Valery Gavrilin

Valery Gavrilin
Born Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin
August 17, 1939
Vologda  U.S.S.R
Died January 28, 1999 (aged 59)
Saint-Petersburg  Russia
Occupation Composer

Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin (Russian: Валерий Александрович Гаврилин, (August 17, 1939 – January 28, 1999) was a Russian composer, Honoured Artist of Russia, People's Artist of the USSR and a recipient of the USSR State Prize.

Biography

Valery Gavrilin was born in 1939 in Vologda. When he was 3, his father died as a volunteer during the Siege of Leningrad. His mother was imprisoned when he was 10 and Gavrilin was sent to an orphanage in the village of Kovyrino near Vologda.[1] At the age of 11, Gavrilin entered a school of music where I.M. Belozemtsev, a teacher at Leningrad Conservatory, happened to hear him and from the age of 12 to 16, Gavrilin went to the children's school in Leningrad to study clarinet, piano and composition. In 1964 he graduated from the Conservatory with two specialities: composition (under professor Orest Evlakhov) and musicology (under professor F.A. Rubtsov). Shortly thereafter, Gavrilin published the vocal cycle that would make his name, the Russian Notebook. He continued at the Conservatory as a teacher.

In television and film he often collaborated with director Aleksandr Arkadevich Belinskiy.

Valery Gavrilin died in 1999 at the age of 59 in St. Petersburg following two severe heart attacks.

The 70th Anniversary of Gavrilin's birth was marked by a Gavrilin Festival in October 2009, which included concerts in his memory in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vologda, and Cherepovec, and which included a performance by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev.[2]

Musical style

The art of Gavrilin is one of the most vivid and striking features of contemporary Russian culture. After having composed "The Russian Music Book" he entered into music of the 1960s in the period of the so-called "neo-folklore wave" which was a kind of parallel to the art of such Russian "country-writers" in the genre prose as Vasili Belov, Viktor Astafiyev, and Vasily Shukshin. The truthful picture of the contemporary life of people, their mood, expectation, hopes and sorrows is presented in Gavrilin's music.

Both the esthetics and the style in Gavrilin's art are the vivid example of the neo-romantic. Fist of all it can be seen in the composer's inclination towards the genre of song mostly favored by romantics, in the ethical and fine development of song forms. To reveal the tragic content the composer uses the developed and symphonized song form which is sometimes close in the manner of intonation to "crying" and "lamentations". They are traditional genres of a Russian village song.

In Gavrilin's instrumental music an appreciable place is given to a programme miniature, to character and genre pieces forming his suites, orchestra suits and variety entertainments. Having been staged in the Naples theatre "San-Carlo" and in the Bolshoy in Moscow by V.Vasiliev, Gavrilin's ballet Anyuta became widely known.

Being vocal by nature, Gavrilin's talent has its own unique intonation. Just like his beloved romantics he worships melody. The soul of his music is in a fresh primordial melodiousness. Its pure national character is also expressed in the composer's inclination to the "natural" and "native" harmonies.

Works

Ballets

Opera

Symphonic works

Chamber-vocal works

The vocal-symphonic works

Choral Works (a capella)

Instrumental chamber works

Music for Theatre,:

36 suites of Incidental Theatre music: "How Kopachi got married Kopaci" «Так женился Копачи», "marching march", «Походный марш» "Armored Train 14-69" «Бронепоезд 14-69» "After the execution request" «После казни прошу» "After 100 years in the Birch grove" «Через 100 лет в Березовой роще» "Two winters and three summers," «Две зимы и три лета» "Crime and Punishment " «Преступлени и наказание» "Not to part with his beloved" «С любимыми не расставайтесь» "Steps of the Commander" «Шаги командора» "His people - numbered" «Свои люди — сочтемся» "Above the bright water" «Над светлой водой» "Three sacks of wheat" «Три мешка сорной пшеницы» "Prunus" «Черемуха» and others (1959–1977)

Film music

Selected Recordings

Discography

Video

References

External links