Historical Dictionary of Russian Music by Jaffé Daniel

Author:Jaffé, Daniel. [Jaffé, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press Inc.
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

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LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK DISTRICT (Ledi Makbet mtsenskogo uezda). Opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, composed in 1931–32. The Nikolai Leskov story upon which its libretto is based (by Shostakovich and Alexander Preis) was first suggested to the composer in 1930 as suitable for operatic treatment by Boris Asaf’yev, to whom Shostakovich originally dedicated the opera. First performed in Leningrad on 22 January 1934, conducted by Samuil Samosud, the opera—which has been described as a hymn to sexual emancipation—was acclaimed and quickly became one of the most celebrated Soviet operas, being performed in Stockholm, Prague, London, Ljubljana, Zurich, and Copenhagen in 1935–36. By 1935, there had been 83 performances in Leningrad and 97 in Moscow.

However, shortly after Joseph Stalin attended a performance in January 1936 and left before its end, the notorious editorial “Muddle instead of Music” (“Sumbur vmesto muzïki”) appeared in Pravda on 28 January; published during the purges and widely thought to be written by Stalin himself (apparently borne out by the article’s tautological style typical of Stalin, though it has recently been argued by the scholar Leonid Maksimenkov that it was the work of the then recently appointed chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs Platon Kerzhentsev), the article effectively sounded the death knell to all experimentation in music throughout Stalin’s reign, save for the interlude afforded by the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany. The opera was subsequently revised by Shostakovich from around 1955 as Katerina Ismailova. This included the composition of two new entr’actes and a careful cleaning up of the libretto to remove some of its cruder vulgarities. In that form, the opera was finally approved by the Union of Soviet Composers in 1961 and was first performed in Moscow on 26 December 1962.

LAMM, PAVEL (Paul) ALEXANDROVICH (1882–1951). Russian editor, musicologist, and pianist. Born in Moscow on 16/28 July 1882, his early career was as a pianist and accompanist. In 1918, he became an officer in the Music Department of the Commissariat for Public Education (MUZO Narkompros). He was appointed head of the State Music Publishing House during the New Economic Policy late in 1922, but in late 1923, he was arrested and temporarily suspended from his duties for being too sympathetic to the prerevolutionary intelligentsia. In 1928, he was editorial supervisor of the Complete Works Edition of Musorgsky, assisted by Boris Asaf’yev. Lamm also assisted Sergey Prokofiev in preparing his orchestral scores. He died on 5 May 1951 in Nikolina Gora, near Moscow.

LAROCHE (Larosh), HERMAN (German) AVGUSTOVICH (1845–1904). Russian critic and composer. He was born in St. Petersburg on 13/25 May 1845. After lessons with Alexander Dubuque, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1862–66). He began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1867, then returned to Petersburg in 1871 and taught at the conservatory. He wrote prolifically in various newspapers and journals and championed the work of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. He died in St. Petersburg on 5/18 October 1904.

LAVROVSKY, LEONID MIKHAILOVICH (1905–1967). Russian choreographer. Born in St. Petersburg on

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