| Anton Stepanovich Arensky
(1861 - 1906) Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He started to learn
both piano and composition when still a young child, encouraged by his
parents, both excellent amateur musicians. He went on to study at the St.
Petersburg Conservatorium, where his composition teacher was Rimsky Korsakov.
He was so brilliant that upon his graduation, at the age of 21, was immediately
appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatorium, where among his pupils
were to be Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Gliere. In Moscow he met and befriended
Tchaikovsky, who was twenty years his senior and who greatly influenced
and encouraged him.
In 1895 he was appointed
Director of the Imperial Chapel in St. Petersburg, a position which he
held until 1901, when he retired with a generous pension which allowed
him to pursue a successful career as pianist and conductor, and to devote
more time to composition. Unfortunately, because he had been addicted to
drinking and gambling since his youth, his health deteriorated rapidly
and he died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-five.
Arensky wrote operas, orchestral
and choral music, but his best music is to be found among his many songs
and his miniatures for the piano, as well as in his scanty production of
chamber music. The most notable chamber works are the two Piano Trios,
the Piano Quintet (which was performed at the London Festival of Chamber
Music in 1997, and was enthusiastically received; the performers were Martin
Jones and the English String Quartet), and the String
Quartet No.2 in A minor, Op.35, to be performed at this year's Festival.
This substantial work in
three movements was written in 1895, two years after Tchaikovsky's death,
and is a memorial to his friend and mentor. The work was written for the
unusual string quartet combination of violin, viola and two cellos. Although
the composer later adapted it for the traditional string quartet of two
violins, viola and cello, the preponderance of low sounds in the original
version results in a much more effective and individual work.
The 1st movement opens with
the simple and sombre theme of a psalm of the Orthodox Church, which is
then dramatically developed; the funereal atmosphere is relieved with the
introduction of lighter elements, but the movement closes with a return
to the initial theme.
The 2nd movement is a set
of variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky (Legend: "When Jesus Christ was
but a child", from 16 Children Songs, Op.54). The elaboration of the theme
produces music full of pathos, but also of energy and wit. This movement,
incidentally, was later arranged for string orchestra, and has become Arensky's
most well known work.
The 3rd movement is even
more "Russian" than the preceding two. The introduction, based on
the theme from an Orthodox Requiem, gives way to a folksong celebrating
the coronation of the Tsar (previously used by Beethoven in one of his
three "Russian" quartets Op.59, and by Mussorgsky in Boris Godunov), and
the work reaches an energetic and triumphant conclusion.
Luciano Iorio |
