Sviridov, Georgy (Yuri) Vasilievich (1915–1998), Russian composer.
Born on December 3 (16), 1915 in Fatezh (Kursk province) in the family of a postal worker. The father died during the Civil War. After graduating from music school in Kursk, he studied at the Leningrad 1st Music College, and from 1936 at the composition department of the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1941 in the class of D. D. Shostakovich. Since 1956 he lived in Moscow; worked in theater and cinema, in 1968–1973 he headed the Union of Composers of the RSFSR.
As a composer, Sviridov made his debut with a cycle of romances based on poems by Pushkin (1935) - a striking work that is still in repertoire; in his early instrumental works (piano trio, string quartet, various piano works, etc.) the influence of Shostakovich was noticeable. But from the mid-1950s, starting with the magnificent Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin (1956), the composer’s individual style was determined, which was rather the opposite of Shostakovich and his school. First of all, Sviridov focused on genres associated with the Russian poetic word - cantata, oratorio, vocal cycle (the lines between genres are often blurred for him), and all his highest achievements are connected precisely with this area, although among the composer’s few instrumental music there is real masterpieces, among them – Little triptych for orchestra (1966) and Blizzard (musical illustrations for Pushkin’s story, 1974). In addition, the name of Sviridov is associated with a movement in Russian music characteristic of the 1960s, which is sometimes called the “new folk wave.” The key milestones in this movement were the aforementioned Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin, the vocal cycle My Father is a Peasant (1957), the cantata Wooden Rus' (1964) and the poem Set Away Rus' (1977) based on Yesenin’s poems, as well as, to a very large extent, the cantata Kursk songs (1964) based on authentic folk tunes and texts and a number of works based on poems by Blok (in particular, the vocal cycles Petersburg Songs, 1964, and Six Songs, 1977), Nekrasov (Spring Cantata, 1972), Pushkin (Pushkinsky Wreath, 1979). Sviridov also wrote on poems by Mayakovsky (for example, Pathetic Oratorio, 1959), Pasternak (“small cantata” Snow is falling, 1965), Lermontov, Khlebnikov, A.A. Prokokofiev, M.V. Isakovsky, A.T. Tvardovsky and translated texts by Shakespeare, Burns, Isahakyan.
The main feature of the composer’s style can be considered the reliance on primary national genres (almost all of his works have a song basis in one way or another) and on national intonation, speech and song (in this sense, Sviridov is a successor to Mussorgsky); Then we can talk about laconism and wise simplicity of forms, transparency of texture, etc. “Sviridov’s simplicity,” which has nothing to do with “simplification,” is in fact a complex phenomenon: in modern studies it is sometimes compared with tendencies towards minimalism in Western culture, and the composer’s constant desire to work with words is seen as nostalgia for the primary inseparability of music and verse; Sviridov’s “neo-folklorism” can also be viewed in the same vein – finding roots. With even greater justification we can talk about nostalgia in connection with the figurative world of his music, which often sounds like a cry for a lost homeland, a farewell to a departed (“set sail”) Russia.
The shrillness of Sviridov’s intonation is uniquely manifested in that layer of his work that is associated with spiritual motives (understanding by this not “churchliness” in its pure form, but rather the state “near the church walls”). He was one of the first, very early, to turn to this layer, creating in 1973 three wonderful choirs for the tragedy of A.K. Tolstoy Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and a Choral concert in memory of A.A. Yurlov (the wonderful choirmaster who died early, one of the best performers of Sviridov’s music) . In the last decade of his life, Sviridov constantly worked on choirs for Church Slavonic texts: some of them were included in the large choral cycle of Songs and Prayers, but most of what he wrote has not yet been published or performed.
Sviridov’s creative biography as a whole is an amazing example of internal freedom and independence with external full adaptation to existing political and social conditions: he received the title of People’s Artist of the USSR, the star of Hero of Socialist Labor, was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, a laureate of state awards, his music (from the film Time, forward!) sounded (and sounds) in the news screensaver of the first state television channel; at the same time, you can often hear Sviridov’s melodies performed by street musicians (especially Waltz and Romance from Metel).
Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov’s short biography will tell you about the life and creative path of the Russian composer and pianist. The message about Georgy Sviridov can be supplemented with interesting facts.
Brief biography of Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov
Sviridov Georgy Vasilievich was born in the city of Fatezh on December 3, 1915 in the family of a postal worker and an active supporter of the Bolsheviks. The future composer's mother was a teacher. When he was 4 years old, his father was killed during a clash between the Bolsheviks and the opposition. Together with his mother, he moves to Kursk, where he attends elementary school. From an early age he showed a love for literature and even began to write poetry. At the age of 8, Georgy knew many foreign and domestic authors.
His love for music began after acting in a school play. He had to perform a short passage on the balalaika. Having learned to play this instrument, Sviridov began to compose melodies and tried to pick out well-known motives by ear.
Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory in 1936 and studied the basics of the art of music with Ryazanov and Shostakovich. A year later, on the recommendation of his teachers, he was enrolled in the Union of Composers.
Closer to World War II, I went to the Leningrad Military School of Air Surveillance, Warning and Communications. Due to poor health and unfitness, he moved to Novosibirsk, where Sviridov composed songs and melodies for the soldiers, wanting to cheer them up. Having adapted to the new city, he began to write works for Novosibirsk theaters.
Initially, the work of Georgy Sviridov was dedicated to Pushkin, or rather to his poems. The author created several romances and symphonies for the great poet. The most famous work is “Blizzard”. The composer's style changed throughout his life. From Pushkin he moved on to romantic and classical compositions, and later to Russian compositions. The work of Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov includes 7 romances for Lermontov's poems, 7 small pieces for piano, a violin sonata, a piano quintet and the like.
Sviridov returned to Leningrad in 1944, and since 1956 he has settled in Moscow. He continues to write symphonies, oratorios, concerts, cantatas, romances and songs. In 1957, he was accepted as a member of the board of the Union of Composers of the USSR. In the period 1962-1974 he held the post of secretary, in 1968-1973 - first secretary of the board of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR. He was a Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 7th, 8th and 9th convocations in a row. In France in June 1974, the composer was presented as “the most poetic of modern Soviet composers.”
- Was married three times. Sviridov never mentioned his first two marriages in interviews. His first wife was Valentina Tokareva, a pianist and fellow student at the technical school. The second wife was Aglaya Kornienko, an artist 12 years younger than him. For the sake of Aglaya, Sviridov left his first wife and 4-year-old son Sergei. In his second marriage, a son, Yuri, was born. Due to tragic circumstances, the composer's sons died before their father. The third wife was Sviridova Elza Gustavovna, 10 years younger than him.
- There were 20 other people living in the dorm room with student Sviridov.
- He often enjoyed composing, for which he received the nickname “genius composer.”
- Loved fishing, but he didn’t like digging for worms - he was disdainful. He washed his hands for hours afterwards.
- His apartment was bugged because Sviridov was a non-party member, which means “unreliable.”
- I kept notes all my life. For this purpose, I used notepads, notebooks, tape, margins of magazines and books, reference books, scraps of paper, telephone books, and musical notations.
Sviridov's music is a deeply national and equally modern phenomenon. It contains original strength, conviction, clarity and spiritual and moral heights. This is the music of the soul. Even the most sonorous, she is quiet, always sincere. It is so natural that, having heard it once, it is difficult to imagine that it once did not exist.
Sviridov's music is born from the need to think, listening to the world around him, to think, as it were, together with people, expressing them. His songs are the music of internal states. Music that, having heard, you need to absorb into yourself and not sing yourself on the streets, but preserve, just as we protect spiritual secrets from the eyes of others.
Sviridov’s music cannot be confused with any other - its imaginative world, soul-stirring intonations, and accessibility captivate listeners from the very first sounds. This music is simple and artless. But this simplicity is a consequence of a deep understanding of the complexity of life and desire, and also the ability to speak about it simply. This simplicity, against the backdrop of the most complex quests of most modern composers, seems phenomenal and incomprehensible.
Sviridov is one of the most remarkable composers of the second half of the 20th century, and this can be stated, first of all, by the extraordinary spiritual richness and meaningfulness of his music.
Outwardly, Sviridov’s life was ordinary, without any extraordinary affairs or adventures. The main event in it was the countless hours spent at the piano or table while he wrote the score.
The future composer was born in the small town of Fatezh in the Kursk province. His father was a postal worker and his mother was a teacher. When George was only four years old, the family was orphaned: his father died during the civil war. After this, the mother and her son moved to Kursk. There, Yuri (that was Sviridov’s name in childhood) went to school, where his musical abilities manifested themselves. At the same time, he mastered his first musical instrument - an ordinary balalaika. Sviridov took it from one of his comrades and soon learned to play by ear so much that he was accepted into an amateur orchestra of Russian folk instruments. He even tried to compose something. This was the birth of a musician.
The director of the orchestra, a former violinist Ioffe, organized concerts and musical evenings dedicated to classical composers. While playing in an orchestra, Sviridov honed his technique and never stopped dreaming of getting a musical education. In the summer of 1929, he decided to enter music school. At the entrance exam, Georgy played a march of his own composition. The commission liked him and he was accepted into the school.
At the music school, Sviridov became a student of V. Ufimtseva, the wife of a famous Russian inventor in the field of aviation and energy. It was she who became the person who advised Sviridov to devote his life to music. Communicating with the Ufimtsev family, Sviridov fell in love with literature.
In 1932, Georgy Sviridov entered the Leningrad Music College to study piano, led by Professor I. Braudo. At that time, Sviridov lived in a hostel and, in order to feed himself, played in the evenings in cinemas and restaurants. Under the guidance of Professor Braudo, Sviridov quickly improved his performing technique. However, after just six months, his teacher was convinced that Sviridov had an innate gift for composition, and achieved his transfer to the composition department of the technical school, and to a class led by the famous musician M. Yudin.
At that time, many talented young people gathered under the roof of the first music college: N. Bogoslovsky, I. Dzerzhinsky, V. Solovyov-Sedoy. And in terms of the level of teaching, the technical school successfully competed with the Leningrad Conservatory.
Here he wrote his first course work - variations for piano. They are still famous among musicians and are performed as educational material. But the most famous was the cycle of six romances based on poems by Pushkin.
Malnutrition and hard work undermined the young man’s health; he had to interrupt his studies and take care of his health. And in the summer of 1936, Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory and became the winner of a personal scholarship named after A. Lunacharsky. His first teacher was Professor P. Ryazanov, who was replaced six months later by D. Shostakovich.
Under the guidance of his new mentor, Sviridov completed work on a piano concerto, which premiered during the decade of Soviet music, simultaneously with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
Shostakovich became for Sviridov not only a teacher, but also an older friend for life. He graduated from the Sviridov Conservatory in 1941.
Successful completion of the conservatory promised brilliant prospects for the young composer; he finally got the opportunity to professionally do his favorite thing. However, all these plans were disrupted by the war. In its very first days, Sviridov was enrolled as a cadet at a military school and sent to Ufa. However, at the end of 1941 he was demobilized for health reasons.
Until 1944, Sviridov lived in Novosibirsk, where he wrote war songs, as well as music for performances.
In 1944, Sviridov returned to Leningrad, and in 1950 he settled in Moscow. He writes both serious music and light music with equal ease. His works vary in genre: symphonies and concertos, oratorios and cantatas, songs and romances.
Vocal music occupies a central place in Sviridov’s work, inextricably linked with the world of poetry. Working with poems by a variety of poets, the composer reveals their appearance in a new way.
He was attracted by Sergei Yesenin, a poet whose heightened sense of love for the Motherland, its nature and people is especially close to the composer.
G.V. Sviridov says about the poem “In this work, I wanted to recreate the appearance of the poet himself, the drama of his lyrics, his inherent passionate love for the people makes his poetry always exciting. It is these features of the work of this wonderful poet that are dear to me. And I wanted to say this in the language of music.
The composer not only paints the Russian winter, the beautiful spring, the vast expanses of fields, the enchantment of a magical summer night. Behind all this, the pulse of history beats loudly: the pictures of life in pre-October Russia are changing in a revolutionary whirlwind, sweeping away the old...
Listen to an excerpt from the cantata “In Memory of Yesenin” (1956), called “Winter Sings, Calls.” The music vividly paints a picture of winter, conveys the feeling of snowfall, winter blizzard, wind and the gradual onset of calm.
Three themes become leading in Sviridov’s work: one is connected with the images of the Motherland, the other with the revolution, and the third with the image of the poet, who appears as a citizen, artist, mind, eyes and conscience of his time, his people.
A large place in the music of G.V. Sviridov is occupied by images of Russian nature, sometimes bright, juicy, painted as if in large strokes (as in “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”), sometimes tender, as if blurred, “watercolor” (“In Autumn”, “ These poor villages" to the verses of F.I. Tyutchev), then strict, harsh ("Wooden Rus'" to the verses of S.A. Yesenin). And what is depicted is always passed through the heart, sung with love. Nature is inseparable, inseparable from the worldview of the lyrical hero Sviridov. She is animated, mysterious - incomprehensible. Such a heightened perception of nature comes from the depth of the hero’s nature, his spiritual subtlety, and poetic sensitivity.
Cantata “Kursk Songs” (1964). G. Sviridov wrote based on the study of materials from a creative expedition in the Kursk region. Listening to the recordings of the songs, he said that everything in the songs is so perfect in terms of the choral score and texture that there is almost nothing for the composer to do. The composer treated the melodic material very carefully, which he tried to preserve in its original purity and beauty.
G.V. Sviridov strives to reflect in his work the most significant events and phenomena of our history and modern life, for example the Battle of Kulikovo (“Song of Russia” based on the poems of A.A. Blok), revolutionary events.
But not only epoch-making phenomena found their embodiment in Sviridov’s music, it reflected the simple, everyday life of people. And in this, the composer, rising to great social generalizations, creates unusually multifaceted images, and sometimes entire tragic destinies.
One of the first composers, Sviridov turned to the poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov and B.L. Pasternak. His small cantata “It’s Snowing” (1965) is distinguished by the subtlety of its means of expression, the chords are more refined, and here the same cosmic universality breaks through. The melody of the first movement is built on just two notes, creating a feeling of numb falling snow flakes. The mesmerizing detachment of the unhurried melody is supported by solemn chords, creating a symbol of the eternity of nature.
Georgy Sviridov is the creator of an interesting musical genre, which he called “musical illustration.” The composer seems to be telling a literary work through music. This is, first of all, a cycle dedicated to Pushkin’s story “The Snowstorm” (1974).
It couldn’t be more consistent with the spirit of Pushkin’s story, its simplicity and hopelessness, the innocence of the characters, their integral harmonious perception of life. This music is thoroughly permeated with a melodic principle, which decisively prevails in it. The harmonies in the works are quite simple, although sometimes original and refined in their own way.
The orchestral flavor stylizes the musical era of Pushkin. The colors of the orchestra are light, fresh watercolors. The timbres of strings and woodwind instruments predominate, and sometimes full orchestral sonority appears.
The first part, “Troika”, serves as a kind of intro to the work. Against the background of continuous movement, a melody of a distinctly Russian character appears, as if flying over an infinity snowy plain.
Music recreates the image of a snowy road (music plays).
Now we invite you to listen to another fragment from the “March” suite. Pay attention to how expressively and accurately the music illustrates A. Pushkin’s literary text. It bursts with timbre and dynamic contrast, depicting the entry of a hussar regiment into the town (an excerpt from A. Pushkin’s story “Blizzard” sounds in the background of the music).
Another excerpt is “Romance”, stylized in the manner of love lyrics of the early 19th century. This work is very popular today, and has entered our lives like the golden pages of Russian music. Often the melody of “Romance” is heard in Moscow underground passages.
Sviridov's works are widely known in our country and abroad. Sviridov’s stunning choral cycles brought him worldwide fame (“Decembrists” to the words of A. Pushkin and the Decembrist poets, “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”, “Patriotic Oratorio” after V. Mayakovsky, “Five Songs about Russia” to the words of A. Blok, etc. .). However, Sviridov also worked in popular genres, for example, in operetta (“Sparks”, “The Sea Spreads Wide”), in cinema (“Sunday”, “The Golden Calf”, etc.), in drama theater (music for plays by A. Rastnin “Don Cesar de Bazan”, etc.).
Sviridov was generously awarded with titles and awards under almost all authorities: he was awarded State Prizes of the USSR three times (1946, 1968, 1980), the Lenin Prize in 1960, in 1970 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, in 1976 - Hero of Socialist Labor. This is largely why - when perestroika broke out and it became fashionable to criticize the past - Sviridov and his music fell into disgrace. The famous opening sequence in the Vremya program (“Time, forward!” (1974) was taken off the air as an example of the “totalitarian past”). However, a few years later, justice was restored. Here is what film director M. Schweitzer wrote about this: “Because this music is forever. Because it contains the pulse of a life free from political fuss. In it, time, which, despite all the blows of fate, historical catastrophes and irreparable losses, continues forever.”
We will hear the beauty of music. Now lies in its indomitable energy, in its rapid movement forward. Each of you will definitely feel it. Perhaps you will feel a surge of strength, a desire to do something real, good, a desire to move forward towards your cherished dreams.
In this music, the composer wanted to express the spirit of our era, to convey what all good people on the globe live today: the desire to make life as better and more beautiful as possible, to build new cities, to conquer space, and most importantly - the desire to make all people on earth free, happy and joyful. The pulse of the modern world can be heard in this music. It sounds like a hymn to the bright life towards which humanity is moving. This is, indeed, the beauty and power of this music.
Of all the contemporary composers of Russia, Sviridov most deserves the title of “folk” in the true sense of the word.
The noble simplicity and moral pathos of Sviridov’s art, his careful attitude to the treasures of Russian poetry, earned him the sincere love of a wide audience.
Sviridov, with his characteristic foresight, felt earlier and more deeply than many other figures of Soviet culture the need to preserve the Russian poetic and musical language, the priceless treasures of ancient art, created over centuries.
Sviridov's music has become a classic of Soviet art of the 20th century due to its depth and close connection with the rich traditions of Russian musical culture.
The work of G. Sviridov is represented mainly by chamber vocal, oratorio and a capella choral works. The main features of Sviridov’s style developed by the early 50s and then varied only slightly. The main feature of Sviridov's style is the Russian national origin of his music, the songfulness characteristic of Russian folklore - hence the diatonism that underlies most of his works, the abundance of unisons and parallelisms, the widespread use of subvocal polyphony and choral pedals. Chromatics are also found in Sviridov’s choral harmony, most often where the music expresses a complex state of mind (cf. “Night Clouds” No. 1); according to A. Belonenko, “harmony becomes a mirror in which the slightest movements of the human soul are reflected” [Belonenko A. Choral creativity of G. Sviridov // G. Sviridov, Works for choir, issue 1. "Music", M.1989, p.12]. In general, Sviridov’s melody is diatonic; archaic modes are widely used, on the basis of which laconic and very expressive half-tone intonations are created. Sviridov's achievements in the field of melody are especially noticeable against the backdrop of the passion of many of his contemporaries for new writing techniques - sonorism, aleatorics, the introduction of onomatopoeic effects into the score - Sviridov remained faithful to the tradition of the singing choir, which, first of all, allowed him to convey the intonational richness of Russian melodic speech. Almost without quoting folklore melodies, the composer freely dissolves in his music the intonations of peasant and urban songs, Znamenny chant and spiritual verse, revolutionary and mass songs. Sviridov is one of the few modern composers who returned melody to its dominant role. Even harmony is largely dictated by the melody: this is the so-called resonating harmony, which includes and, as it were, prolongs the sound of all the tones of the melody. Hence its unusual structure, which is based on quart and second ratios. Sviridov’s harmony, as a rule, plays not a functional, but a phonic role, in it there is “a feeling of vast spaces, sounding distances, ringing bells.” A similar coloristic role is played by the orchestra. Despite the fact that Sviridov wrote few symphonic works, there is no doubt that he created a fundamentally new orchestral style, combining brightness and power with transparency, a sense of vocal sound with purely instrumental strumming and ringing. Sviridov contributed especially much to the sphere of choral visualization and sound recording: he masterfully masters the timbre palette of the choir, he is capable of the most subtle techniques and the most refined shades of sonority.
In songs, romances, and individual parts of large choral works, Sviridov uses simple traditional forms: two- and three-part, especially verse and verse-variation. Thanks to the constant, penetrating variation, its forms become end-to-end, most often the result is the last section or verse. The composition of cantata-oratorio works is individual each time and depends on the creative task being solved at the moment. The musical development in them is less subject to the laws of drama, there is no purposefully developing plot, unlike the cantatas and oratorios of the 30s ("Alexander Nevsky" by S. Prokofiev, "On the Kulikovo Field" by Y. Shaporin). In the foreground is not the image of the event as such, but its comprehension and emotional experience, therefore a certain type of dramaturgy arises, based on the gradual construction of a three-dimensional whole from seemingly insignificant details. This type of composition is close to ancient Russian epic works.
The theme of the Motherland in the broad sense of the word permeates all of Sviridov’s work. It occupies a central place, subordinating everything else: the historical fate of Russia, its nature, the fate of an individual and an entire nation, the role of art in human life. The theme of revolution, its place in the history of Russia and the destinies of people is repeatedly reflected upon. No less important for Sviridov is the theme of the Poet - the voice and conscience of the people. The poet is the main character of most of Sviridov's major works: the first in this series is Pushkin's cycle, and with the advent of the poem "The Country of the Fathers" this theme becomes the leading one.
After a cycle of poems by Burns, the composer focuses entirely on national subjects and Russian poetry. Created in the early 60s. diptych based on S. Yesenin’s poems, new trends in Sviridov’s creativity are visible: the first chorus (“You sing me that song that before ...”) adjoins the previous stage of creativity, abundant in songs, while the second chorus (“The soul is sad about heaven”) begins a new stage with his characteristic appeals to the musical and historical past of Russia, which will subsequently lead to the creation of three choirs for A. Tolstoy’s drama “Fyodor Ioannovich”, where Sviridov addresses the peculiarities of Znamenny chant; a little later, he approached the genre of the choral concert as an independent one, which became the most suitable form for the embodiment of major ideas, which can be considered in connection with the composer’s interest in antiquity and the desire to master ancient Russian artistic traditions. This generally affected the tone of many of his works - non-vain and sublime - and the peculiarities of the language, and the completion of his creative path was the creation of original spiritual chants. Sviridov continues and develops the traditions of Russian classics - Glinka and the Kuchkists, especially Mussorgsky, who, like Sviridov, in every work, especially vocal, constantly sought expressiveness of intonation, strived for the utmost cohesion of music and words. Sviridov’s turn to vocal music is a consequence of the deep connection of his work with national roots, since it is known that all ancient music, both professional and folk, was connected with the word - it was sung. The song, in the broadest sense of the word, became the basis of Sviridov’s style.
G George (Yuri) Vasilyevich Sviridov was born on December 15, 1915 in the city of Fatezh, Kursk province. The composer's mother, Elizaveta Ivanovna, was a teacher. His father, Vasily Grigorievich, was a peasant, then, having received an education, became a postal and telegraph employee. In 1917, Vasily Grigorievich joined the party and after the establishment of Soviet power in Fatezh, he was in charge of the district labor department. In 1919 he was killed by Denikin's men.
Fatezh. G.V. lived in this house. Sviridov.
In 1924, the Sviridovs moved to Kursk. In Kursk, Georgy Sviridov continued to study at school. This is where his passion for books began. Only gradually did music begin to take first place in his circle of interests. While still in Fatezh, the boy studied music with a home teacher. The same classes continued in Kursk, but the boring exercises weighed on the boy, and the lessons stopped. Much more than the piano, the young music lover was attracted to the balalaika. Sviridov took it from one of his comrades and soon learned to play by ear so much that he was accepted into an amateur orchestra of Russian folk instruments.
The director of the orchestra, a former violinist Ioffe, organized concerts and musical evenings dedicated to classical composers. While playing in an orchestra, Sviridov honed his technique and never stopped dreaming of getting a musical education. The amateur balalaika player became very interested in the new music for him, began buying sheet music for all types of instruments and tried to disassemble them. In the summer of 1929, he decided to enter music school. At the entrance exam, the boy had to play the piano, but since he did not have any repertoire at that time, he played a march of his own composition. The commission liked him and he was accepted into the school.
At the music school, Sviridov became a student of V. Ufimtseva, the wife of the famous Russian inventor G. Ufimtsev. Communication with this sensitive and talented teacher enriched Sviridov in many ways: he learned to play the piano professionally and fell in love with literature. During his studies, he was a frequent guest in the Ufimtsevs’ house, and it was Vera Vladimirovna who became the person who advised Sviridov to devote his life to music.
After graduating from school, he continued his music studies with another famous teacher - M. Krutyansky. On his advice, in 1932, Sviridov went to Leningrad and entered a music college to study piano, headed by Professor I. Braudo. At that time, Sviridov lived in a hostel and, in order to feed himself, played in the cinema and in restaurants in the evenings. 
Under the guidance of Professor Braudo, Sviridov very quickly improved his performing technique. However, after just six months, his teacher was convinced that Sviridov had an innate gift for composition, and achieved his transfer to the composition department of the technical school, to a class led by the famous musician M. Yudin.
At that time, many talented young people gathered under the roof of the first music college: N. Bogoslovsky, I. Dzerzhinsky, V. Solovyov-Sedoy studied here. And in terms of the level of teaching, the technical school successfully competed with the Leningrad Conservatory.
Under the guidance of Yudin, Sviridov wrote his first course work - variations for piano - in just two months. They are still famous among musicians and are used as teaching material. Sviridov stayed in Yudin's class for about three years. During this time, he wrote many different works, but the most famous was a cycle of six romances based on poems by Pushkin. They were published and entered the repertoire of such famous singers as S. Lemeshev and A. Pirogov.
However, malnutrition and hard work undermined the young man’s health, he had to interrupt his studies and leave for some time to Kursk, his homeland. Having gained strength and improved his health, in the summer of 1936 Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory and became the winner of a personal scholarship named after A. Lunacharsky. His first teacher there was Professor P. Ryazanov, who was replaced six months later by D. Shostakovich.
Under the guidance of his new mentor, Sviridov completed work on a piano concerto, which premiered during the decade of Soviet music dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the revolution, simultaneously with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
Together with Sviridov, another famous composer in the future, Yu. Levitin, also studied with Shostakovich. For Sviridov, Shostakovich became not only a teacher, but also an older friend for life. Sviridov spent four years in Shostakovich's class and graduated from the conservatory in the summer of 1941. His graduation work was the First Symphony and Concerto for String Instruments.
Such a successful completion of the conservatory promised brilliant prospects for the young composer; he finally got the opportunity to professionally do his favorite thing. However, all these plans were disrupted by the war. In its very first days, Sviridov was enrolled as a cadet at a military school and sent to Ufa. However, at the end of 1941 he was demobilized due to health reasons. 
Until 1944, Sviridov lived in Novosibirsk, where the Leningrad Philharmonic was evacuated. Like other composers, he began to write war songs, of which the most famous was, perhaps, “Song of the Brave” based on poems by A. Surkov. In addition, he wrote music for performances of theaters evacuated to Siberia. It was then that Sviridov first had to work for musical theater, and he created the operetta “The Sea Spreads Wide,” which told about the life and struggle of Baltic sailors in besieged Leningrad.
Sviridov's operetta became the first musical and dramatic work dedicated to the war. It was staged in several theaters and did not leave the stage for many years. And in 1960, Sviridov’s operetta became the basis for a musical television film, which was made on Central Television.
In 1944, Sviridov returned to Leningrad, and in 1950 he settled in Moscow. Now he no longer had to prove his right to independent creativity. He writes both serious and light music with equal ease. His works are varied in genre: symphonies and concertos, oratorios and cantatas, songs and romances.
In addition, Sviridov is the creator of an interesting musical genre, which he called “musical illustration.” The composer seems to be telling a literary work through music. This is primarily a cycle dedicated to Pushkin's story "The Snowstorm". But the main genre that the composer never parts with is song and romance. Sviridov not only writes romances based on classical texts (R. Burns, A. Isaakyan), but also uses folk songs as a basis, as, for example, he did in the cantatas “Kursk Songs” and “Wooden Rus'”. His music is distinguished by its simplicity and some special clarity. Perhaps this is why young musicians use many of Sviridov’s compositions in their educational practice.
Sviridov's stunning choral cycles brought him worldwide fame ("Decembrists" to the words of A. Pushkin and the Decembrist poets, "Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin", "Pathetic Oratorio" after V. Mayakovsky, "Five Songs about Russia" to the words of A. Blok, etc. .). However, Sviridov also worked in popular genres, for example, in operetta ("Sparks", "The Sea Spreads Wide"), in cinema ("Resurrection", "Golden Calf", etc.), in drama theater (music for A. Raikin's plays , “Don Cesar de Bazan”, etc.). 
Sviridov was generously awarded with titles and awards under almost all authorities: he was awarded State Prizes of the USSR three times (1946, 1968, 1980), the Lenin Prize in 1960, in 1970 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, in 1975 - Hero of Socialist Labor . This is largely why - when perestroika struck and it became fashionable to criticize the past - Sviridov and his music fell into disgrace. The famous screensaver in the Vremya program (“Time, forward!”) was taken off the air as a sign of the “totalitarian past.” However, a few years later, justice was restored. Here is what film director M. Schweitzer wrote about this: “Because this music is forever. Because it contains the pulse of a life free from the political bustle. In it, time, which, despite all the blows of fate, historical catastrophes and irreparable losses, continues forever.”
The civil memorial service and funeral of G. Sviridov took place on January 9 in Moscow. We said goodbye to Georgy Vasilyevich at home, in his apartment on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya. And this is also in Russian traditions - this is how Russian geniuses of the past were buried. People began to gather near the house on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya early. By noon, a lot of people had gathered in the apartment on the sixth floor, the floors of which were covered with fir branches, which paradoxically related the sadness of a funeral with the feeling of the winter holidays - New Year and Christmas. The modest decoration of the house, many books, sheet music - the home of a true intellectual and the place of farewell to him. No theatricality - no music, no speeches, no ritual. Everything is sincere and simple." 
After the funeral service, the funeral of G. Sviridov took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The body of the great composer found its final resting place at the Novodevichy cemetery. Four months later, his wife Elsa Sviridova also passed away.
He was awarded four Soviet Orders of Lenin (12/16/1965, 1971, 12/18/1975, 12/13/1985), the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd degree (12/10/1995), medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign countries, in including the Albanian Order of Freedom, 2nd degree (1954).
People's Artist of the USSR (1970). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1960), Stalin Prize (1946), State Prize of the USSR (1968, 1980) and State Prize of the Russian Federation (1994). Honorary citizen of Moscow (1997) and Kursk (1982).
A monument to the composer was erected in Kursk. Bronze bust of G.V. Sviridov was opened on December 16, 2005 on the territory of the Humanitarian University of Trade Unions, on the Alley of Honorary Doctors of the University (St. Petersburg). Sculptor A. Charkin.
Name G.V. Sviridov was awarded to the Kursk Music School and Children's Art School No. 1 in Kursk. Since 2001, the “All-Russian Vocal Music Competition named after Georgy Sviridov” has been held in Kursk once every three years, the winners of which are awarded prizes and commemorative medals (gold, silver and bronze).
Monument to G.V. Sviridov in the center of Kursk.
“Sing of Rus', where the Lord gave and commanded me to live, rejoice and suffer”
"E There is such a somewhat painful passion - to compare famous people with something huge - with the Himalayas, with the Pacific Ocean, with the Barabinsk steppe. And even if these walking Himalayas are in fact no taller than a woodpile, and the entire steppe is a half-hour ride on gophers, the delusion of exaltation remains. I want to compare Sviridov with something very simple and amazing. Let me have it - not an ocean into which rivers with big names flow. Let it be a forest stream, fed by unknown underground springs. And if some tired traveler, a random passer-by comes across it, the stream will bring unexpected joy to the thirsty person and give him moisture that he will not drink in any other place... I don’t know if this has global significance...”
Valery Gavrilin, Russian composer
Literature
"Russia as a lyrical quantity."
I - a bad speaker, useless, one might say... It’s difficult for me to express my thoughts. That's why I don't talk much. And I don’t speak at all, I refuse, but now it seems to me that I need to speak somehow. I'm already an old man. It's not like I've come to terms with anything. No, it’s difficult to come to terms with many things. But life has never been, strictly speaking, ideal. Still, there were great vices and shortcomings in it... People have not yet been able to build a paradise on earth, which was given to them at first and from which they were expelled for their sin. And now there are constant attempts to restore paradise for people. So far there is no paradise. But life itself is a great gift, you are a witness to colossal events and the life of humanity in general... Life is a terribly interesting thing. Our age is very harsh. Very bloody. A lot of people were killed, killed! A colossal number of people died violent deaths. Just think, it’s just scary... The world can’t calm down, it’s agitated. After all, this is not only Russia. The whole world is being redistributed. But books like “Apocalypse” are not written for nothing. Maybe people who survive this time, who are young now, will later remember with pleasure what seems vague to us now... God gave man one precious quality: oblivion. If a person did not forget, humanity could not live... People forget. Yes, a time of great upheaval. But not only now. There were shocks when I was a child. My father was killed in the civil war. I grew up an orphan from the age of three. Life has always been difficult. Russia has its own destiny. As one writer said: “Russia is a difficult land.” Difficult ground. Lots of challenges. Sometimes the impression is created that we are atoning for some old sin. Such difficult tests. But the people... I cannot despair of him. I see young people now who fill me with faith in the future. I see that there are lively, inquisitive, smart people. The most important thing is that the Russian man stops being an ape. This is our main problem. Eternally live by someone else's example. What about the neighbors or overseas... This is nonsense. You have to live your life. Live your tradition, continue your experience accumulated over centuries, discarding the bad and continuing the good. I am not a sage and cannot give advice to anyone. I can’t... But it seems to me that we need to try to figure everything out on our own. Russians need to recognize themselves as a people. They lose this consciousness often. Now you will never hear: “Russian man.” "I am Russian." But this is nonsense. A Papuan living in Russia can also be Russian. The Russian people have their own enormous experience - a thousand years of statehood! This is a gigantic period of history. In the fields of economics, culture, science, and art, Russia has achieved exceptional results. This is one of the largest civilizations in the world. Nowadays we are often told that Russia is a worthless place. And this is nonsense. And I don't like it when the TV keeps hammering it home. This is bad, stupid.
...I lived the life that all the people of my generation lived in my country, in the Soviet Union. Life was difficult. Yes, she was difficult everywhere. And in general, in my opinion, there has never been a simple life. Life is always difficult, always complicated. What is its difficulty? A person is obliged to take some action in certain everyday situations, which means he must think. Circumstances are always difficult and life is always difficult. What is time? Don't know. This is a great mystery. Saturn devouring his children is a symbol of time. Remember this allegory? Saturn devouring his children. Time consumes everything. A difficult subject is time. I don’t know if it exists outside of man? An artist has the right to live in some other time and he is even obliged sometimes to live in another time. And from this time you can see what is happening. The artist... he has his own concept of time. To me, the poetic word seems extremely valuable and significant. It weighs a hundred or a thousand times more than the word of a prose writer. These are words that were selected by a poet, a genius. They are placed one next to the other with some... Well, it was given to him to put these words. And they make the strongest impression on me. Russia is rich in verbal art. This is the country of the Word. Country of song. A land of open spaces. Country of Christ. This is what Russia is for me. Russia is such a mysterious formation, a community of people and nature. Historical fate. And finally, Russia is like a kind of lyrical quantity. What she means to me. And I can’t define it in words.
G.V. Sviridov
Sviridov G. Music as destiny
Excerpts from the book:
"G Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov is a Russian genius who has not yet been truly appreciated. His work will be of great importance in the coming revival of Russian culture,” said Academician D. S. Likhachev.
More recently, a new Sviridov has been discovered - the author of unique literary works, flying notes collected in thick notebooks. They open the door to the hidden life of Sviridov’s soul and mind.
Truth arises only at a particularly great depth of human relationships, it arises rarely and exists, as a rule, for a short period of time. That is why every truth is so valuable, even the smallest, that is, concerning, as it were,
All life (visible) is a lie, a constant lie. Everyone is already used to this. We live surrounded by a sea of lies. Children and parents, husbands and wives, societies, continents, entire nations live in complete untruth. Human relations (visible to us), state relations, business relations are a lie.
Truth arises only at a particularly great depth of human relationships, it arises rarely and exists, as a rule, for a short period of time. That is why every truth is so valuable, even the smallest, that is, concerning seemingly small matters. Truth exists in great art, but not in all art considered great.
Russian culture is inseparable from a sense of conscience. Conscience is what Russia brought to the world consciousness. And now there is a danger of losing this high moral category and passing it off as something completely different.
In Russia, according to our modern statistics, there were more than 80,000 churches and monasteries, their moral and artistic value was incalculable. The destruction of the church is the most terrible blow not only to culture, but also to the very essence of the Russian nation, which is now in danger of complete degeneration. The people have degenerated morally, it costs nothing to set them against anyone, against other peoples and countries, against their own people, they are capable of shooting and slaughtering whomever the monster orders. Great artistic treasures stored in the church were destroyed.
All damages and losses in the field of art are attributed to Stalin and Zhdanov, to the State. But the matter is (much) a million times more complicated. The state only gave a signal to attack: “You can poison! Atta them! The persecution and all the atrocities aimed at exterminating culture were carried out mainly by the creative environment itself, critics, philosophers, keepers of the Marxist legacy, semi-literary, semi-musical, semi-artistic figures, etc.
These “half-educated” hold in their hands the entire artistic, the entire intellectual life, the entire culture and, worst of all, the entire machine of daily, hourly influence on the completely defenseless heads of the subjects, the inhabitants of the state. There is nothing that could be opposed to the daily presence in every family, in every home of all these propagandists who use this propaganda machine to break, fool a person, to systematically instill in him a feeling of complete insignificance, ignorance, stupidity, the eternal mediocrity of Russia and our people .
People are ready to do anything for money. Money - Idol, Deity. It seems that some gigantic JUDAS towers over the world in full height, shaking his wallet with thirty pieces of silver. Every sense of shame, every (even the smallest) sense of respect for one’s country and people has been lost. On the contrary, all venality is encouraged.
Dumping Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy is not just a loud and funny slogan. This is a whole program of action that is steadily being carried out. We can ask: has the art of “artistic rebellion” created values worthy of comparison with the art it rejected? The answer to this question is no!
H it:
Music is like destiny
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Sviridov G. Full list of works
(Notographic reference book)
National Sviridov Foundation
MOSCOW - PETERSBURG. 2001
Compiled by: Candidate of Art History Alexander Belonenko
Reviewer: Candidate of Art History Irina Bezuglova
Editor: Olga Rodyukova
P Offered to a wide range of practicing musicians and academic specialists in the history of Russian music and the work of Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov, the book includes the entire range of works of the great Russian composer identified to date. The list is based on works preserved in manuscripts, as well as in domestic printed publications from the moment of their first publication to those published in the last year of the last century.
Information about Sviridov’s works began to appear in print in biographical reference books from the late 1930s. Since the mid-1950s, when the composer gained fame, the beginning of systematic work on compiling Sviridov’s notography was laid by the first biographer of G.V. Sviridov, Arnold Naumovich Sokhor. In his 1956 essay and two editions of the monograph “Georgy Sviridov”, for the first time in science, the corpus of the composer’s works from his first conscious experiences of composing music in 1932-1933 was described. and right up to the last time of writing, more precisely, the preparation for printing of the second expanded edition of the monograph, i.e. until the beginning of the 1970s...
You can download the book (.doc) in archive using this link: Download
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Georgy Sviridov in the memoirs of contemporaries
Young Guard (Moscow 2006)
Valentin Rasputin. Next to the Master
BIOGRAPHY WRITTEN BY CONTEMPORARIES
Anatoly Biryukov. Small homeland of Georgy Sviridov
Ida Tatarskaya. In Sviridov's places
Georgy Erzhemsky. Sviridov - soldier
Abram Gozenpud. "At that time he was working on the operetta "Ogonki"..."
Aglaya Sviridova. Memories of two Georges
Yanina Tchaikovskaya. Georgy Sviridov and Boris Tchaikovsky
Sergey Slonimsky. Ban prohibitions!
Alexander Vedernikov. “Sviridov and I have been close friends for forty years...”
Evgeny Nesterenko. "...There was great joy left in my soul..."
Irina Arkhipova and Vladislav Piavko. "Dear bast shoe, you mixed up the words..."
Vladimir Goffman. Parisian friendship
Vladimir Minin. "This music should sound like a revelation"
Gennady Belov. Seven letters of Georgy Sviridov
Igor Slepnev. About my acquaintance with Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov
Stanislav Kunyaev. "Let the darkness perish!"
Nikolay Evdokimov. "The soul splashed over Russia with unfading light"
Sergey Subbotin. What we witnessed
Valentin Kurbatov. Heavenly memory
Stanislav Zolottsev. "And through the snowstorm - the Holy Mountains"
Lyudmila Barykina. "The world needs a song word"
Valentin Nepomnyashchy. Sviridov
Vladislav Chernushenko. How Sviridov came to the choir
Irina Drobyshevskaya. "Hear the beating of the people's heart"
Bulat Galeev. Sviridov and light music
Veniamin Gorodetsky. "I went to the club to play checkers..."
Yuri Solomin. "The man Sviridov was simple..."
Victor Vanslov. Conversation about painting and music
Dmitry Hvorostovsky. "The audience was crying..."
Margarita Kondrashova. Two meetings with Georgy Sviridov
Alexey Vulfov. Now just remember...
Alexey Zakharov. Reflecting on the letters of G.V. Sviridov
Anton Viskov. Heir of the Apostle John
Valery Ganichev. Genius stays with us
WORD AND MUSIC
Marina Kosmovskaya. Kursk of Georgy Sviridov's childhood
Valery Gavrilin. Annual circle
Igor Veprintsev. “It was very difficult to record Sviridov”
Roman Lednev. "And a bitterly clenched mouth..."
Victor Kalikin. "...On par with Mussorgsky"
Victor Astafiev. From "Zatesi"
Ivan Vishnevsky. Incarnate Sviridov
POETIC WREATH OF THE SVIRIDS
Lyudmila Barykina. Pushkin and Sviridov. Holy Love
Tatyana Glushkova. Music for Christmastide
Lina Mkrtchyan. "Sviridov's music... is a prophetic dream..."
Vladimir Kostrov. Sviridov. In memory of Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov
Gennady Krasnikov. Russian song
Comments
WITH download book (scanned pages) you can follow the link: Download
Folder size 120 Mb
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Soviet composer. 1972
G Georgy Sviridov is an outstanding composer of our era, a worthy heir and continuer of the great traditions of Russian national music. His work deserves detailed and comprehensive consideration in musicological works of various genres - from popular essays to special theoretical studies. This work is conceived as a monograph of a generalizing type. The main attention in it is paid to the life and creative path of the composer, and in the analyzes of works - to their ideological and figurative content. Musicologist Arnold Naumovich Sokhor was a friend of Sviridov, the composer dedicated one of his best compositions to him - “Rus' Set Away”
Go to Arnold Naumovich Sokhor. Geogriy Sviridov
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Georgy Sviridov. Digest of articles
Compilation and general editing by Dmitry Vladimirovich Frishman. M., “Music”, 1971. 424 p.
The collection is devoted to the issues of the creative method and style of the outstanding Soviet composer G. V. Sviridov. Includes studies of a problem-generalizing nature, as well as articles about individual little-studied works. Designed for professionals and enlightened music lovers.
Download in format pdf (22 mb): Digest of articles
Gergiy Sviridov. Collection of articles and studies
Compiled by Roman Semenovich Ledenev. M., “Music”, 1979. 462 p.
The collection is dedicated to G.V. Sviridov and his work. The collection includes articles of a problematic, general aesthetic, musical theoretical nature, and also includes articles-essays written not by musicologists, but by composers, which further reveals Sviridov’s creative image and style.
The publication is intended for professional musicians and trained music lovers.
Download in format pdf (24 mb): Collection of articles and studies
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Georgy Sviridov “Miscellaneous notes”
D A ten-part version of the book by the great composer of the 20th century. The program includes recordings, diaries and notes from different years, as well as documentary memories of G.V. Sviridov. The program is hosted by musicologist Alexander Belonenko, the composer’s nephew. The program features music by Georgy Sviridov.
Radio "Culture"
Program from the series "Once Upon a Time"
