Boris Tchaikovsky

Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Борис Александрович Чайковский; 10 September 1925 – 7 February 1996), PAU, was a Soviet and Russian composer, born in Moscow, whose oeuvre includes orchestral works, chamber music, and film music.^[1] He is considered as part of the second generation of Russian composers,^{[clarification needed]} following in the steps of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (to whom he was not related^[2]) and especially Mussorgsky.

He was admired by Dmitri Shostakovich, with whom he studied, who (according to Per Skans in his notes for a recording)^[which?] suggested in a letter of 1 February 1969 to Isaak Glikman, that "If Barshai's orchestra (the Moscow chamber orchestra) makes a guest appearance in Leningrad playing Vainberg's Tenth Symphony and Boris Tchaikovsky's Sinfonietta, you really have to hear them".^{[citation needed]}

Of his larger-scale works almost all have been recorded.^{[citation needed]} Boris Tchaikovsky generally wrote in a tonal style, although he made brief forays into serialism.^{[clarification needed]}

Selected works

Stage

• The Star (Звезда), unfinished opera in three scenes (1949); libretto by David Samoilov after the novel by Emmanuil Kazakevich; Moscow Conservatory diploma-work

Orchestral

• Procession (Шествие) (1946)
• Symphony No.1 (1947)
• Fantasia on Russian Folk Themes (Фантазия на русские народные темы) (1950)
• Slavic Rhapsody (Славянская рапсодия) (1951)
• Symphonietta for string orchestra (1953)
• The Murmuring Forest Orchestral Suite (1953)
• Capriccio on English Themes (Каприччио на английские темы) (1954)
• Overture (Увертюра) (1957)
• Symphony No.2 (1967)
• Chamber Symphony (Камерная симфония) for chamber orchestra (1967)
• Theme and Eight Variations (Тема и восемь вариаций) (1973)
• Six Etudes (Шесть этюдов) for string orchestra and organ (1976)
• Symphony No.3 "Sevastopol" (Севастопольская симфония) (1980)
• The Winds of Siberia (Ветер Сибири), Symphonic Poem (1984)
• Four Preludes (Четыре прелюдии) for chamber orchestra (1984)
• The Juvenile (Подросток), Poem for orchestra (1984)
• Music for Orchestra (Музыка для оркестра) (1987)
• Symphony with Harp (Симфония с арфой) (1993)
• The Bells (Колокола), Prelude for orchestra (1996; completed in short score only)

Concertos

• Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra (1957)
• Concerto for cello and orchestra (1964)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra (1969)
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (1971)

Chamber music

• Piano Trio (1953)
• String Quartet No.1 (1954)
• String Trio (1955)
• Sonata for cello and piano (1957)
• Sonata for violin and piano (1959)
• Suite in D minor for cello solo (1960)
• String Quartet No.2 (1961)
• Piano Quintet (1962)
• Partita for cello and chamber ensemble (1966)
• String Quartet No.3 (1967)
• String Quartet No.4 (1972)
• String Quartet No.5 (1974)
• String Quartet No.6 (1976)
• Sextet for wind quintet and harp (1990)

Piano

• 3 Etudes (1935; 1972; 1980)
• 5 Pieces (1935)
• 5 Preludes (1936)
• 5 Pieces (1938)
• Sonata No.1 (1944)
• 2 Pieces (1945)
• Sonatina (1946)
• Sonata No.2 (1952)
• 8 Children's Pieces (Восемь детских пьес) (1952)
• Sonata for two pianos (1973)
• Pentatonic (Пентатоника), 6 Easy Pieces (1993)
• Natural Modes (Натуральные лады), 7 Miniatures (1993)

Vocal

• Two Poems by Mikhail Lermontov (Два стихотворения М. Ю. Лермонтова) for soprano and piano (1940)
• Four Poems by Josef Brodsky (Четыре стихотворения И. Бродского) for soprano and piano (1965)
• Lyrics of Pushkin (Лирика Пушкина), Song Cycle for soprano and piano (1972)
• Signs of the Zodiac (Знаки Зодиака), Cantata for soprano, harpsichord and string orchestra (1974)
• The Last Spring (Последняя весна), Song Cycle for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and piano (1980); words by N. Zabolotsky
• From Kipling (Из Киплинга) for mezzo-soprano and viola (1994)

Film scores

References

1. ^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 130–131. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
2. ^ The Boris Tchaikovsky Society

Literature

• Grigor'yeva, Galina. "Boris Aleksandrovich Chaykovsky"
• Schwarz, Boris. Music and musical life in Soviet Russia, 1917-1970. London : Barrie and Jenkins, 1972. "The Avant-Garde and the Middle Group."

External links

• The Boris Tchaikovsky Society
• Onno van Rijen's Boris Tchaikovsky page — brief biographical information and list of works with discography
• Boris Tchaikovsky at IMDb
• Boris Tchaikovsky at the Russian film database Kino-Teatr (in Russian)
• US Premiere of Music for Orchestra (1987) on February 24, 2010 by the American Symphony Orchestra