Aleksandr Nikolayevitch Serov
| Aleksandr Nikolayevitch | Serov |
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Sheet music for Aleksandr Nikolayevitch Serov
Serov: Judith (Opera) — Chistiakov
— 2 listening CDs —
By Chistiakov and Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. By Alexander Serov. 2 listening CDs. Published by Brilliant Classics (NX.BRI9219).
Price: $11.00
Symphony No. 1 the Murmuring F — Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra, Serov, Saratov Conservatory Symphony
— listening CD —
By Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra, Serov, Saratov Conservatory Symphony. By Boris Tchaikovsky. Naxos Classics. Listening CD. Published by Naxos (NX.8570195).
Price: $11.00
Boris Tishchenko: Symphony No. 8 — Chingiz Osmanov; Nikolai Mazhara; Mila Shkirtil; St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra; Yuri Serov
— CD (1 disc) — Classical
By Chingiz Osmanov; Nikolai Mazhara; Mila Shkirtil; St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra; Yuri Serov. By Boris Tishchenko. Classical. CD (1 disc). Published by Naxos (NX.8573343).
Price: $11.00
Sacred Songs — Shkirtil; Petrozavodsk University Male Choir; Karelian State Philharmonic Orchestra; Serov
— listening CD —
By Shkirtil; Petrozavodsk University Male Choir; Karelian State Philharmonic Orchestra; Serov. By Mikhail Alexeevich Kuzmin. Naxos Classics. Listening CD. Published by Naxos (NX.8573192).
Price: $11.00
Complete Piano Sonatas IV — Aleksandr Skrjabin
piano — performance score, anthology —
Composed by Aleksandr Skrjabin. Edited by Christoph Flamm. This edition: urtext edition. Paperback. Aleksandr Skrjabin. Complete Piano Sonatas IV | BARENREITER URTEXT. Performance score, anthology. Baerenreiter Verlag #BA09619. Published by Baerenreiter Verlag (BA.BA09619).
Price: $41.00
Samtliche Klaviersonaten, Band I — Aleksandr Skrjabin
piano — performance score, anthology —
Complete Piano Sonatas, Volume 1. Composed by Aleksandr Skrjabin. Edited by Christoph Flamm. This edition: urtext edition. Paperback. Aleksandr Skrjabin. Complete Piano Sonatas I | BARENREITER URTEXT. Performance score, anthology. Baerenreiter Verlag #BA09616. Published by Baerenreiter Verlag (BA.BA09616).
Price: $48.00
Samtliche Klaviersonaten, Band II — Aleksandr Skrjabin
piano — performance score, anthology —
Composed by Aleksandr Skrjabin. Edited by Christoph Flamm. This edition: urtext edition. Paperback. Aleksandr Skrjabin. Complete Piano Sonatas II | BARENREITER URTEXT. Performance score, anthology. Baerenreiter Verlag #BA09617. Published by Baerenreiter Verlag (BA.BA09617).
Price: $37.00
Valse, Waltze, by Griboyedov, Aleksandr, arrangement for classical guitar by Andrei Krylov — Griboyedov, Aleksandr
Guitar — Score — Classical Period,Etudes and Exercises,Repertoire,Classroom,General Instructional
Composed by Griboyedov, Aleksandr. Arranged by Andrei Krylov . Classical Period, Etudes and Exercises, Repertoire, Classroom, General Instructional. Score. 2 pages. Andrei Krylov #12. Published by Andrei Krylov (S0.23388).
Price: $1.00
Prelude et nocturne pour piano pour la main gauche seule : op.9 — Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin
piano — —
Composed by Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin and Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin. This edition: pamphlet. Published by Library Commerce (LC.39087012841039).
Price: $6.00
Maria Sournatcheva & Aleksandr Shaikin: Widmung — Aleksandr Shaikin
— — Classical
By Aleksandr Shaikin and Maria Sournatcheva. By Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck-Schumann (1819-1896), and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Classical, Chamber Music. Classical. Naxos #9032073-6. Published by Naxos (NX.9032073-6).
Price: $18.00
Judith, first performed in 1863, was an immediate success. the libretto was written by Serov himself (first act), his friend Zvantsov (fifth act) and a number of other people. The plot is based on the story from the apocryphal Bible book of Judith and Friedrich Hebbel’s drama Judith (1839). Wagner’s influence in the music is much less evident than would be expected on the basis of Serov’s previous writings. Serov apparently got his inspiration from almost every composer whose works were familiar to him. The part of Holofernes was one of Fyodor Shalyapin’s big successes. Judith has been recorded (Le Chant du Monde, LDC 288035-6). Like Verstovsky’s Askold’s Grave, Serov’s next opera, Rogneda (1865), takes his subject from Russia’s remote past. It was an even bigger hit than Judith. Tsar Aleksandr II granted him a thousand rubles per year. Unlike Serov’s two other opera’s it was not revived in Soviet times. Serov was not able to finish his third opera, The Power of Evil, after a play by Ostrovsky. His wife, Valentina Bergman, completed the fifth act with the help of a teacher at the Petersburg conservatory. At its premiere it was received coolly, but performances with Fyodor Stravinsky and later Fyodor Shalyapin in the role of Yeromka, were quite successful. Another fifth act was composed by Boris Asafyev in 1949. As Mussorgsky acknowledged in private, several of Serov’s ideas found their way into his works. Rimsky-Korsakov, too, recalls his enjoyment of Rogneda in his autobiography.
Sources:
My main sources, besides the usual handbooks, were
Keldysh, Yu. V., Istoriya Russkoy Muzyki, 1947. Tom II, p. 46-86.
G.N. Khubov, Aleksandr Serov, voinstvuyushchiy realist, in A.N. Serov, Izbrannye Stat’i, Leningrad, 1951 (German edition, Berlin, 1955).
G. Abraham, The Operas of Serov in Essays presented to Gerald Abraham, Oxford, 1966, p. 171-183.
R. Taruskin, Opera and Drama in Russia; as preached and practiced in the 1860’s, Ann Arbor, 1981, Chapters 1-4.
R. Taruskin, Serov and Mussorgsky in Essays presented to Egon Wellesz, Oxford, 1985, p. 139-161, reprinted in Mussorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue, Princeton, 1993.
Bibliography (not consulted, because not available):
M.R. Cherkashina, Aleksandr Nikolayevitch Serov, 1820-1871, Moscow, 1985.
A. Stupel, A.N. Serov, Leningrad, 1968.
G.N. Khubov, Zhizn’ A. Serova, Moscow/Leningrad, 1950.
(Birth and death dates according to the Julian calender are 23 January 1820 and 1 February 1871.)
Introduction
Besides being an influential music critic, Aleksandr Serov was the composer of several popular Russian opera’s of the nineteenth century.
Biography
Aleksandr Serov was born as son of a civil servant and as a child showed a talent for science, drawing and music. He was taught the piano and the violoncello. At the age of fifteen he entered the just opened School of Jurisprudence, where he played the piano at musical evenings. After his graduation in 1840, Serov entered the civil service. Always wanting to pursue a career in music, he tried to make a living out of writing critical essays on music. But only in 1855 Serov was able to quit his government job and became a full time writer. His early enthusiasm for the theories of Richard Wagner, even before he had heard Wagner’s music, earned him a reputation as the Russian Wagnerian. In 1861 he found the courage to embark on the composition of an opera. Judith was finished in 1863 and was successfullly produced at the Mariyinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Serov had the good fortune of enjoying the patronage of high officials. He continued his success as an opera composer with Rogneda (1865). A third opera was left unfinished at his sudden death at the age of 51. Composing opera’s did not prevent Serov from writing long essays. The latest collection of his collected writings on music runs to seven volumes (Leningrad, 1984-). Furthermore, Serov was also a prolific writer of letters.