of the universe, admiration for the miracle of life, unity with nature have no analogues in the history of music.
Born in the Novgorod province, according to family tradition, he became a naval officer, on a warship he traveled around many countries in Europe and two Americas. He received his musical education first from his mother, then taking private lessons from the pianist F. Canille. And again, thanks to M.A. Balakirev, the organizer of The Mighty Handful, who introduced Rimsky-Korsakov into the musical community and influenced his work, the world did not lose the talented composer.
The central place in Rimsky-Korsakov's legacy is occupied by operas - 15 works demonstrating a variety of genre, stylistic, dramatic, compositional decisions of the composer, nevertheless having a special style - with all the richness of the orchestral component, melodic vocal lines are the main ones. Two main directions distinguish the composer's work: the first is Russian history, the second is the world of fairy tales and epic, for which he received the nickname "storyteller".
In addition to direct independent creative activity, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov is known as a publicist, compiler of collections of folk songs, in which he showed great interest, and also as the finalist of the works of his friends - Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky and Borodin. Rimsky-Korsakov was the founder of the composer school, as a teacher and head of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he produced about two hundred composers, conductors, musicologists, among them Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Quote about the composer: "Rimsky-Korsakov was a very Russian person and a very Russian composer. I believe that this primordially Russian essence of him, his deep folklore-Russian basis, should be especially appreciated today." Mstislav Rostropovich

The work of Russian composers of the late 19th - first half of the 20th century is a holistic continuation of the traditions of the Russian school. At the same time, the concept of an approach to the "national" affiliation of this or that music was named, there is practically no direct citation of folk melodies, but the Russian intonation basis, the Russian soul, remained.

6. Alexander Nikolaevich SKRYABIN (1872 - 1915)

Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin is a Russian composer and pianist, one of the brightest personalities of Russian and world musical culture. The original and deeply poetic work of Scriabin stood out for its innovation even against the background of the birth of many new trends in art associated with changes in public life at the turn of the 20th century.
Born in Moscow, his mother died early, his father could not pay attention to his son, as he served as ambassador to Persia. Scriabin was brought up by his aunt and grandfather, from childhood he showed musical abilities. At first he studied at the cadet corps, took private piano lessons, after graduating from the corps he entered the Moscow Conservatory, his classmate was S.V. Rakhmaninov. After graduating from the conservatory, Scriabin devoted himself entirely to music - as a concert pianist-composer, he toured Europe and Russia, spending most of his time abroad.
The peak of Scriabin's composing work was the years 1903-1908, when the Third Symphony ("Divine Poem"), the symphonic "Poem of Ecstasy", "Tragic" and "Satanic" piano poems, 4th and 5th sonatas and other works were released. "The Poem of Ecstasy", consisting of several themes-images, concentrated Sryabin's creative ideas and is his bright masterpiece. It harmoniously combined the composer's love for the power of a large orchestra and the lyrical, airy sound of solo instruments. The colossal vital energy, fiery passion, strong-willed power embodied in the "Poem of Ecstasy" makes an irresistible impression on the listener and to this day retains the strength of its influence.
Another masterpiece of Scriabin is "Prometheus" ("Poem of Fire"), in which the author completely updated his harmonic language, departing from the traditional tonal system, and for the first time in history this work was supposed to be accompanied by color music, but the premiere, for technical reasons, was held no light effects.
The last unfinished "Mystery" was the idea of Scriabin, a dreamer, romantic, philosopher, to appeal to all mankind and inspire him to create a new fantastic world order, the union of the Universal Spirit with Matter.

Quote by A.N. Scriabin: “I’m going to tell them (people) that they ... don’t expect anything from life except what they can create for themselves ... I’m going to tell them that there’s nothing to grieve about, that there is no loss "So that they are not afraid of despair, which alone can give rise to real triumph. Strong and powerful is the one who has experienced despair and conquered it."

Quote about A.N. Scriabin: "Scriabin's work was his time, expressed in sounds. But when the temporary, transient finds its expression in the work of a great artist, it acquires a permanent meaning and becomes enduring." G. V. Plekhanov

7. Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov (1873 - 1943)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov is the greatest world composer of the early 20th century, a talented pianist and conductor. The creative image of Rachmaninoff as a composer is often defined by the epithet "the most Russian composer", emphasizing in this brief formulation his merits in uniting the musical traditions of the Moscow and St. Petersburg composer schools and in creating his own unique style, which stands out in isolation in world musical culture.
Born in the Novgorod province, from the age of four he began to study music under the guidance of his mother. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, after 3 years of study he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory and graduated with a big gold medal. He quickly became known as a conductor and pianist, composing music. The disastrous premiere of the groundbreaking First Symphony (1897) in St. Petersburg sparked a creative composer's crisis, from which Rachmaninoff emerged in the early 1900s with a style that combined Russian church songwriting, waning European romanticism, modern impressionism and neoclassicism, all saturated with complex symbolism. During this creative period, his best works were born, including 2 and 3 piano concertos, the Second Symphony and his favorite work - the poem "The Bells" for choir, soloists and orchestra.
In 1917, Rachmaninov and his family were forced to leave our country and settle in the United States. For almost ten years after his departure, he did not compose anything, but toured extensively in America and Europe and was recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the era and the greatest conductor. For all the stormy activity, Rachmaninoff remained a vulnerable and insecure person, striving for solitude and even loneliness, avoiding the intrusive attention of the public. He sincerely loved and yearned for his homeland, wondering if he had made a mistake by leaving it. He was constantly interested in all the events taking place in Russia, read books, newspapers and magazines, helped financially. His last compositions - Symphony No. 3 (1937) and "Symphonic Dances" (1940) became the result of his creative path, absorbing all the best of his unique style and the mournful feeling of irreparable loss and homesickness.

Quote by S.V. Rachmaninov:
"I feel like a ghost wandering alone in a world that is alien to him."
"The highest quality of any art is its sincerity."
"Great composers have always and above all paid attention to melody as the leading principle in music. Melody is music, the main basis of all music ... Melodic ingenuity, in the highest sense of the word, is the composer's main life goal .... By For this reason, the great composers of the past showed so much interest in the folk melodies of their countries.

Quote about S.V. Rachmaninov:
"Rakhmaninov was made of steel and gold: Steel in his hands, gold in his heart. I can't think of him without tears. I not only bowed before the great artist, But I loved the man in him." I. Hoffman
"Rakhmaninov's music is the Ocean. Its waves - musical - start so far beyond the horizon, and lift you so high and lower you so slowly ... that you feel this Power and Breath." A. Konchalovsky

An interesting fact: during the Great Patriotic War, Rachmaninov gave several charity concerts, the money collected from which he sent to the Red Army fund to fight the Nazi invaders.

8. Igor Fyodorovich STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky is one of the most influential world composers of the 20th century, the leader of neoclassicism. Stravinsky became a "mirror" of the musical era, his work reflects the multiplicity of styles, constantly intersecting and difficult to classify. He freely combines genres, forms, styles, choosing them from centuries of musical history and subordinating them to his own rules.
Born near St. Petersburg, studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, independently studied musical disciplines, took private lessons from N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, this was Stravinsky's only composing school, thanks to which he mastered the compositional technique to perfection. He began to compose professionally relatively late, but the rise was swift - a series of three ballets: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) immediately brought him to the number of composers of the first magnitude.
In 1914 he left Russia, as it turned out almost forever (in 1962 there were tours in the USSR). Stravinsky is a cosmopolitan, having had to change several countries - Russia, Switzerland, France, and ended up living in the USA. His work is divided into three periods - "Russian", "neoclassical", American "serial production", the periods are divided not by the time of life in different countries, but by the author's "handwriting".
Stravinsky was a very highly educated, sociable person with a great sense of humor. The circle of his acquaintances and correspondents included musicians, poets, artists, scientists, businessmen, statesmen.
The last highest achievement of Stravinsky - "Requiem" (Chants for the Dead) (1966) absorbed and combined the composer's previous artistic experience, becoming a true apotheosis of the master's work.
In Stavinsky's work, one unique feature stands out - "uniqueness", it was not without reason that he was called "the composer of a thousand and one styles", the constant change of genre, style, plot direction - each of his works is unique, but he constantly returned to designs in which Russian origin is visible, heard Russian roots.

Quote by I.F. Stravinsky: "I have been speaking Russian all my life, I have a Russian style. Maybe in my music this is not immediately visible, but it is inherent in it, it is in its hidden nature"

Quote about I.F. Stravinsky: "Stravinsky is a truly Russian composer ... The Russian spirit is indestructible in the heart of this truly great, multifaceted talent, born of the Russian land and vitally connected with it ... " D. Shostakovich

Interesting fact (bike):
Once in New York, Stravinsky took a taxi and was surprised to read his name on the sign.
- You are not a relative of the composer? he asked the driver.
- Is there a composer with such a surname? - the driver was surprised. - Hear it for the first time. However, Stravinsky is the name of the taxi owner. I have nothing to do with music - my name is Rossini ...

9. Sergei Sergeevich PROKOFIEV (1891—1953)

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - one of the greatest Russian composers of the 20th century, pianist, conductor.
Born in the Donetsk region, from childhood joined the music. Prokofiev can be considered one of the few (if not the only) Russian musical "wunderkinds", from the age of 5 he was engaged in composing, at the age of 9 he wrote two operas (of course, these works are still immature, but show a desire for creation), at the age of 13 he passed exams in St. Petersburg Conservatory, among his teachers was N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The beginning of his professional career caused a storm of criticism and a misunderstanding of his individual fundamentally anti-romantic and extremely modernist style, the paradox is that, despite destroying academic canons, the structure of his compositions remained true to classical principles and subsequently became a restraining force of modernist all-denying skepticism. From the very beginning of his career, Prokofiev performed and toured a lot. In 1918, he went on an international tour, including visiting the USSR, and finally returned to his homeland in 1936.
The country has changed and Prokofiev's "free" creativity has been forced to give way to the realities of the new demands. Prokofiev's talent flourished with renewed vigor - he writes operas, ballets, music for films - sharp, strong-willed, extremely accurate music with new images and ideas, laid the foundation for Soviet classical music and opera. In 1948, three tragic events occurred almost simultaneously: on suspicion of espionage, his first Spanish wife was arrested and exiled to camps; the Decree of the Poliburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was issued in which Prokofiev, Shostakovich and others were attacked and accused of "formalism" and the dangers of their music; there was a sharp deterioration in the composer's health, he retired to the country and practically did not leave it, but continued to compose.
Some of the brightest works of the Soviet period were the operas "War and Peace", "The Tale of a Real Man"; the ballets "Romeo and Juliet", "Cinderella", which have become a new standard of world ballet music; oratorio "On guard of the world"; music for the films "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan the Terrible"; symphonies No. 5,6,7; piano work.
Prokofiev's work is striking in its versatility and breadth of themes, the originality of his musical thinking, freshness and originality made up an entire era in the world musical culture of the 20th century and had a powerful impact on many Soviet and foreign composers.

Quote by S.S. Prokofiev:
"Can an artist stand apart from life?.. I am of the conviction that a composer, like a poet, sculptor, painter, is called upon to serve man and the people... He, first of all, must be a citizen in his art, sing of human life and lead man to a brighter future...
"I am a manifestation of life, which gives me the strength to resist all non-spiritual"

Quote about S.S. Prokofiev: "... all facets of his music are beautiful. But there is one completely unusual thing here. Apparently, we all have some kind of failures, doubts, just a bad mood. And in such moments , even if I don’t play and don’t listen to Prokofiev, but just think about him, I get an incredible boost of energy, I feel a great desire to live, act” E. Kissin

An interesting fact: Prokofiev was very fond of chess, and enriched the game with his ideas and achievements, including the "nine" chess he invented - a 24x24 board with nine sets of pieces placed on it.

10. Dmitry Dmitrievich SHOSTAKOVICH (1906 - 1975)

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich is one of the most significant and performed composers in the world, his influence on modern classical music is immeasurable. His creations are true expressions of the inner human drama and the annals of the difficult events of the 20th century, where the deeply personal is intertwined with the tragedy of man and mankind, with the fate of his native country.
Born in St. Petersburg, he received his first musical lessons from his mother, graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, upon entering which its rector Alexander Glazunov compared him with Mozart - so he impressed everyone with his excellent musical memory, keen ear and composer's gift. Already in the early 1920s, by the end of the conservatory, Shostakovich had a baggage of his own works and became one of the best composers in the country. World fame came to Shostakovich after winning the 1st International Chopin Competition in 1927.
Until a certain period, namely before the production of the opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", Shostakovich worked as a freelance artist - "avant-garde", experimenting with styles and genres. The harsh denunciation of this opera in 1936 and the repressions of 1937 marked the beginning of Shostakovich's subsequent internal struggle for the desire to express his views by his own means in the face of the state's imposition of trends in art. In his life, politics and creativity are very closely intertwined, he was praised by the authorities and persecuted by them, held high positions and was removed from them, was awarded and was on the verge of arrest himself and his relatives.
A soft, intelligent, delicate person, he found his form of expression of creative principles in symphonies, where he could tell the truth about time as openly as possible. Of all the vast works of Shostakovich in all genres, it is the symphonies (15 works) that occupy a central place, the most dramatic are symphonies 5,7,8,10,15, which became the pinnacle of Soviet symphonic music. A completely different Shostakovich opens up in chamber music.
Despite the fact that Shostakovich himself was a "home" composer and practically did not travel abroad, his music, humanistic in essence and truly artistic in form, quickly and widely spread throughout the world, performed by the best conductors. The magnitude of Shostakovich's talent is so immense that the full comprehension of this unique phenomenon of world art is yet to come.

Quote by D. D. Shostakovich: "Real music is capable of expressing only humane feelings, only advanced humane ideas."

Classical music is nowhere near as popular today as it was in its golden age from the 17th century to the early 20th century, but it is still impressive and an inspiration to many. The famous musical composers who created these great works may have lived hundreds of years ago, but their masterpieces are still unsurpassed.

Notable German composers

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most important names in the history of classical music. He was an innovator of his era, expanding the scope of the symphony, sonata, concerto, quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in new ways, although he was not so interested in the vocal genre. The public did not immediately accept his innovative ideas, but fame did not take too long to wait, so even during the life of Beethoven, his work was duly appreciated.

Beethoven's entire life was marked by a struggle for healthy hearing, but deafness nevertheless overtook him: some of the great composer's most important works were created during the last ten years of his life, when he was no longer able to hear. Some of the most famous works of Beethoven are "Moonlight Sonata" (No. 14), the play "For Elise", Symphony No. 9, Symphony No. 5.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Another world famous German composer is Johann Sebastian Bach - a brilliant author, whose works in the 19th century aroused interest even among those who were not interested in serious, classical music. He wrote both organ music, and vocal-instrumental, and music for other instruments and instrumental ensembles, although he still managed to bypass the operatic genre. Most often, he was engaged in writing cantatas, fugues, preludes and oratorios, as well as choral arrangements. It was Bach, along with Georg Friedrich Handel, who were the last composers of the Baroque era.

Throughout his life, he created more than a thousand pieces of music. The most famous works of Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, Pastoral BWV 590, "Brandenburg Concertos", "Peasant" and "Coffee" cantatas, mass "Matthew Passion".

Richard Wagner

Wagner was not only one of the most influential composers in the entire world, but also one of the most controversial - because of his anti-Semitic worldview. He was a supporter of a new form of opera, which he called "musical drama" - in it all the musical and dramatic elements merged together. To this end, he developed a compositional style in which the orchestra plays as strong a dramatic role as the performing singers.

Wagner himself wrote his own librettos, which he called "poems". Most of Wagner's plots were based on European myths and legends. He is best known for his eighteen-hour cycle of epic operas in four parts called Der Ring des Nibelungen, the opera Tristan und Isolde, and the musical drama Parsifal.

Famous Russian composers

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

Glinka is usually referred to as the founder of the Russian national tradition in music, but his Russian operas offered a synthesis of Western music with Russian melodies. Glinka's first opera was A Life for the Tsar, which was well received at its first production in 1836, but the second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, with a libretto written by Pushkin, was not so popular. Nevertheless, it was a new type of drama - the heroic-historical opera, or epic.

Glinka became the first of the Russian composers who achieved world recognition. The most famous works of Mikhail Ivanovich: the opera "Ivan Susanin", a fantasy waltz for a symphony orchestra and an overture-symphony on a circular Russian theme.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular and famous composers in the world. For many, he is also the most beloved Russian composer. Tchaikovsky's work, however, is much more Western than the works written by other composers of his contemporaries, as he used both folk Russian melodies and was guided by the legacy of German and Austrian composers. Tchaikovsky himself was not only a composer, but also a conductor, music teacher and critic.

No others famous composers Russia, perhaps, is not famous for creating ballet productions in the way that Tchaikovsky is famous for. Tchaikovsky's most famous ballets are The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. He also wrote operas; the most famous are The Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin.

Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov

The work of Sergei Vasilyevich absorbed the traditions of post-romanticism and took shape in a unique style in the musical culture of the 20th century, unlike any other in the world. He always gravitated towards large musical forms. Basically, his works are full of melancholy, drama, strength and rebellion; they often displayed images of the folk epic.

Rachmaninov was known not only as a composer, but also as a pianist, so piano works occupy a significant place in his work. He began learning piano music at the age of four. Rachmaninoff's defining genre was the piano concerto and orchestra. Rachmaninoff's most famous works are the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and four concertos for piano and orchestra.

Famous composers of the world

Giuseppe Francesco Verdi

It is difficult to imagine the 19th century without the music of Giuseppe Verdi, one of the classics of Italian musical culture. Most of all, Verdi strove to bring musical realism to the opera production, he always worked directly with singers and librettists, interfered in the work of conductors and did not tolerate false performance. He said that he liked everything that was beautiful in art.

Like many composers, Verdi gained the greatest popularity thanks to the creation of operas. The most famous among them are the operas Othello, Aida, Rigoletto.

Frederic Chopin

The most famous Polish composer Frederic Chopin always illuminated the beauty of his native land in his works and believed in its greatness in the future. His name is the pride of the Polish people. Chopin stands out in the field of classical music in that he wrote works only for piano performance than others. famous composers with their variety of symphonies and operas; now Chopin's works have become the basis for the work of today's pianists.

Chopin was engaged in writing piano pieces, nocturnes, mazurkas, etudes, waltzes, polonaises and other forms, and the most famous among them are the Autumn Waltz, Nocturne in C sharp minor, Spring Rhapsody, Impromptu Fantasy in C sharp minor.

Edvard Grieg

The famous Norwegian composer and musical figure Edvard Grieg specialized in chamber vocal and piano music. Grieg's work was tangibly influenced by the legacy of German romanticism. Grieg's bright and recognizable style can be characterized by such a direction as musical impressionism.

Often, when creating his works, Grieg was inspired by folk tales, melodies, and legends. His work had a huge impact on the development of Norwegian musical culture and art in general. The most famous works of the composer are the overture "In Autumn", the concerto for piano and orchestra of 1868, the music for the play "Peer Gynt", the suite "From the time of Holberg".

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

And, of course, the most famous composers of all time cannot do without this name, which even people who are far from classical music know. An Austrian composer and virtuoso performer, Mozart created a number of operas, concertos, sonatas and symphonies that had a huge impact on classical music and, in fact, shaped it.

He grew up as a child prodigy: he learned to play the piano at the age of three, and at five he was already creating small pieces of musical works. The first symphony was written by him at the age of eight, the first opera at the age of twelve. Mozart had a phenomenal ear for music and an amazing ability to play many musical instruments and improvise.

During his life, Mozart created more than six hundred musical works, some of the most famous among which are the opera The Marriage of Figaro, the symphony No. 41 Jupiter, the 3rd part of the sonata No. 11 Turkish March, the concerto for flute and harp with orchestra and "Requiem" in D minor, K.626.

You can listen to the best works of world classical music in this video:

Take it, tell your friends!