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Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov
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Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (Russian: ???????? ?????????? ??????, January 14 1824 – October 24 1906), son of Russian architect Vasily Petrovich Stasov (1769–1848), was probably the most respected Russian critic during his lifetime. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence in 1843, was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1859, and was made honorary fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1900, together with his friend Leo Tolstoy.
Stasov became a huge figure—and, some crtics argue, a tyrant—in mid-19th-century Russian culture.
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Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (Russian: ???????? ?????????? ??????, January 14 1824 – October 24 1906), son of Russian architect Vasily Petrovich Stasov (1769–1848), was probably the most respected Russian critic during his lifetime. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence in 1843, was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1859, and was made honorary fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1900, together with his friend Leo Tolstoy.
Stasov became a huge figure—and, some crtics argue, a tyrant—in mid-19th-century Russian culture. He discovered a large number of its greatest talents, inspired many of their works and fought their battles in numerous articles and letters to the press. As such, he carried on a lifelong debate with Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev, who considered Stasov "our great all-Russian critic.". He wanted Russian art to liberate itself what he saw as Europe's hold. By copying the west, he felt, the Russians could be at best second-rate. However, by borrowing from their own native traditions, they might create a truly national art that could match Europe's with its high artistic standards and originality. By "national," Stasov felt, art should not only portray people's lives but also be meaningful to them and show them how to live.
Career
Building "The Five"
In 1847, Stasov published an monograph on Mikhail Glinka's use of folk motifs in his music; from that time, Stasov advocated Russianness over European influence in music. In the years which followed he served as an elder advisor to the group of Russian composers known as "The Five". He also warmed to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky after hearing the composer play the finale of his Little Russian Symphony at a Christmas 1872 gathering at Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's home. Shortly after this gathering, Stasov prompted Tchaikovsky to write a piece based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. He also drafted a program, intitally for Hector Berlioz, that Tchaikovsky eventually used for his Manfred Symphony. In between those two works, Stasov suggested an opera based on Alfred de Vigny's historical romance Cinq-Mars. Tchaikovsky was then intent on writing Eugene Onegin, and Charles Gounod had already written an opera based on Cinq-Mars.
Repin and the Peredvizhniki
Beginning in the 1870's, Stasov ardently supported the realistic painters known as Peredvizhniki as well as Ilya Repin.
Intolerant of difference
When artists did not follow his precepts, Stasov could become both intolerant and vocal. Stasov called the finale of the Little Russian "one of the most important creations of the whole Russian school." Otherwise, his verdict on Tchaikovsky's work was negative: The Conservatoire, academic training, eclecticism and overworking of musical materials laid its dread, destructive hand on him. Of his total output, a few works [Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Francesca da Rimini, and the String Quartets 2 and 3] are first-rate and highly original; the remainder are mediocre or weak."
Nor was he consoling about Modest Mussorgsky, a composer who, as a member of "The Five," he had helped nurture but about whom, for all the public praise of his musical gifts, there was always a note of intellectual condescention. Founder Mili Balakirev confided to Stasov that he thought Mussorgsky "almost an idiot." Stasov replied, "I think he is a total idiot."
He was harsher still with the modernist art magazine Mir iskusstva and its founders, Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst and Serge Diaghilev when the magazine appeared in 1898. He called Diaghilev "a decadent cheerleader" in print and Mir iskusstva "the courtyarof the lepers" (an image borrowed from Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris).
Stasov's correspondence with leading personalities of Russian art life is invaluable. He is known also for his opposition to music critic and erstwhile friend Alexander Serov concerning the relative merits of Glinka's two operas.
He was so impressed by the literary talent of the Jewish schoolboy Samuil Marshak that he arranged an exception from the Pale of Settlement laws for him and his family.
Stasov's brother, Dmitry Stasov (1828–1918), was a notable advocate who took part in the foundation of the Russian Music Society.
Sources
- Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music (New York: Pegasus Books, 2007).
- Figes, Orlando, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia(New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002).
- Holden, Anthony, Tchaikovsky: A Biography (New York:New York: Random House, 1995).
- Volkov, Solomon, St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (New York: The Free Press, A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1995).
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