Sergei Nikiforovich Vasilenko was a Russia

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...

 and music teacher whose compositions showed a strong tendency towards mysticism.

Vasilenko was born in 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...

 and originally studied Law at Moscow University, but then changed direction and studied at 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...

 from 1896 to 1901 as a pupil of Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...

 and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher.- Biography :...

. From 1903 to 1904 he was the conductor of a private opera house in Moscow. For several years he was the organiser and conductor of the Historic Concerts of the Russian Musical Society. He then became a Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included Aram 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...

, 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....

, Nikolai Rakov

Nikolai Rakov

Nikolai Petrovich Rakov was a Soviet composer.-Life:...

 and Aarre Merikanto

Aarre Merikanto

Aarre Merikanto was a Finnish composer.He was the son of Liisa Häyrynen and the famous romantic composer, professor Oskar Merikanto. His childhood he spent in Vilppula, Finland. From year 1919, he was married to Meri Grönmark...

.

Vasilenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner

Order of the Red Banner

The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...

 as well as the title "Merited Worker of Arts". In 1947, he was awarded the Stalin Prize. He died in Moscow in 1956.

Opera

• Skazaniye o grade velikom Kitezhe i tikhom ozere Svetoyare (Tale of the Great City of Kitezh and the Quiet Lake Svetoyar) (1902; originally a cantata, Op. 5)
• Sïn solntsa (The Son of the Sun), Op. 63 (1929)
• Khristofor Kolumb (Christopher Columbus), Op. 80 (1933)
• Buran (The Snow Storm), Op. 98 (1939)
• Velikiy kanal (The Grand Canal), Op. 101 (1939)
• Suvorov, Op. 102 (1942)

Ballet

• In the Rays of the Sun, Op. 17 (1925-26)
• Noya, Op. 42 (1923)
• Joseph the Handsome, Op. 50 (1925)
• Lola, Op. 52 (1926)
• The Gypsies, Op. 90 (1936; after Alexander Pushkin)
• The Frog Princess, Op. 103 (1941)
• Mirandolina

Choral

• Cantata Legend of the Great City of Kitezh and the Quiet Lake Svetoyar, Op, 5 (later turned into an opera that anticipated Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
  
  's work on the same subject
  The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
  The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on a combination of two Russian legends: that of St. Fevroniya of Murom, and the city of Kitezh, which became invisible...
  
  )
• Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Op. 92 (1937)

Incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

• Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  ' Alcestis
  Alcestis (play)
  Alcestis is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize; this arrangement...
  
  (written as a schoolboy)
• other works

Orchestral

• Three Bloody Battles, Op. 1 (1900)
• Epic Poem, Op. 4 (1900-03)
• Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 10 (1904-06)
• The Garden of Death, symphonic poem after Oscar Wilde
  Oscar Wilde
  Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
  
  , Op. 13 (1907-08)
• Sappho, symphonic poem, Op. 14 (1909)
• Flight of the Witches, symphonic poem, Op. 15 (1908-09)
• Au soleil, symphonic poem, Op. 17
• Fantastic Waltz, Op. 18 (1912)
• Symphony No. 2 in F major, Op. 22
• Suite on lute music of the 14th to 17th centuries, Op. 24 (1914)
• Zodiac, suite on French themes of the 18th century, Op. 27 (1914)
• Exotic Suite, Op. 29 (1915-16)
• Indian Suite, Op. 42bis
• Chinese Suite, No. 1, Op. 60 (1928)
• Turkmenian Suite, Op. 68 (1931)
• Chinese Suite, No. 2, Op. 70 (1931)
• Merry-go-round, 8 Soviet dances, Op. 73 (1932)
• The Soviet East, suite, Op. 75 (1932)
• Red Army Rhapsody, Op. 77 (1932)
• film music for Boris Barnet's Okraina
  Okraina (1933 film)
  Okraina is a 1933 Soviet film directed by Boris Barnet.-See also:* Okraina , a film by Pyotr Lutsik loosely based on the 1933 film...
  
  (1933)
• Slavonic Rhapsody (1937)

Concertante

• Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 25 (1910-13)
• Concerto for symphony orchestra and brass band (1928)
• Suite on Russian Folk Themes, balalaika and accordion (1928)
• Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, Op. 113

Chamber

• String Quartet in A, Op. 3 (c. 1901)
• Sonata in D minor for viola and piano, Op. 46 (1923); version for violin and piano (1955)
• String Quartet in E minor, Op. 58 (c. 1928)
• String Quartet on Turkmenian Themes, Op. 65 (1930)
• Piano Trio in A, Op. 74 (1932)
• Japanese Suite for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, xylophone and piano, Op. 66a (1938)
• Chinese Sketches, woodwind, Op. 78 (1938)
• Quartet on American Themes, woodwind, Op. 79 (1938)

Military Band

• March of the Red Army, Op. 64 (1929)
• Fantasy on Revolutionary Songs of the West, Op. 71 (1931)

Other

• songs (including settings of Māori, Sinhalese
  Sinhalese people
  The Sinhalese are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group,forming the majority of Sri Lanka,constituting 74% of the Sri Lankan population.They number approximately 15 million worldwide.The Sinhalese identity is based on language, heritage and religion. The Sinhalese speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and the...
  
  , Indian and Japanese tunes)
• folksong arrangements (including Negro and Turkmenian melodies)
• piano pieces

Recordings

• Sergei Vasilenko: Viola and Piano Music (Complete) - Viola Sonata, Op. 46 / Lullaby / 4 Pieces on Themes of Lute Music of the 16-17th Centuries, Op. 35 / Sleeping River / Oriental Dance, Op. 47 / Suite Zodiakus I.A.S, Op. 27 / 4 Pieces (1953) - Elena Artamonova (viola) and Nicholas Walker (piano). Toccata Classics
  Toccata Classics
  Toccata Classics is an independent British classic music label founded in 2005.The founder of Toccata Classics is Martin Anderson, a music journalist. The label was founded primarily to promote unrecorded works by lesser-known composers, including British composers...
  
   TOCC0127, released 2011

Sources

• A. Eaglefield-Hull (ed), A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924)
• Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed. (1954)

External links

• Brief biography and list of works