Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: Childhood and Youth Chapter 2: The St Petersburg Conservatoire Chapter 3: A Free Artist Chapter 4: War and Revolution Chapter 5: The Road to Calvary Chapter 6: The Red Guards Chapter 7: The Musical Conscience of Moscow Chapter 8: The Planes are Flying Chapter 9: World Fame and the Patriotic War Chapter 10: Cry of the Wanderer Chapter 11: The Swan Song Chapter 12: The Final Coda Chronology Bibliography Discography Catalog of Works by Nikolai Myaskovsky Index
Gregor Tassie writes regularly for Musical Opinion, Classical Record Collector, and Gramophone and has worked as a consultant for BBC Radio and in documentary film. He is the author of Yevgeny Mravinsky: The Noble Conductor (2005) and Kirill Kondrashin: His Life in Music (2010), both published by Scarecrow Press.
This book is the first full-length biography in English of the
unjustly neglected Russian composer Nikolay Myaskovsky (1881-1950).
To say that the volume fills an enormous gap in music
historiography would be an understatement. In the 1930s and 1940s,
Myaskovsky was one of the world's most often performed contemporary
composers. He had the misfortune of dying at the height of the Cold
War, before the death of Stalin. Accused in 1948 of `formalism' and
other violations of the official Soviet aesthetic of socialist
realism, Myaskovsky found himself out of favor in the Soviet Union
and no longer the recipient of wartime goodwill from the former
anti-Nazi allies. Tassie has done yeoman archival work, and he
presents a full account of Myaskovsky's early family life and
education as a military engineer in the Tsarist period; his life as
a student and young professional composer in the traumatic period
between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions; and his remarkably
successful career in the Soviet period as a composer of
uncompromising artistic and ethical standards. Tassie also includes
discussions of Myaskovsky's creative output: 27 symphonies and
other orchestral works, solo works, and chamber pieces. Summing Up:
Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *
In Nikolay Myaskovsky: The Conscience of Russian Music, Gregor
Tassie charts his way through his subject's life in commendable and
confident detail. * Slavic and East European Review *
Now comes a new, and very important, study of the composer Nikolai
Myaskovsky. . . .Tassie is an enthusiast for Myakovsky's music . .
. but his enthusiasm never over-rides his critical faculties:
always sympathetic to the subject, what emerges above all from
these engrossing and well-written pages is the compelling story of
a superb musician and important composer who has never truly had
his due. What Tass has accomplished here is a remarkably successful
synthesis of biography and musical analysis, proving . . . that
there is more to music composed in Russia during the Soviet period
than Shostakovich and Prokofiev . . . as Tassie's fascinating
articles in this journal have demonstrated in recent years and
which this major new book powerfully demonstrates. * Musical
Opinion *
A revival of Myaskovsky's music, especially in America, is long
overdue. It is to be hoped that this excellent book may help bring
that about. . . .Highly recommended. * Classical Net *
I'm delighted to report that Tassie's new book fills a conspicuous
gap with distinction and insight. . . .This is essential reading
for anybody with an interest in the history of Russian and Soviet
music, or in the development of the twentieth-century symphony. I
recommend it strongly. * International Record Review *
Miaskovsky (1881-1950) has been long overdue for a competent
biography, and Gregor Tassie supplies that need. It's a biography
WH Auden would have praised. . . .Tassie's book is a worthwhile
account of a worthwhile composer. The reader will finish it with
respect, tinged with sadness over the life of an honorable man and
an admirable artist . . . [The author's] descriptions of the music
are concise and readable. * American Record Guide *
The book by Gregor Tassie on Myaskovsky is an honest and profound
exploration of this fascinating figure in Russian musical history.
It contains many important and hitherto unknown details about the
Russian and Soviet music life. Tassie makes it clear that without a
proper understanding of the Myaskovsky phenomenon there can't be a
complete picture of the Russian music in the 20th century. An
important achievement! -- Vladimir Yurowski, principal conductor,
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Myaskovsky is a composer I have been interested in for a long time.
He has always appeared a dark, gray character, but Tassie's study
wonderfully opens up his personality to readers. All the warmth and
humanity of this man appears, and he is revealed as a deeply tragic
human being and a great composer. -- Oliver Knussen,
artist-in-association, BBC Symphony Orchestra
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