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Alexander Ossovsky (March, 31 (o.s.19), 1871, Kishinev, Bessarabia
Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
 – July, 31, 1957, Leningrad, USSR, now Saint-Petersburg, Russia) (also spelt: Ossovsky Alexander Viacheslavovich; ), was a renowned Russian musical writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, critic
Critic

The word critic comes from the Greek language ' , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word ' , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation....
 and musicologist, cousin of the composer Mykola Vilinsky
Mykola Vilinsky

Mykola Vilinsky was a Ukrainian composer and professor of Odessa and Kiev Conservatories. From the family of Ukrainian hereditary nobles, cousin of musicologist Alexander Ossovsky and singer Ksenia Derzhinskaia....
, professor at Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students....
, pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
, friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romantic music in classical music....
, Alexander Siloti
Alexander Siloti

Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, Conducting and composer. ...
 and Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Tcherepnin

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory....
.

Biography
Alexander Ossovsky was born on March, 31, 1871 in Kishinev into the family of Viacheslav Stepanovich Ossovsky, who was a Department Chair in Odessa
Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the Capital of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major port located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 ....
 Court; his mother was Eugenia Tcherkunova.






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Alexander Ossovsky (March, 31 (o.s.19), 1871, Kishinev, Bessarabia
Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
 – July, 31, 1957, Leningrad, USSR, now Saint-Petersburg, Russia) (also spelt: Ossovsky Alexander Viacheslavovich; ), was a renowned Russian musical writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, critic
Critic

The word critic comes from the Greek language ' , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word ' , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation....
 and musicologist, cousin of the composer Mykola Vilinsky
Mykola Vilinsky

Mykola Vilinsky was a Ukrainian composer and professor of Odessa and Kiev Conservatories. From the family of Ukrainian hereditary nobles, cousin of musicologist Alexander Ossovsky and singer Ksenia Derzhinskaia....
, professor at Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students....
, pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
, friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romantic music in classical music....
, Alexander Siloti
Alexander Siloti

Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, Conducting and composer. ...
 and Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Tcherepnin

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory....
.

Biography


Alexander Ossovsky was born on March, 31, 1871 in Kishinev into the family of Viacheslav Stepanovich Ossovsky, who was a Department Chair in Odessa
Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the Capital of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major port located on the shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 ....
 Court; his mother was Eugenia Tcherkunova. Ossovsky graduated from the Law School at Moscow University (1893). After graduation he worked at the Ministry of Justice in Saint Petersburg. In 1896-1898 studied in Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students....
. In 1900-02 Ossovsky studied composition with the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
.

In 1894 Ossovsky started his career as a talented and prolific musical writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, musical critic
Critic

The word critic comes from the Greek language ' , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word ' , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation....
 and musicologist. In 1915-18 and 1921-52 Ossovsky was a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, (then Leningrad Conservatory) and in 1937 he became a Deputy Director there. He was one of the founders of “Muzykal’nyi Sovremennik” (“Musical Contemporary”) magazine in Saint-Petersburg (1915-17). In 1923-25 Ossovsky was the Director and in 1933-36 the Art Chair at the Leningrad Philharmonic. In 1943-52 Ossovsky was the Director at the Leningrad Music and Theater Research Institute. In 1931-33 he worked at the State Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art , and one of the oldest art gallery and museums of human history and culture in the world....
 in Leningrad.

Ossovsky maintained close ties with the composers of Belyayev’s Circle
Mitrofan Belyayev

Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev was a Russian music publisher, outstandingphilantropist,, and the owner of a large wood dealership enterprise in Russia....
 and had become friend and colleague with a number of the members of Russian musical elite, including S.Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romantic music in classical music....
, A.Siloti
Alexander Siloti

Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, Conducting and composer. ...
 and A.Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher and Conducting. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was also instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the October Revolution....
. He contributed extensively to Siloti’s concert programs as a writer, editor and critic.

In 1911 Ossovsky helped the young Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century....
 to publish his first works by writing a special letter in strong support of the composer to the Russian publisher Jurgenson. Also in 1911 in Kiev
Kiev

Kiev, also known as Kyiv , is the Capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River....
 Rachmaninoff at the request of Ossovsky auditioned Ossovsky’s cousin , Ksenia Derzhinskaia (1889 – 1951), and helped to launch her opera career - she became an eminent Russian singer and prima donna at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Ossovsky was a friend of the composer Nikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Tcherepnin

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory....
 and mentored his son – also a famous composer, Alexander Tcherepnin
Alexander Tcherepnin

Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian-born composer and pianist. His father, Nikolai Tcherepnin and his son, Ivan Tcherepnin were also composers, as are two of his grandsons, Sergei and Stefan....
 - during the early years of his career.

Ossovsky wrote a series of papers and monographs dedicated to research and analysis of the works of such outstanding Russian composers as M.Glinka
Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian people composer to gain wide recognition inside his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music....
, A.Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher and Conducting. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was also instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the October Revolution....
, N.Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
 and others. He was one of the first musicologists who introduced music of Bach, Rameau, Corelli, Vivaldi and Wagner to Russian public. His memoir of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romantic music in classical music....
 (see [6] in Selected works) is of special interest and value, because he gives first-hand accounts of, and insights into, many important events in the biographies of Rachmaninoff and other musicians. Ossovsky’s works are frequently cited in many Western publications about Russian composers and their music.

Selected works (in Russian)


  1. A.K. Glazunov, St. Petersburg 1907.
  2. Mirovoe znachenie russkoi muzyki, (Worldwide significance of Russian classical music), Leningrad,. 1948.
  3. N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov, in “Soviet Music” coll. of papers, book 3, Moscow. 1944.
  4. Selected papers and memoirs. Leningrad, 1961
  5. Muzikal’no-kriticheskie stat’ji (Musical and critic papers), Leningrad, 1971
  6. Vospominaniia. Issledovaniia (Memoirs. Research). Leningrad, 1968.

External links

  1. Works by Alexander Ossovsky
  2. Alexander Ossovsky
  3. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory. See History, Department of history of Foreign music