Nikolay Myaskovsky

There are many figures familiar to audiences interested in Russian/Soviet music: composers like Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Khachaturian, or performers like Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, and Sviatoslav Richter. Others, such as Mieczysław Weinberg or Georgy Sviridov, are gaining wider critical attention. Some figures, however, are known mostly to specialists, and for many, Nikolay Myaskovsky belongs to this camp. His music is, regrettably, rarely performed, whether in the Russian Federation or anywhere else. Objectively, there are practical reasons for this: the vast majority of Myaskovsky’s works are symphonies (twenty-seven of them, to be exact), though he composed a good amount of chamber music besides, including thirteen string quartets. While many of the symphonies are highly deserving of revivals and performances, all require considerable thought and rehearsal to perform. His creative achievements during his lifetime are undeniable: he was heralded as the author of the first Soviet symphony, a five-time winner of the Stalin Prize, and even talked about as the ‘Father of the Soviet Symphony’. His prominence in Soviet cultural and musical life from the mid-1920s onwards made him a central figure behind much of the official state machinations for commissioning and examining new compositions. He acted as a benevolent advocate for many younger composers and was highly respected for his level-headedness in defending works antithetical to his own musical tastes. As a result of his teaching and of his participation in officialdom, Myaskovsky figures in just about every biography or academic survey of music in the Soviet Union—in many cases prominently.

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