Tikhon Khrennikov
Encyclopedia
Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov was a Russia
n and Soviet composer
, pianist
, leader of the Union of Soviet Composers
, who was also known for his political activities. He wrote three symphonies, four piano concertos, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, operas, operettas, ballets, chamber music, incidental music and film music.
, Oryol Governorate, Russian Empire
(now in Lipetsk Oblast
in central Russia).
He learned guitar and mandolin from members of his family and sang in a local choir in Yelets. There he also played in a local orchestra and learned the piano. As a teenager he moved to Moscow
. From 1929 to 1932, he studied composition at the Gnessin State Musical College
under Mikhail Gnessin and Yefraim Gelman. From 1932 to 1936, he attended the Moscow Conservatory
. There he studied composition under Vissarion Shebalin
and piano under Heinrich Neuhaus
. As a student, he wrote and played his Piano Concerto No. 1, and his graduation piece was the Symphony No. 1. His first symphony was conducted by Leopold Stokowski
. He became popular with the series of songs and serenades that he composed for the 1936 production of Much Ado About Nothing
at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow.
By the 1930s, Khrennikov was already treated as a leading official Soviet composer. Typical was his speech during a discussion in February 1936 concerning Pravda
articles "Chaos instead of music" and "Ballet falseness":
Together with other official representatives of Soviet culture (N.Chelyapov, N. Myaskovsky
, N. Chemberdzhi, S. Vasilenko, V. Bely, A. Veprik
, A. Khachaturian
, B. Shekhter, M.Starodokamsky, G. Khubov, V. Muradeli
, V. Yurovsky and L. Kulakovsky), Khrennikov signed the statement welcoming "a sentence of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, passed on traitors against the motherland, fascist hirelings, such as Tukhachevsky
, Yakir
and others".
Having "adopted the optimistic, dramatic and unabashedly lyrical style favored by Soviet leaders", Khrennikov shot to fame in 1941, with the "Song of Moscow" from his music score for the popular Soviet film They Met in Moscow, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1941, Khrennikov was appointed Music Director of the Central Theatre of the Red Army, a position he would keep for 25 years.
In February 1945 Khrennikov was officially posted by the Political Authority (Politupravlenie) of the Red Army from Sverdlovsk, where he and his family had been evacuated, to the First Belorussian Front, and the Army commanded by General (later Marshal) Chuikov
.
In 1947 he joined the Communist party and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet
.
appointed Khrennikov Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers
, a job he would keep until the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991 and for which he is most remembered.
For a long time it was held that, thanks to Khrennikov's efforts, no Soviet composers were arrested or prosecuted.
In an interview with pianist Jasha Nemtsov on 8 November 2004 in Moscow, Khrennikov asserted that composer Mieczysław Weinberg, when arrested, had been discharged immediately because of Khrennikov's protection; according to Khrennikov the same had happened to Alexander Veprik
. The facts are that Veprik spent four years in a prison camp and Mieczysław Weinberg, who was released in June 1953, had been saved from prosecution, and probably from execution, only because of Stalin's
death. In recent years, information that had been suppressed since 1948 began to be published, and documents and facts now known confirm that there were extensive prosecutions.
In 1949 Khrennikov officially attacked the young composer Alexander Lokshin
, using formulations of one of Stalin’s most notorious ideologists, Paul Apostolov. In his speech Khrennikov contrasted Lokshin‘s "modernist" style with the bylina
Stepan Razin's Dream by Galina Ustvolskaya
, which he considered an ideal example of true national art.
Khrennikov's speech aroused great indignation in Mikhail Gnessin, who accused him of duplicity: not daring to criticise Lokshin in a professional environment, Khrennikov attacked him ideologically from his position as a leading Soviet official. After this ideological campaign Lokshin was excluded from academic circles.
Khrennikov did not prevent Prokofiev’s
first wife, Lina Ivanovna, being charged as a "spy" following her arrest by the NKVD
on 20 February 1948. As head of the Composers' Union, Khrennikov made no attempt to have the sentence against Lina Prokofieva quashed, or even to mitigate her fate in the Gulag. The Composers' Union did not help Prokofiev's sons, who were compulsorily evicted from their apartment. After Lina Ivanovna Prokofieva returned from Gulag, the Composers' Union did nothing to improve the extremely bad living conditions of her family; it was the prominent singers Irina Arkhipova and Zurab Sotkilava who protected Prokofiev’s first family. Afterwards, the family was exposed to regular official humiliations. According to Prokofiev's first son, Sviatoslav, the Composers' Union officially refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to Paris, after she had been personally invited by the French culture minister to the opening of Prokofiev's memorial board. Instead, Khrennikov took part at that ceremony with his whole family. The Composers' Union also refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to the opening of the Sydney Opera House
. At the same time, Sviatoslav Prokofiev noted the typical logic of the Soviet functionary: sometimes Khrennikov could help if it was not dangerous for his own position and career.
The ideological campaigns of 1948-49 against "formalists" in music were directly connected with the offensive against the so-called rootless cosmopolitan
s, which formed a part of the state anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union that flourished after the Second World War in various forms: ideological resolutions, declarations by official writers and critics, offensive caricatures and vulgar anti-Semitic abuse in the satirical magazine Krokodil
(Crocodile). Historians of state anti-Semitism in the USSR name Khrennikov among the most active fighters for "purity of Russian culture". In Soviet official policy both before and after Stalin's death, a clear distinction was drawn between "good Soviet Jews" and "Nazis-Zionists". True to this party line, the leadership of the Soviet Composers‘ Union branded composers as "zionist aggressors" or "agents of world imperialism", and made accusations of "ideologically vicious" and "hostile" phenomena in Soviet musical culture. An accusation of zionism was often used as a weapon against people of different nationalities, faiths and opinions, such as Nikolai Roslavets
. "Struggle against formalists" was pursued in other countries too: according to György Ligeti
, after Khrennikov’s official visit to Budapest in 1948, The Miraculous Mandarin
by Béla Bartók
was removed from the repertoire and paintings by French impressionists and others were removed from display in museums. In 1952 Ligeti was almost forbidden to teach after he had shown the score of the proscribed Symphony of Psalms
by Igor Stravinsky
to his students; Ligeti was saved only because of the personal protection of Zoltán Kodály
.
Khrennikov and other functionaries of the Composers‘ Union constantly attacked the heritage of the Russian avant-garde as well as its researchers. For example, the German musicologist Detlef Gojowy (1934–2008) was persecuted because of his promotion in the West of modern Soviet music of the 1920s. Gojowy was proclaimed to be an "anti-Soviet writer" – till 1989 he was forbidden to visit the Soviet Union and some of his publications that he sent to Soviet colleagues were intercepted by Soviet customs. At the same time, Soviet musicologists engaged in developing a Russian avant-garde tradition were officially prohibited from going abroad. Once again, Nicolai Roslavets was an example.
Khrennikov was a Member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
from the 1950s on. From 1962, he was a representative in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
, its leaders, the fall of the Soviet Union and the liquidation of corresponding structures:
In another interview given to the same newspaper Zavtra (meaning "Tomorrow") he described Stalin as a "genius", an "absolutely normal person", tolerant of criticism:
Khrennikov's memoirs were published in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union. He died in Moscow aged 94 and is buried near his parents' tomb in his native town of Yelets.
and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
who gave premieres of his cello concerto and two violin concertos. Among his popular film scores were Six O'Clock in the Evening After the War () (1944), True Friends
() (1954) and Hussar Ballad
() (1962) directed by Eldar Ryazanov
. He also wrote critically acclaimed music for the ballet Napoleon Bonaparte (). In the 1980s Khrennikov resumed composition with renewed vigor. In his Symphony No. 3, Khrennikov used elements of serialism
, which he had denounced in earlier years.
, which also has extensive footage of conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, one of Khrennikov's most acerbic critics.
Khrennikov was interviewed by former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith
for the BBC's 2006 radio show Challenging the Silence. In it Khrennikov reacts angrily to the suggestion he was at the heart of the criticism of composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich, though he expressed pride that he "was Stalin's Commissar. When I said No! (he shouts), it meant No."
Titles
Awards
International awards and titles
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Soviet composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, leader of the Union of Soviet Composers
Union of Soviet Composers
The USSR Union of Composers or Union of Composers of the USSR , , was a professional organisation of composers in the Soviet Union...
, who was also known for his political activities. He wrote three symphonies, four piano concertos, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, operas, operettas, ballets, chamber music, incidental music and film music.
Early Years
Tikhon Khrennikov was the youngest of ten children, born into a family of horse traders in the town of YeletsYelets
Yelets is a city in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, situated on the Sosna River, which is a tributary of the Don. Population: -History:Yelets is the oldest center of the Central Black Earth Region. It is mentioned in historical documents as far back as 1146, when it belonged to the Princes of Ryazan...
, Oryol Governorate, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(now in Lipetsk Oblast
Lipetsk Oblast
Lipetsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia which was formed on January 6, 1954. Its administrative center is the city of Lipetsk...
in central Russia).
He learned guitar and mandolin from members of his family and sang in a local choir in Yelets. There he also played in a local orchestra and learned the piano. As a teenager he moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. From 1929 to 1932, he studied composition at the Gnessin State Musical College
Gnessin State Musical College
The Gnessin State Musical College and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music is a prominent music school in Moscow, Russia...
under Mikhail Gnessin and Yefraim Gelman. From 1932 to 1936, he attended the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
. There he studied composition under Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin was a Soviet composer.-Biography:Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical college in Omsk. He was 20 years old when, following the advice of his professor, he went to Moscow to show his first compositions to...
and piano under Heinrich Neuhaus
Heinrich Neuhaus
Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus was a Soviet pianist and pedagogue of German extraction. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1956...
. As a student, he wrote and played his Piano Concerto No. 1, and his graduation piece was the Symphony No. 1. His first symphony was conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. He became popular with the series of songs and serenades that he composed for the 1936 production of Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow.
By the 1930s, Khrennikov was already treated as a leading official Soviet composer. Typical was his speech during a discussion in February 1936 concerning Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
articles "Chaos instead of music" and "Ballet falseness":
The resolution on 23rd April 1932 appealed to the consciousness of the Soviet artist. Soviet artists had not withstood scrutiny. After 23rd April, youth was inspired to study. The problem was, we had to master the skills and techniques of composition. We developed an enthusiasm for modern western composers. The names of Hindemith and Krenek came to be symbols of advanced modern artists. […] After the enthusiasm for western tendencies came an attraction to simplicity, influenced by composing for the theatre, where simple, expressive music was required. We grew, our consciousness also grew, as well as the aspiration to be genuine Soviet composers, representatives of our epoch. Compositions by Hindemith satisfied us no more. Soon after that Prokofiev arrived, declaring Soviet music to be provincial and naming Shostakovich as the most up-to-date composer. Young composers were confused: on the one hand, they wanted to create simpler music that would be easier for the masses to understand; on the other hand, they were confronted with the statements of such musical authorities as Prokofiev. Critics wrote laudatory odes to Shostakovich. […] How did young composers react to Lady Macbeth [of Mtensk]? This opera contains several large melodic fragments which opened some creative perspectives to us. But the entre‘actes and other things aroused complete hostility.
Together with other official representatives of Soviet culture (N.Chelyapov, N. Myaskovsky
Nikolai Myaskovsky
Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of the Soviet symphony".-Early years and first important works:...
, N. Chemberdzhi, S. Vasilenko, V. Bely, A. Veprik
Alexander Veprik
Alexander Moiseyevich Veprik, also Weprik, was a Russian composer and music educator. Veprik is considered one of the greatest composers of the "Jewish school" in Soviet music.-Life:...
, A. Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
, B. Shekhter, M.Starodokamsky, G. Khubov, V. Muradeli
Vano Muradeli
Vano Muradeli was a Soviet Georgian composer.Born in Gori, Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia, he graduated from Tbilisi State Conservatory in 1931. From 1934 to 1938, he worked at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1942 to 1944, he served as a principal and artistic director of the Central Ensemble...
, V. Yurovsky and L. Kulakovsky), Khrennikov signed the statement welcoming "a sentence of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, passed on traitors against the motherland, fascist hirelings, such as Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
, Yakir
Iona Yakir
Iona Emmanuilovich Yakir was the Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II.-Early years:...
and others".
Having "adopted the optimistic, dramatic and unabashedly lyrical style favored by Soviet leaders", Khrennikov shot to fame in 1941, with the "Song of Moscow" from his music score for the popular Soviet film They Met in Moscow, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1941, Khrennikov was appointed Music Director of the Central Theatre of the Red Army, a position he would keep for 25 years.
In February 1945 Khrennikov was officially posted by the Political Authority (Politupravlenie) of the Red Army from Sverdlovsk, where he and his family had been evacuated, to the First Belorussian Front, and the Army commanded by General (later Marshal) Chuikov
Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...
.
In 1947 he joined the Communist party and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
.
General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers
In 1948, Andrei ZhdanovAndrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
appointed Khrennikov Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers
Union of Soviet Composers
The USSR Union of Composers or Union of Composers of the USSR , , was a professional organisation of composers in the Soviet Union...
, a job he would keep until the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1991 and for which he is most remembered.
For a long time it was held that, thanks to Khrennikov's efforts, no Soviet composers were arrested or prosecuted.
In an interview with pianist Jasha Nemtsov on 8 November 2004 in Moscow, Khrennikov asserted that composer Mieczysław Weinberg, when arrested, had been discharged immediately because of Khrennikov's protection; according to Khrennikov the same had happened to Alexander Veprik
Alexander Veprik
Alexander Moiseyevich Veprik, also Weprik, was a Russian composer and music educator. Veprik is considered one of the greatest composers of the "Jewish school" in Soviet music.-Life:...
. The facts are that Veprik spent four years in a prison camp and Mieczysław Weinberg, who was released in June 1953, had been saved from prosecution, and probably from execution, only because of Stalin's
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
death. In recent years, information that had been suppressed since 1948 began to be published, and documents and facts now known confirm that there were extensive prosecutions.
In 1949 Khrennikov officially attacked the young composer Alexander Lokshin
Alexander Lokshin
Alexander Lazarevich Lokshin was a Russian composer of classical music. He was born on September 19, 1920, in the town of Biysk, in the Altai Region, Western Siberia, and died in Moscow on June 11, 1987....
, using formulations of one of Stalin’s most notorious ideologists, Paul Apostolov. In his speech Khrennikov contrasted Lokshin‘s "modernist" style with the bylina
Bylina
Bylina or Bylyna is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to create their songs...
Stepan Razin's Dream by Galina Ustvolskaya
Galina Ustvolskaya
Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya, also Ustwolskaja or Oustvolskaia was a Russian composer of classical music.-Early years:From 1937 to 1947 she studied at the college attached to the Leningrad Conservatory . She subsequently became a postgraduate student and taught composition at the college...
, which he considered an ideal example of true national art.
Khrennikov's speech aroused great indignation in Mikhail Gnessin, who accused him of duplicity: not daring to criticise Lokshin in a professional environment, Khrennikov attacked him ideologically from his position as a leading Soviet official. After this ideological campaign Lokshin was excluded from academic circles.
Khrennikov did not prevent Prokofiev’s
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
first wife, Lina Ivanovna, being charged as a "spy" following her arrest by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
on 20 February 1948. As head of the Composers' Union, Khrennikov made no attempt to have the sentence against Lina Prokofieva quashed, or even to mitigate her fate in the Gulag. The Composers' Union did not help Prokofiev's sons, who were compulsorily evicted from their apartment. After Lina Ivanovna Prokofieva returned from Gulag, the Composers' Union did nothing to improve the extremely bad living conditions of her family; it was the prominent singers Irina Arkhipova and Zurab Sotkilava who protected Prokofiev’s first family. Afterwards, the family was exposed to regular official humiliations. According to Prokofiev's first son, Sviatoslav, the Composers' Union officially refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to Paris, after she had been personally invited by the French culture minister to the opening of Prokofiev's memorial board. Instead, Khrennikov took part at that ceremony with his whole family. The Composers' Union also refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to the opening of the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. At the same time, Sviatoslav Prokofiev noted the typical logic of the Soviet functionary: sometimes Khrennikov could help if it was not dangerous for his own position and career.
The ideological campaigns of 1948-49 against "formalists" in music were directly connected with the offensive against the so-called rootless cosmopolitan
Rootless cosmopolitan
Rootless cosmopolitan was a Soviet euphemism widely used during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1948–1953, which culminated in the "exposure" of the alleged Doctors' plot...
s, which formed a part of the state anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union that flourished after the Second World War in various forms: ideological resolutions, declarations by official writers and critics, offensive caricatures and vulgar anti-Semitic abuse in the satirical magazine Krokodil
Krokodil
Krokodil was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922. At that time, a large number of satirical magazines existed, such as Zanoza and Prozhektor...
(Crocodile). Historians of state anti-Semitism in the USSR name Khrennikov among the most active fighters for "purity of Russian culture". In Soviet official policy both before and after Stalin's death, a clear distinction was drawn between "good Soviet Jews" and "Nazis-Zionists". True to this party line, the leadership of the Soviet Composers‘ Union branded composers as "zionist aggressors" or "agents of world imperialism", and made accusations of "ideologically vicious" and "hostile" phenomena in Soviet musical culture. An accusation of zionism was often used as a weapon against people of different nationalities, faiths and opinions, such as Nikolai Roslavets
Nikolai Roslavets
Nikolai Andreevich Roslavets was a significant Soviet modernist composer. Roslavets was a convinced modernist and cosmopolitan thinker; his music was officially suppressed from 1930 onwards....
. "Struggle against formalists" was pursued in other countries too: according to György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
, after Khrennikov’s official visit to Budapest in 1948, The Miraculous Mandarin
The Miraculous Mandarin
The Miraculous Mandarin or The Wonderful Mandarin Op. 19, Sz. 73 , is a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók between 1918–1924, and based on the story by Melchior Lengyel. Premiered November 27, 1926 in Cologne, Germany, it caused a scandal and was subsequently banned...
by Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
was removed from the repertoire and paintings by French impressionists and others were removed from display in museums. In 1952 Ligeti was almost forbidden to teach after he had shown the score of the proscribed Symphony of Psalms
Symphony of Psalms
The Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky was written in 1930 and was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This piece is a three-movement choral symphony and was composed during Stravinsky's neoclassical period. The symphony derives...
by Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
to his students; Ligeti was saved only because of the personal protection of Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
.
Khrennikov and other functionaries of the Composers‘ Union constantly attacked the heritage of the Russian avant-garde as well as its researchers. For example, the German musicologist Detlef Gojowy (1934–2008) was persecuted because of his promotion in the West of modern Soviet music of the 1920s. Gojowy was proclaimed to be an "anti-Soviet writer" – till 1989 he was forbidden to visit the Soviet Union and some of his publications that he sent to Soviet colleagues were intercepted by Soviet customs. At the same time, Soviet musicologists engaged in developing a Russian avant-garde tradition were officially prohibited from going abroad. Once again, Nicolai Roslavets was an example.
Khrennikov was a Member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
from the 1950s on. From 1962, he was a representative in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Later Years
In his last years, Khrennikov made extremely negative statements about PerestroikaPerestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, its leaders, the fall of the Soviet Union and the liquidation of corresponding structures:
It was a betrayal by our leaders. I consider Gorbachev and his henchmen, who deliberately organised persecution of Soviet art, to be traitors to the party and the people [...]".
In another interview given to the same newspaper Zavtra (meaning "Tomorrow") he described Stalin as a "genius", an "absolutely normal person", tolerant of criticism:
Stalin, in my opinion, knew music better than any of us. […] As in classical Ancient Greece, so too in the Soviet Union music was of the greatest importance to the state. The spiritual influence of the greatest composers and artists in the formation of intelligent and strong-willed people, first of all through radio, was huge.
Khrennikov's memoirs were published in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union. He died in Moscow aged 94 and is buried near his parents' tomb in his native town of Yelets.
Music
Khrennikov was an active concert performer through his entire life, playing his piano concertos as well as his songs and other compositions. He collaborated with the violinist Leonid KoganLeonid Borisovitch Kogan
Leonid Borisovich Kogan was a violin virtuoso and one of the 20th century's most famous Soviet violinists. He ranked among the greatest representatives of the Soviet School of violin playing.-Life and career:...
and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
who gave premieres of his cello concerto and two violin concertos. Among his popular film scores were Six O'Clock in the Evening After the War () (1944), True Friends
True Friends (film)
True Friends is a 1954 dramatic comedy film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.-Plot:Alexander, Boris and Vasily are three old friends, who now rarely see each other as they are busy with their professional life...
() (1954) and Hussar Ballad
Hussar Ballad
The Hussar Ballad is a 1962 Soviet musical film by Eldar Ryazanov, filmed on Mosfilm. In effect, it is one of the best loved musical comedies in Russia....
() (1962) directed by Eldar Ryazanov
Eldar Ryazanov
Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov is a Soviet/Russian film director whose comedies, satirizing the daily life of the country, are very famous throughout the former Soviet Union....
. He also wrote critically acclaimed music for the ballet Napoleon Bonaparte (). In the 1980s Khrennikov resumed composition with renewed vigor. In his Symphony No. 3, Khrennikov used elements of serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
, which he had denounced in earlier years.
Interviews
Some of Khrennikov's statements mentioned above are included in the 2004 documentary Notes interdites: scènes de la vie musicale en Russie Soviétique (English title: The Red Baton) by Bruno MonsaingeonBruno Monsaingeon
Bruno Monsaingeon is a French filmmaker, writer, and violinist. He has made a number of documentary films about great twentieth-century musicians, including Glenn Gould, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Piotr Anderszewski and Yehudi Menuhin. His interviews with Richter and with Nadia Boulanger...
, which also has extensive footage of conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, one of Khrennikov's most acerbic critics.
Khrennikov was interviewed by former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith
Martin Sixsmith
-Education:Sixsmith was born in Cheshire and educated at the Manchester Grammar School where he studied Russian to O-level, and subsequently A-level, then at Oxford, Harvard, the Sorbonne University in Paris, and in St. Petersburg , in Russia...
for the BBC's 2006 radio show Challenging the Silence. In it Khrennikov reacts angrily to the suggestion he was at the heart of the criticism of composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich, though he expressed pride that he "was Stalin's Commissar. When I said No! (he shouts), it meant No."
Recognition
Prizes- Stalin Prizes:
- second class (1942) - for the music to "Swineherd and the Shepherd" (1941)
- second class (1946) - for the music to "At six o'clock in the evening after the war" (1944)
- second class (1952) - for the music to "Donetsk coal miners" (1950)
- USSR State PrizeUSSR State PrizeThe USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
(1967) - for a series of instrumental concertos (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra) - Lenin PrizeLenin PrizeThe Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
(1974) - for the 2nd Piano Concerto with orchestra - Glinka State Prize of the RSFSRGlinka State Prize of the RSFSRThe Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR was a prize awarded to musicians of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1965-1990....
(1979) - for the 2nd Concerto for Violin and Orchestra - Prize of the President of the Russian Federation (2003)
- USSR State Prize
Titles
- People's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
(1963) - People's Artist of the RSFSR (1954)
- Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1950)
Awards
- Hero of Socialist Labour (1973)
- Four Orders of Lenin (1963, 1971, 1973, 1983)
- Order of the Red Banner of LabourOrder of the Red Banner of LabourThe Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
, twice (1966, 1988) - Order of Honour (Russian Federation) (1998)
- Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 MedalValiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 MedalThe Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 Medal was a civilian award awarded in the USSR. It was established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 6 June 1945. Its image was designed by the artists IK Andrianov and EM Romanov. There were approximately...
(1946) - Medal for the Defence of MoscowMedal for the Defence of MoscowThe Medal for the Defence of Moscow was established on May 1, 1944. It was designed to commemorate the deeds of all the soldiers and civilians who had actively fought in the defence of Moscow from the Germans, in the Battle of Moscow....
(1946) - Medal For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 (1946)
- 800th Anniversary of Moscow Medal800th Anniversary of Moscow MedalThe 800th Anniversary of Moscow Medal was a medal in Russia. It was established by a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 20 September 1947 in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the first Russian reference to Moscow, dating to 1147 when Yuri Dolgorukiy called upon the prince of the...
(1947) - Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (1965)
- Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (1975)
- Medal "Forty Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (1985)
- Veteran of Labour MedalVeteran of Labour MedalThe Veteran of Labour Medal was a medal of the USSR. It was established by a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 18 January 1974...
(1995) - Medal "50 Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (1995)
- 850th Anniversary of Moscow Medal850th Anniversary of Moscow MedalThe 850th Anniversary of Moscow Medal was a medal in Russia. It was established by Presidential Decree no 132 of February 26, 1997 in commemoration of the 850th anniversary of the first Russian reference to Moscow, dating to 1147 when Yuri Dolgorukiy called upon the prince of the Novgorod-Severski...
(1997) - Medal "60 Years of Victory in Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." (2005)
International awards and titles
- For services to the culture (Poland)
- Medal "Friendship of Peoples" (Mongolia)
- Silver Medal of the World Peace Council (1959)
- Order Of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, 1st class (Bulgaria, 1968)
- Corresponding Member of the German Academy of Arts (GDR East Germany, 1970)
- Medal "25 Years of People's Power" (1970)
- Academician of the Academy Tiberiyskoy (Italy, 1976)
- Prize of the International Music CouncilInternational Music CouncilThe International Music Council was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization...
of UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
(1977) - Member of "Legion of Gold" (Italy, 1981)
- Medal of Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1982) (Bulgaria, 1982)
- Order of the Friendship of Peoples (GDR, 1983)
- Academician of the Academy of Santa Cecilia (Italy, 1984)
- Order of Merit culture (Romania, 1985)
- Medal of Richard Strauss (GDR, 1985)
- Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1994)
- UNESCO Mozart MedalUNESCO Mozart MedalThe UNESCO Mozart Medal is an award named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and administered by UNESCO.-Recipients:* Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1991* Alicia Terzian, 1995* Elfi von Dassanowsky, 1996...
(2003)