Vera Timanova
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vera Timanova (February 18, 1855 – February 22, 1942) was a Russian pianist.
Vera Viktorovna Timanova was born into a well-to-do family in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia, where she spent her childhood. She showed musical aptitude at an early age and began taking instruction from local teachers aged six, with her first public performance at the age of only nine. About this concert she wrote in her autobiography "The announcement of the concert made a splash in the city. Tickets sold briskly and I earned my first thousand roubles. I performed Mozart's Concerto and several pieces. The success was complete" [1]. The child prodigy came to the attention of composer Anton Rubinstein who spoke highly of her potential. The two went on to become close friends. Rubinstein’s recommendation led to Timanova being sponsored to attend Carl Tausig's School of Advanced Piano Playing in Berlin by a local merchant. Subsequently, Timanova was a student of Franz Liszt and became a prominent performer in Russia, France, Austria, Britain, Germany and Turkey, while periodically returning to Ufa to perform; the last such trip was in 1896.
Among Timanova’s prominent admirers were Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer Franz Liszt, Russian composers Aleksander Borodin and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who dedicated the Scherzo humoristique, part of his Six Pieces for Piano Solo, Op. 19 (1873) to her. [2] In addition to her friendship with Rubinstein, Timanova was also very close to Czech conductor and composer Eduard Nápravník. His Fantaisie (1881), written for Timanova, is a virtuosic 12-minute work based on three Russian folk songs including the omnipresent Volga Boatmen. [3][4]
Timanova returned to Russia permanently in 1907, settling in St Petersburg, giving concerts and piano tuition. After the 1917 revolution, Timanova’s wealthy background led to her being critical of the new Bolshevik authorities, but she was nonetheless granted a VIP pension of 50 roubles, sufficient to finance the employment of a maid. Her last public performance was in 1937 when she was 82 years of age. Vera Timanova died of hunger during the Siege of Leningrad in February 1942.
