Maximilian Steinberg

Ossejewitsch Maximilian Steinberg (Russian Максимилиан Осеевич Штейнберг; * 22 Junijul / July 4 1883greg in Vilnius, .. † 6 December 1946 in Leningrad) was a Russian composer.

Curriculum vitae

Steinberg, the son of a Hebrew scholar, spent his youth in Vilna in 1901 and moved to Saint Petersburg to study the natural sciences. At the same time his great interest in music, a music studies at the Saint prompted him to begin Petersburg Conservatory with prominent figures such as Anatoli Ljadow, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Rimsky -Korsakov. Soon, he showed a great talent as a composer, which was decisively influenced mainly by his mentor Rimsky -Korsakov. So put Steinberg in 1907 his diploma in natural sciences and from 1908 in music. In the same year he married Rimsky -Korsakov's daughter Nadezhda and became first a teacher, from 1915 professor of composition and instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He held various posts at the conservatory, among other things, he was deputy director from 1934 to 1939 before he retired in 1946. Steinberg played a significant role in Soviet musical life as a teacher of composers such as Shostakovich and Yuri Shaporin.

Style

Steinberg was initially considered a great hope of Russian music, and was occasionally even more highly rated than his fellow student Igor Stravinsky. But in contrast to this, he was musical innovations compared with strictly negative. His compositions show rather a very clear reference to his teachers Glazunov and Rimsky -Korsakov and are stylistically attributed readily the Russian national romanticism in imitation of the Mighty Handful. In particular, the composition technique is handled very confident; Steinberg had a brilliant orchestration. Many of his works draw on subjects of world literature. The proclamation of Socialist Realism in 1932 did not represent a major change for him, because his style is generally compliant with the demands went. He put the substantive focus of his work is now on national issues and had even stronger than before incorporate the folklore in his works. As a composer, Steinberg is now hardly known, what does it matter that his compositions are stylistically little independent; He has even been called eclectic. Larger musical historical significance, however, it comes to a pedagogue.

Works

• Orchestral works Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op 3 ( 1905/ 06)
• Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor, Op 8 " In memory of Nikolai Rimsky -Korsakov " (1909 )
• Symphony No. 3, Op 18 (1928 )
• Symphony No. 4 in C major Op 24 " Turksib " (1933 )
• Symphony No. 5 " Symphonic Rhapsody on Uzbek issues " (1942 )
• Variations for orchestra in G major, Op 2 (1905 )
• Prélude symphonique in memoriam Nikolai Rimsky -Korsakov, Op 7 (1908 )
• Fantaisie op dramatique 9 (1910 )
• Solemn Overture on revolutionary songs from 1905 to 1907 and 1917 (1930 )
• " In Armenia ," Capriccio (1940 )
• "Forward " heroic Uzbek Overture ( 1943)
• Violin Concerto (1946 )

• Metamorphoses, Ovid ballet, Op 10 (1913 ); three different images, Semele 1, 2 Midas, 3rd Adonis; derived from Suite in 5 movements, also referred to as Op 10 (1913 )
• Till Eulenspiegel, Ballet (1936 )
• Incidental music

• " The mermaid ", cantata for soprano, female chorus and orchestra, Op 4 (1907 )
• " Heaven and Earth", cantata for voice and orchestra by Byron (1918 )
• Four Songs for Voice and Orchestra by Tagore, Op 14 (1924 )
• " To the Memory of Pushkin's " Cantata by Rozhdestvensky (1937 )
• Songs

• String Quartet No. 1 in A major, Op 5 (1907 )
• String Quartet No. 2, Op 16 (1925 )
• Four Uzbek Songs for Cello and Piano

Discography

The German classical label Grammophon released two CDs with Steinberg's works available: 2nd Symphony Variations Op 2 and Symphony No. 1 (both Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi ).