Balakirev musical works. Mily Alekseevich Balakirev

There are people who personified an entire era. Such a person was Mily Alekseevich Balakirev, who was one of the key and influential figures in the development of Russian classical music. A person without whom all knowledge of music would look and sound completely different. A brief biography of Balakirev Mily Alekseevich will be presented to your attention further.

Childhood

In the parish registers of the Ascension Church of Nizhny Novgorod for 1836, there is a record of the birth of a son in the family of the titular adviser Alexei Konstantinovich Balakirev. A few days later, Balakirev, together with his wife Elizaveta Ivanovna, baptizes the boy in the same church and calls him Mily.

The boy receives a classical upbringing, inherent in that time. Sunday morning and also holidays The entire family was required to attend church. Mom Milia, Elizaveta Ivanovna, organized a corner in her son's room, in which there were icons. The boy was very proud of this part of his room and spent a lot of time there. Often the child simply sat in silence and looked at the icons.

Mily grew up as a very active and inquisitive child. He was not even 6 years old when he began to be interested in music. The first musical instrument he wanted to learn to play was the piano.

Elizaveta Ivanovna, seeing her son's interest in music, decides to check his hearing. Making sure that the boy has absolute ear for music, she directs all her strength to the development of his musical talent.

First years of study

Mily and his mother go to Moscow to study. Luck smiles on them, because Alexander Dubuc himself, one of the most famous teachers and musicians of that time, teaches the boy how to master the piano. It is thanks to his teacher that Milia manages to polish his technique of playing a musical instrument very quickly and masterfully.

After some time, the boy returns home to Nizhny Novgorod, but does not stop his studies. Karl Eiserich, a talented musician and conductor, becomes his mentor. Milia's daily lessons are held under his supervision.

During these years, life often presents the boy with fateful gifts. One of them is an acquaintance with Alexander Dmitrievich Ulybyshev, a true lover and true connoisseur of music. A new acquaintance appreciated Balakirev's talent. Mily becomes a frequent visitor to Ulybyshev's house, where the musical elite of the city gathers. It is under the influence of these circles that inner world And ideological views young men.

At the end of the 40s of the XX century, when Milia was only 13 years old, he entered the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Institute. The training lasts 4 years, and after graduating from the institute, the young man moves to Kazan. For two years, Mily has been listening to lectures at the Kazan University at the Faculty of Mathematics. It was then that the early works of a talented young man appeared, the romance “You are full of captivating bliss” and the concert Allegro.

By this time the young man's mother, who had always been his main support and support, she died a few years ago. The father, having entered into a new marriage, in which new children were born, could barely make ends meet. In order to somehow stay afloat, Mily gave music lessons.

Acquaintance with M. I. Glinka

All this time, Mili Balakirev continues to maintain close relations with Ulybyshev. It should be noted that the latter in the life of our hero played a very important role. On his estate, the philanthropist kept a personal orchestra, on which Balakirev first tried his hand as a musician. He not only conducted Beethoven's symphonies, but also understood how the orchestra works and how to lead people. And on the landowner's instrument, Mily had an unlimited opportunity to practice a lot and hone his technique. Later, a wealthy landowner brought Balakirev to St. Petersburg and introduced him to Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.

The latter is considered the first classic of Russian music. Glinka was then going to leave Petersburg for good. However, the meeting of the two musicians did take place, although it was very short. Mikhail Ivanovich praised Balakirev, promised a great future, and also said that the glory of the "second Glinka" awaits him.

From that moment on, the legend of Balakirev began to spread in musical circles. The whole of St. Petersburg spoke about a young, talented and ardent musician who knows everything and knows a lot. The gates of great opportunities opened before the musician. At the age of 19, Balakirev gave his first big concert in front of the spoiled St. Petersburg audience. The audience received the virtuoso pianist with admiration. Many true connoisseurs of musical art became interested in the work of Mily Balakirev.

Balakirev Music School

There was another passion in the life of the composer Mily Balakirev. This is a passion for teaching, a desire to pass on your skills to someone else, to teach you how to play classical music and write your own works. Under the influence of this desire and with the support of the emperor, Mily Alekseevich, together with his friend Gavriil Yakimovich Lomakin, founded a music school.

However, in 1866, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka invited Balakirev to work together and cooperate. The young genius moves to Prague, where he works on the operas Ruslan and Lyudmila and A Life for the Tsar. The audience enthusiastically accepts the work of two eminent musicians.

The fate of the school all this time was dealt with by Lomakin. However, in 1868 he shifted all duties from himself to Mily Alekseevich, who remained its director for 6 years.

Balakirev and his students

Balakirev very responsibly approached the position of a teacher in his school. He dreamed that dozens of talented musicians that would glorify his name. However, his teaching and mentorship was extremely rigid and authoritarian.

The first of the students, in which Mily Alekseevich tried to realize his ambitions, was the chemistry student Apollon Gussakovsky. The young man showed great promise and was ready to play music for hours on end. Balakirev taught his student a lot, putting a lot of physical and moral strength into him. Gussakovsky, after graduating from the institute, said goodbye to his mentor and went abroad. They never met again.

However, the Balakirev school gained popularity by that time. And young men came in droves to study. Among the students was an officer from the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Modest Mussorgsky. Acquaintance with him was of crucial importance for Balakirev.

"Mighty bunch"

Officer Mussorgsky brings with him Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, a doctor from the hospital where he was once on duty, also a passionate lover of classical music. And a little later, engineer officer Caesar Cui, librarian Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov and a very young teenager, future midshipman Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov adjoin them.

Balakirev was delighted with his new students. For each of them he became a mentor. However, in the process of work and creativity, men became like-minded people. And Balakirev understood that it would be difficult to continue his ideology within the walls of the school.

Therefore, Mily Alekseevich, who lived in rented apartments, arranges mugs and gatherings for his new friends in them. The group of musicians very soon became famous and received the name " mighty bunch". In fact, they were an amateur philharmonic society, they became a folk project for amateur performances.

However, their judgments were not always acceptable. The goal of the "Mighty Handful" was to develop their own characteristic style in music, which would have opposed the official musical organizations, the Imperial Russian Musical Society and the Conservatory.

All members of the group were self-taught musicians. They composed musical works, and Balakirev was the main critic. He made changes, approved and supported his like-minded people. Often, using his authority among his comrades, Mily Alekseevich in a sharp form and quite aggressively could cross out the entire musical composition.

This affected future fate"Balakirev group". Disputes and discontent within like-minded people increased. As a result, in the late 60s of the XIX century, all members of the "Mighty Handful" finally quarreled. The group broke up, but still left a significant mark on Russian music.

Musical career of Mily Alekseevich

After the collapse of the Mighty Handful, Mily Alekseevich worked in the Imperial Russian Musical Society, which he hated. The musician is at the top of his career. The whole world and the elite of St. Petersburg come to listen to the eminent pianist and conductor.

However, radical views on conservatism in classical music, which he had to play at concerts in this institution, put an end to his work. Mily Alekseevich allowed himself to speak sharply against the leadership of the Imperial Russian musical society. Tolerate the rudeness of the conductor, no one began. After two years of work, he was dismissed with a scandal.

Balakirev is left alone with his music. The conductor returns to his place in Nizhny Novgorod and gives a concert there, which is attended by very few spectators. However, at this time, he finally finishes his oriental fantasy "Islamey" on the piano. At that time, only this work and several of its overtures were known to the general public.

mental crisis

As evidenced by the biography of Mily Balakirev, by the age of 33 he had outlived himself as a musician. He is going through a severe mental crisis and disappears from the musical community. Nobody knew where he was. Balakirev did not maintain relations with any of his friends. However, in narrow circles it was known that the musician entered the public service.

Every day he went to work at the freight station of Varshavskaya railway. His position was called Store Management Officer. He was in charge of warehousing and freight transport. In this service, Balakirev, who in his youth was a student of the Faculty of Mathematics, quickly advances in the service.

Mily Alekseevich Balakirev, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, gets acquainted with the personnel officer of the Warsaw Railway Terty Ivanovich Filippov, who was a well-known person in the highest circles. Balakirev and Filippov are united and brought closer by religious views and faith. At this time, the musician, who is experiencing a mental crisis, even thinks about leaving for the church.

Terty Ivanovich, when the question arose of strengthening the court singing chapel, proposes the candidacy of Mily Alekseevich. Thanks to his authority among top officials, Balakirev is invited to a new position.

Work in the court choir

As soon as Mily Alekseevich took the post of head of the court singing chapel, he appointed Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov as his assistant, who was a sensible and true professional. Balakirev entrusted all musical affairs to him, while at first he himself dealt exclusively with administrative issues.

The building that exists today in St. Petersburg academic chapel at Moika, 20 was built thanks to the efforts of Mily Alekseevich. He showed himself as a responsible official.

Balakirev did a lot for the court chapel. He ensured that under her a school was created in which students received high-quality singing education. Were created music classes where they were taught to play the instruments. This made it possible for students after graduation to stay to work here, in the orchestra.

Rimsky-Korsakov, who was involved in the selection of talented musicians for the orchestra, created an excellent team of talented professionals. Balakirev did not teach in the chapel, but only controlled this complex mechanism. He kept everything under control: from the kitchen of the institution to the organization of the educational process. In this mode, he worked for 11 years, resigning in 1884 with the rank of State Councilor.

Balakirev's musical heritage

Having retired, Balakirev no longer thought about financial problems. He devoted himself entirely to composing musical works. 4 years after his resignation, Mily Alekseevich finished the First Symphony, which was discussed and played for quite a long time.

Balakirev died in 1910, leaving little musical legacy. Among the main masterpiece works of Balakirev Mily Alekseevich can be noted:

• symphonic poem "Tamara";
• piano fantasy "Islamey";
• music for the tragedy "King Lear"
• fantasy on the theme of the opera "Ivan Susanin";
• first symphony in C-dur;
• as well as many romances and songs.

The unfinished works of Mily Alekseevich after his death were finalized and completed by his like-minded people and students.

Mily Alekseevich Balakirev went down in history as one of the first critics of Russian music. His life was a series of victories and failures. The musician never started a family, devoting himself entirely to music. Apart from musical achievements, Balakirev left his mark as a talented official and leader.

G. in Nizhny Novgorod. He was educated at Kazan University. Balkirev owes his musical education to himself. In the city, he first appeared before the St. Petersburg public as a virtuoso pianist. On March 18, together with G. A. Lomakin, he founded the "Free Music School", which is under the patronage of His Highest Imperial Majesty; this school at the very first stages of its existence revealed a lively activity. In the concerts organized by this school, Lomakin conducted vocal and choral pieces, and M.A. Balakirev conducted orchestral pieces. On January 28, after Lomakin's refusal to manage the school, M.A. Balakirev, as one of its founders, took over this work and, as a director, was in charge of the school until the fall of the year. In M.A. he was invited to Prague - to direct the production of the operas "Life for the Tsar" and "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka, which were given under the direction of Balakirev and, thanks to his perseverance and tireless energy, were a huge success, especially the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila".

Ch. compositions: 2 symphonies, poem "Tamara", compositions for pianoforte (concert, fantasy "Islamey", sonata, small pieces), many romances, collection folk songs.

Lit .: Strelnikov N., Balakirev, Petrograd, 1922.

M. A. Balakirev.

Balakirev Mily Alekseevich, Russian composer, pianist, conductor, musical and public figure. Born in the family of an official from the nobility. He took lessons from pianist A. Dubuc and conductor K. Eizrich (N. Novgorod). B.'s musical development was facilitated by his rapprochement with the writer and music critic A. D. Ulybyshev. In 1853-55 he was a volunteer at the Faculty of Mathematics of Kazan University. In 1856 he made his debut in St. Petersburg as a pianist and conductor. Balakirev's friendship with the critic V. V. Stasov had a great influence on the formation of Balakirev's ideological and aesthetic positions. In the early 60s. under the leadership of B. a musical circle is formed, known as the "New Russian Musical School", "Balakirev Circle", "Mighty bunch". In 1862, B., together with the choral conductor G. Ya. Lomakin, organized the Free Music School in St. Petersburg, which became the center of mass musical education, as well as the center for the propaganda of Russian music. In 1867-69 he was chief conductor of the Russian Musical Society.

Balakirev contributed to the popularization of M. I. Glinka’s operas: in 1866 he conducted the opera Ivan Susanin in Prague, and in 1867 he directed the Prague production of the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila.

Late 1850s - 60s were a period of intense creative activity B. Works of these years - "Overture on three Russian themes" (1858; 2nd edition 1881), the second overture on three Russian themes "1000 years" (1862, in a later edition - a symphonic poem " Rus”, 1887, 1907), the Czech overture (1867, in the 2nd edition - the symphonic poem “In the Czech Republic”, 1906) and others - develop the traditions of Glinka, they clearly manifested the characteristic features and style of the “New Russian School” (in particular, reliance on a genuine folk song). In 1866, his collection "40 Russian Folk Songs for Voice and Piano" was published, which was the first classic pattern arrangements of folk songs.

In the 70s. B. leaves Free music school, ceases to write, give concerts, breaks with members of the circle. In the early 80s. he returned to musical activity, but it lost its militant "sixties" character. In 1881-1908, B. again headed the Free Music School and at the same time (1883-94) was the director of the Court Choir.

The central theme of Balakirev's work is the theme of the people. Folk images, pictures of Russian life, nature pass through most of his writings. B. is also characterized by an interest in the theme of the East (the Caucasus) and the musical cultures of other countries (Polish, Czech, Spanish).

Balakirev's main area of ​​creativity is instrumental (symphonic and piano) music. B. worked primarily in the field of program symphony. The best example of Balakirev's symphonic poem is "Tamara" (about, based on the poem of the same name by Lermontov), ​​built on the original musical material of a visual-landscape and folk-dance character. The birth of the genre of Russian epic symphony is associated with the name of B.. By the 60s. the idea of ​​the 1st symphony belongs (the sketches appeared in 1862, the first part - in 1864, the symphony was completed in 1898). In 1908, the 2nd symphony was written.

Balakirev is one of the creators of the original Russian piano style. The best of Balakirev's piano works is the oriental fantasy "Islamei" (1869), which combines vivid picturesqueness, originality of folk-genre coloring with virtuoso brilliance.

Prominent place in Russian. chamber-vocal music is occupied by romances and songs by Balakirev.

Literature:

• Correspondence of M. A. Balakirev with V. V. Stasov, M., 1935;
• Correspondence of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov with M. A. Balakirev, in the book: N. Rimsky-Korsakov, literary works and correspondence, vol. 5, M., 1963;
• Letters of M. A. Balakirev to M. P. Mussorgsky, in the book: Mussorgsky M. P., Letters and Documents, M.-L., 1932;
• Correspondence of M. A. Balakirev with P. I. Tchaikovsky, St. Petersburg. 1912;
• Kiselev G., M. A. Balakirev, M.-L., 1938;
• Kandinsky A., Symphonic works of M. A. Balakirev, M., 1960;
• M. A. Balakirev. Research and articles, L., 1961;
• M. A. Balakirev. Memoirs and letters, L., 1962;
• Balakirev. Chronicle of life and creativity. Comp. A. S. Lyapunova and E. E. Yazovitskaya, L., 1967.

see also

Links

• Balakirev Miliy Site about the life and work of the composer.

Mily Alekseevich Balakirev(January 2, 1837 - May 29, 1910), Russian composer, pianist, conductor, head of the Mighty Handful.

The enormous role of M. A. Balakirev in the history of Russian culture is well known, and yet his significance remains not fully appreciated. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he evoked a complex and ambiguous attitude towards himself among his contemporaries - both with his work and social activities.

“In Balakirev, I always felt two people: one is a charming and cheerful interlocutor, ready to tell a not entirely decent anecdote; the other is some kind of schismatic rector, despotically demanding, even cruel, capable of completely unexpectedly offending a person who is friendly to him, ”recalled M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov.

Being in the spotlight cultural life or going into the shadows, he never compromised with the opinion of society - even in contradiction with it. In silence and solitude, he continued to do the same as at the height of his fame - to serve art, sacrificing everything else: health, personal life, friendship of loved ones, good opinion fellow musicians. Balakirev is one of the most tragic figures in the history of Russian musical culture XIX century.

His life was long and covered several periods in the history of Russian musical culture. As a young man (at the age of 19), A. D. Ulybyshev brought Balakirev to the Christmas tree to Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, who immediately predicted for him a "brilliant musical future." In the future, he even gave him the theme of the Spanish march, to which he composed the Overture. And at the end of his life, fate pushed him against Sergei Vasilyevich Rakhmaninov, who in 1905 conducted the symphonic poem "Tamara". For more than half a century, he communicated with various outstanding musicians Russia and Europe, contributing in every possible way to the flourishing of true art.

He was born in Nizhny Novgorod December 21, 1836 in the family of an official. He received his initial musical information from his mother, later studied with K. K. Eisrich and took separate lessons from various musicians, including A. Dubuc, but he owed his musical education mainly to himself. Eisrich introduced him to the house of A. D. Ulybyshev, a lover and connoisseur of music who wrote a monograph about Mozart. He Balakirev participated in musical evenings and studied musical notation.

In 1853, he moved to Kazan and enrolled as a student at the University of Physics and Mathematics, but two years later he left for St. Petersburg. In the northern capital, Balakirev quickly became close to a circle of musicians - M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, A. N. Serov, V. V. Stasov, and also S. Monyushko. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, a circle formed around him, which was later called the "Mighty Handful".

This name first appeared in 1867 in Stasov's article "Slavonic Concert of Mr. Balakirev", where there are the following lines: "God grant that our Slavic guests will forever keep the memory of how much poetry, feelings, talent and skill the little but already a mighty handful of Russian musicians. The circle itself called itself the "New Russian School".

After active creative life In the 1860s, a severe crisis set in, which lasted almost the entire decade. During these years, Balakirev almost completely abandoned communication with his former friends and from creative work, for a short time he even entered the store department of the Warsaw Railway as an official. The second period of the composer's creative activity began in the 1880s-1900s. Before recent years During his life he is actively engaged in creative, social and performing activities.

These are the largest milestones in his biography. But how to describe how much mental strength And inner fire invested Balakirev in his works? All his life he burned with a bright fire, awakening the seething creative energy in others. His era - the time when he fully and happily revealed the potential of his creative talent - was the 1860s. At this time, after the departure of Nicholas I from the throne, art was perceived as a means to improve the life of society. Subsequently, these ideas faded into the background, but for Balakirev they always remained significant.

He devoted most of his life to active musical and social activities, which did not always find an appropriate response from his contemporaries. His most important and difficult undertaking was the creation in 1862, together with G. Ya. Lomakin, of the Free Music School (BMSh), the goals for which were the same as for the Russian Musical Society (RMO) - the training of Russian musicians and the availability of appropriate education for everyone.

In addition to Balakirev, in the period from 1873 to 1882, the BMSh was led by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, and from 1908 - by S. M. Lyapunov. After October revolution she ceased to exist.

However, the opening by A. G. Rubinstein in the same year on the basis of the RMS of the St. Petersburg Conservatory diverted public attention from the noble undertaking of Balakirev and contributed to the emergence of two parties in it - adherents of the ideas of Balakirev and Rubinstein. Balakirev himself was very ambivalent about Rubinstein's undertaking. The main objection to the conservatory was that a typed musical education should, in his opinion, kill the individuality of students. With friends, he sneered at Rubinstein, calling him Dubinstein, Tupinstein, and even Grubinstein. However, it is possible that personal resentment for his own undertaking, the BMS, which, being aimed at the same goals, did not attract such attention of either patrons or the public, also affected here.

Difficulties in the affairs of the BMSh largely became the cause of the crisis that befell Balakirev in the 1870s. At the same time, over time, the negative attitude towards the RMO was smoothed out. In 1871 he approved Rimsky-Korsakov's decision to work at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Although Rimsky-Korsakov believed that Balakirev had a mercenary intention "to lead his own into a conservatory hostile to him." Nevertheless, Balakirev respected his knowledge of harmony and counterpoint and sent to him those of his students who needed a consistent study of these subjects. So the young A. K. Glazunov came to Rimsky-Korsakov in 1879. And in 1878, the Moscow branch of the RMS even offered Balakirev to take the place of P. I. Tchaikovsky, who had left the Conservatory by that time. He did not accept the offer, but was touched by it.

In addition to the BMS, in the 1870s Balakirev was actively involved in teaching and inspector activities in women's institutes. From 1873 he was an inspector of music classes at the Women's Mariinsky Institute, and from 1875 at the St. Helena. Finally, from 1883 to 1894 he was the manager of the Court Choir, after which he retired.

Pedagogical activity accompanied Balakirev all his life. He brought up a galaxy of composers who made up a whole era of Russian music. It was around him that the most talented composers of their time united in the New Russian School - Caesar Antonovich Cui (acquainted with Balakirev since 1856), Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (since 1857), Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (since 1861), Alexander Porfirievich Borodin (since 1862 ), as well as A. S. Gussakovsky (since 1857, after 1862 he retired from the affairs of the circle) and N. N. Lodyzhensky (since 1866).

Also attached to the circle music critics And public figures A. N. Serov and V. V. Stasov (both since 1856, however, by 1859, the relationship between Balakirev and Cui with Serov was hopelessly damaged). However, Balakirev was not a teacher in the usual sense of the word. The "New Russian School" was a friendly circle, where Balakirev was perceived as an older and more educated comrade. Not without humor, he wrote about the meetings of the circle, for example, the following: “Our whole company lives as before. Mussorgsky now has a cheerful and proud look, they wrote Allegro - and he thinks that he has already done a lot for art in general and Russian in particular. Now every Wednesday I have a meeting of all Russian composers, our new (if someone composes) works and generally good things by Beethoven, Glinka, Schumann, Schubert and so on are played. (letter to A.P. Zakharyina dated December 31, 1860, quoted from: M.A. Balakirev. Chronicle of life and work).

The playback of works (both his own and those of others) was accompanied by their detailed analysis. Stasov recalled that at meetings of the circle “everyone gathered in a crowd near the piano, where either M. A. Balakirev or Mussorgsky accompanied as the strongest piano players of the circle, and then there was immediately a test, criticism, weighing the merits and demerits, attack and defense.”

Each new young man who came to the circle felt the irresistible charm of Balakirev's personality and his amazing ability to kindle the fire of inspiration in people. Rimsky-Korsakov recalled that “From the first meeting, Balakirev made a huge impression on me. He demanded that I set about composing a symphony. I was delighted". Mussorgsky wrote to Balakirev: "You were gloriously able to push me during a nap." And E. S. Borodina said that “The fruits of the newly established acquaintance (Borodin) with Balakirev had an effect that was fabulous in terms of strength and speed. Already in December, he played to me almost the entire first Allegro of his Es-dur symphony.

But not everything was cloudless. Very soon, the members of the circle realized the despotism of their older friend, his adamant conviction that he was unconditionally right and his desire to actively participate in all the details of their creative process. He told Rimsky-Korsakov: "You can believe in my critical ability and in the ability of musical understanding, but do not let my opinions be immutable for you."

However, Balakirev's interference literally in every measure, in every note of the barely born works of young composers gradually became painful for them. In 1861, Mussorgsky wrote to Balakirev: “As for the fact that I get stuck, and I have to be pulled out, I will say one thing - if there is talent, I will not get stuck. It's time to stop seeing me as a child who needs to be led so that he does not fall.

By the end of the 1860s, the circle gradually began to disintegrate - the chicks fledged and gradually flew farther and farther from the nest. Balakirev became lonely, advanced creative crisis. Subsequently, he had other students, but only after long years, in 1884, he met Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov, who became the only student who was completely devoted and faithful to him, who continued the traditions of Balakirev's music in his work.

Of great importance in the life of Balakirev was his performing activity, which he was engaged in from his youth until the last years of his life. Acquainted with the possibilities of the piano from the age of four, by the age of eighteen he was already an established virtuoso pianist, "the pianists who came to Kazan - Seymour Shif and Anton Kontsky - treated him like a colleague."

In a letter to Rostislav published in Severnaya Pchela (No. 290), A. D. Ulybyshev recommended Balakirev as a virtuoso: “He should listen once to a large piece performed by an orchestra in order to convey it without notes in all accuracy on the piano. He reads all kinds of music and, accompanying singing, immediately translates an aria or a duet into another tone, whatever it is.

In the second half of his life, Balakirev was recognized as a pianist not only in Russia, but also abroad, in particular, in Poland. In 1894, his last public concert took place there, dedicated to his beloved composer Chopin, in connection with the opening of a monument to him. It was the time when political relations Russia and Poland were aggravated, and friends dissuaded Balakirev from going there. He “was frightened both by the fact that the hall would be empty, and by the fact that he might be given a demonstration as a Russian, a patriot. But Balakirev was not afraid, he went, and the concert took place. All of Polish Warsaw was in Zhelyazova Wola. Balakirev can never talk about it without emotion. This was his last appearance in front of the public, he never played again.

Balakirev also picked up the conductor's baton from a young age. Already at the age of 15, he made his debut with Beethoven's Eighth Symphony in concert in Nizhny Novgorod, replacing his departed teacher Karl Eisrich. However, as he later recalled, at that time "He did not even know in which direction the beats were pointed with a stick."

In the future, he became a major, recognized conductor. After the founding of the Free Music School (BMSh) in 1862, he conducted concerts for her and for her benefit (since 1863). In 1866-1867 Balakirev was invited to Prague to stage Glinka's operas. The matter was not without misunderstandings, in a letter to L. I. Shestakova, he indignantly wrote that “The local vile conductors decided to lose the Ruslan clavier somewhere, it’s good that, to everyone’s surprise, I accompanied the entire opera as a keepsake.”

In 1868, the directorate of the Russian Musical Society entrusted him with the management of their concerts (10 concerts in total). From the next season, Balakirev increased the number of concerts of the Free Music School, but could not compete with the Russian Musical Society for a long time. A year later, he was replaced by E. F. Napravnik, and this caused a great resonance in the press, in particular, an article by P. I. Tchaikovsky “Voice from the Moscow music world' with an expression of protest about this. This event was one of the reasons for the severe crisis that befell the composer in the 1870s.

In 1872, the last of the announced concerts of the RMS could no longer take place. Disappointed, Balakirev left the Free Music School in 1874. Rimsky-Korsakov was elected its director. The failures ended with an unsuccessful concert in Nizhny Novgorod. The dejected Balakirev was close to suicide. Needing funds not only for himself, but also for his sisters, who remained in his care after the death of his father, he entered the service of the Warsaw Railway Store Administration and began to give music lessons again. He distanced himself from his musical friends, avoided society, became unsociable, became very religious, began to perform rituals that he had previously denied.

Later he returned to active conducting activity, including abroad. In 1899, Balakirev was invited to Berlin to manage symphony concert from the works of Glinka in honor of the opening of a memorial plaque on the house where he died. Later, due to health reasons, Balakirev retired from conducting activities.

During his life, Balakirev wrote not so many works. The composer's creative inactivity often surprised his contemporaries - after all, it was he who stimulated the creative energy of his friends, blamed them for their laziness, and he himself created so little. However, the reason for this was not laziness at all, but something else. Balakirev was a man of demanding and impeccable taste. In any music, he immediately felt a find or a banality, a novelty or a repetition of old clichés. From himself, as well as from his friends, he demanded only something new, original, individual. This is the secret of his overly detailed intervention in creative process their associates. But he was no less demanding of himself. Each written note was subjected to the most severe criticism of the author's inner ear - and it did not always pass. As a result, works could be created for decades. The most striking example is the First Symphony. Back in the 1860s, he encouraged all his friends to create a symphony, considering it the pinnacle of the genre system. He began his own symphony in 1864 and finished in 1897.

When Glinka at the end of his life gave Balakirev the theme of the Spanish march for his future overture, he thereby, as it were, appointed him his successor. Indeed, Balakirev inherited a lot from his older contemporary, and in particular a colossal breadth of interests and creative ideas, but his own path was quite original. One of the most important principles of Balakirev's work was not repetition - neither the music of other composers, nor himself. Each of his compositions was unique.

Balakirev was the only composer of The Mighty Handful who never wrote an opera. Intention opera under the name "Firebird" was never carried out. Balakirev's only work for the theater is the music for Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, which includes an overture, symphonic intermissions and other pieces for the orchestra. In general, the largest creations of Balakirev were works for symphony orchestra. In addition to two symphonies, this includes various overtures: on the theme of the Spanish march, given to the author Glinka (1857, 2nd edition 1886), on topics of three Russian Songs (1858, 2nd edition 1881), Czech Overture (written under the impression of a trip to Prague, 1867, 2nd edition 1905). Here are also symphonic poems"Rus" (originally a musical picture "1000 years", 1864, 2nd edition 1887, 1907), "Tamara" (1882) and Suite in three parts (1901-1909, completed by S. M. Lyapunov).

As a concert pianist, he composed many works involving the pianoforte. Of these, two piano concertos (1st 1855, 2nd 1862-1910, completed by S. M. Lyapunov), Octet (1856), as well as just piano concertos - among them is the fantasy "Islamei" (as well as " Tamara”, connected with impressions from trips to the Caucasus in the 1860s, 1869), a sonata (1905), many piano miniatures, transcriptions and arrangements of vocal and symphonic music, etc.

The work of Balakirev in the Court Singing Chapel was associated with the creation choral music- arrangements for choir Acapella romances by Glinka and Chopin's mazurka. In addition, throughout his life, Balakirev created many romances for voice and piano or with an orchestra (“Georgian Song”, 1863).

Balakirev made a great contribution to the history of collecting and recording folk songs. After a trip along the Volga, specially undertaken to record folk songs, Balakirev published a collection of 40 Russian Folk Songs for Voice and Piano (1866), which had a great public response. Later composer offered to participate in the composition of the commission for the compilation and publication of Russian folk songs collected by the expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society. The result of this work was the publication of the collection "30 Russian Folk Songs for Piano in 4 Hands" (1898). In his work, Balakirev often turned to authentic Russian melodies, and in this way he continued in music the traditions laid down by Glinka's Kamarinskaya.

Of particular importance in the creative activity of Balakirev was his editorial work. Beginning in the 1860s, she accompanied Balakirev throughout creative way. Probably, if we compare the number of editorial and author's works of the composer, then there will be almost more of the former. Here and work with only the emerging music of close friends-students (Cui, Lyapunov, etc.), and editions of works by composers who have already passed away (such as, for example, Berlioz and Chopin). This includes both simple transcriptions of symphonic works for piano (2 or 4 hands), and creative rethinking of already existing works by other authors (this includes various piano transcriptions, concert arrangements, and others).

Back in 1877, M. I. Glinka's sister L. I. Shestakova asked Balakirev to edit and publish Glinka's opera scores at her expense. By the end of 1878, the score of the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" was published, and in 1881 - "A Life for the Tsar" edited by M. A. Balakirev, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Lyadov. At the same time, he was engaged in editing and proofreading other works by Glinka, published by various publishing houses. Work with Glinka's music received its logical conclusion at the end of Balakirev's life - since 1902 he actively participated in the editing and publication Complete collection Glinka's writings. As for Chopin, the work with his music has remained in the background, but it is no less important.

It is little known that it was Balakirev who became the editor of the world's first Collected Works of Chopin, published in Russia in the edition of Stellovsky in 1861-1864. Later he also worked on the editorial various essays Chopin and crowned his creative biography two large-scale works connected with the work of Chopin - a re-instrumentation of the First Piano Concerto in 1909, and orchestral suite from his own works in 1910.

The last period Balakirev was surrounded by musical youth, but S. Lyapunov became the dearest person for him in these years. According to his will, Lyapunov completed a number of works not completed by the composer, including the concerto in E-flat major. Balakirev died on May 16, 1910.

Balakirev was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

O is remembered primarily as the founder and ideological inspirer of The Mighty Handful, but this is not limited to the role he played in the history of Russian music. A very interesting part of the Russian musical life second half 19th century became the performing activity of Balakirev the pianist. Like the Rubinstein brothers, he represented in Russia new type piano performance intended for a mass audience.

Balakirev did not perform very often as a pianist, but each of his performances was a success. Contemporaries compared his manner of playing with the speech of "an intelligent speaker who has something to say." The pianist Balakirev's repertoire included works, but he also performed the works of Russian composers, becoming one of the first promoters of their work.

In his composing activity, Balakirev could not help but turn to his favorite instrument. He paid more attention to the creation of piano works than other composers of the Mighty Handful, who gravitated more towards opera and symphonic music. First piano works Balakirev created by him in his youth. In 1856 he made his debut as a pianist with a performance of his Allegro Concerto. In 1856-1857. he was working on a piano sonata. Her musical material not devoid of interesting moments, but too heterogeneous to form a whole cycle: the first part, full of romantic pathos, was created under the obvious influence of Liszt, but the influence of Chopin is manifested in the subsequent parts. Apparently, the composer himself was aware of the shortcomings of the work, and therefore did not complete it.

At the turn of the 1850-1860s. Balakirev creates small pieces written under the clear influence of Chopin, as well as concert fantasies on the themes of works, before whose work Balakirev bowed. In the transcription of "", the composer followed the same principles as Liszt in his transcriptions - to make the material pianistically advantageous, while maintaining as close as possible to the orchestral sound. This work was brilliantly performed by Nikolai Rubinstein.

The same approach - the maximum preservation of the features of the work and their organic merging with the nature of the piano - is also manifested in the transcription of the romance "The Lark". Here, that lyrical immediacy, which is the charm of Glinka's romance, and the same two-line form are preserved, but the exquisite ornaments entwining the melody give it a touch of romantic improvisation. This beginning is even more pronounced in the introductory section and conclusion, equally free in construction and virtuoso.

Work on the fantasy on the themes of the opera "" lasted for several years. Even at the age of eighteen, Balakirev created its first version, he subsequently revised the work, and the final edition, entitled "Memories of" Life for the Tsar ", was created in 1899. The choice of topics used by Balakirev is noteworthy: he does not refer to key dramatic moments ( such as Polish themes or the final chorus "Glory"), but to those fragments of the opera that were especially close to him personally. Work on the work began with an arrangement of the trio "Don't suffocate, darling", which Balakirev repeatedly performed in the presence of Glinka, having received his approval. The trio theme was the first - lyrical theme fantasy. The second section is based on the theme of the peasant choir “Now we are going to the forest”, but this theme is interpreted by Balakirev in the spirit of a bravura polonaise. The introduction presents the main themes of the overture in combination with phrases from Susanin's aria.

The pinnacle of Balakirev's piano creativity was the fantasy "", which was the result of a three-time visit by the composer to the Caucasus. Folk themes, which form the basis of the work, Balakirev develops in the spirit of monumental pianism, characteristic of Liszt, but retains their originality.

Piano works created in late period creativity, also give out the influence of the pianism of Liszt and Chopin, but are distinguished by greater emotional restraint, contemplation. They have both idyllic-light lyrics and melancholy, but they never fiery passion. As a rule, these plays are genre basis(nocturne, mazurka, waltz), but they are designed not for home music-making, but for concert performance. They could not enter the amateur repertoire, being very difficult to perform. Of these plays, the most interesting are the mazurkas. They are created under the obvious influence of Chopin, but Russian and even oriental intonations penetrate into them.

In 1905 - the first time after an unsuccessful youthful experience and last time in life - Balakirev creates a piano sonata. In the four-movement Sonata in B-flat minor, written by him at that time, the first movement is especially interesting and successful. Her main party is close folk songs, recorded by the composer on the Volga. A short side part in the spirit of Chopin does not play a special role - both the development and the coda are built on the elements of the main part. The second movement is a reworking of a mazurka from an unfinished youthful sonata. Part three - Intermezzo - an example of contemplative lyrics. Main party the finale resembles a trepak, the secondary one is lyrical and singsong.

The fate of the piano heritage cannot be called happy - in the era of Scriabin, his pianism seemed already "outdated". However, there are bright pages in his work - "The Lark", "Islamey", which are still included in the repertoire of pianists today.

All rights reserved. Copying prohibited

BALAKIREV, MILIY ALEKSEEVICH(1837-1910), Russian composer, pianist, conductor, head and inspirer of the famous "Five" - ​​"Mighty Handful" (Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov), which personifies the national movement in Russian musical culture 19th century

Balakirev was born on December 21 (January 2, 1837) in Nizhny Novgorod, into an impoverished noble family. Brought to Moscow at the age of ten, he briefly took lessons from John Field; later, A.D. Ulybyshev, an enlightened amateur musician, philanthropist, author of the first Russian monograph on Mozart, took a great part in his fate. Balakirev entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University, but in 1855 he met in St. Petersburg with M.I. Glinka, who convinced young musician devote himself to composition in the national spirit, based on Russian music - folk and church, on Russian plots and texts.

A "mighty handful" took shape in St. Petersburg between 1857 and 1862, and Balakirev became its leader. He was self-taught and drew knowledge mainly from practice, therefore he rejected the textbooks and methods of teaching harmony and counterpoint accepted at that time, replacing them with a wide acquaintance with the masterpieces of world music and their detailed analysis. "The Mighty Bunch" creative association existed for a relatively short time, but had a huge impact on Russian culture. In 1863, Balakirev founded the Free Music School - in contrast to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the direction of which Balakirev assessed as cosmopolitan and conservative. He performed a lot as a conductor, regularly acquainting listeners with early works your circle. In 1867 Balakirev became the conductor of the concerts of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, but in 1869 he was forced to leave this post. In 1870 Balakirev experienced the strongest spiritual crisis, after which he did not study music for five years. He returned to composition in 1876, but by this time he had already lost his reputation as the head of the musical community in the eyes of the musical community. national school. In 1882, Balakirev again became the head of the concerts of the Free Music School, and in 1883 - the manager of the Court Singing Chapel (during this period he created a number of church compositions and arrangements of ancient chants).

Balakirev played a huge role in the formation of the national music school, but he composed relatively little himself. IN symphonic genres he created two symphonies, several overtures, music for Shakespeare King Lear(1858–1861), symphonic poems Tamara(c. 1882), Rus(1887, 2nd edition 1907) and in the Czech Republic(1867, 2nd edition 1905). For piano he wrote the sonata in B flat minor (1905), a brilliant fantasy Islamey(1869) and a number of plays in different genres. Romances and adaptations of folk songs are of high value. musical style Balakirev relies on one side on folk origins and traditions of church music, on the other hand, on the experience of new Western European art, especially Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz. Balakirev died in St. Petersburg on May 16 (29), 1910.