Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Uspensky, Viktor Aleksandrovich

(b Kaluga, 19/31 Aug 1879; d Tashkent, 9 Oct 1949). Russian composer and ethnomusicologist. He studied composition with Lyadov, and also the harp at the St Petersburg Conservatory (1908–13), and in 1918 he was a co-founder of the Tashkent Conservatory, where he served as director and harmony lecturer. In 1925 he took part in an ethnographical expedition to the Turkmen SSR, continuing this work with three further expeditions, on which he was joined by Belyayev and later Mosolov, to the Fergana Basin and the Turkmen SSR (1927–8), another to the Fergana Basin (1931) and research in the Uzbek SSR. He held posts at the Uzbek Music Technical School as director of the national music department (1928–34), theory lecturer (from 1936) and director of the department of theory and composition (from 1936). In addition, he worked at the academic research institute for the arts in the folklore department and in the laboratory for the reconstruction of Uzbek folk instruments, holding appointments as academic assistant (1932–48) and subsequently director. Among his honours were the titles People's Artist of the Turkmen SSR (1927) and People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1937).

WORKS

(selective list)

Op: Farkhad i Shirin (music drama), 1936, rev. 1937, collab. G. Mushel' and S. Gorchakov [S. Tsveyfel'], rev. as op (Sh. Khurshid, after A. Navoi), 1940

Orch: 4 Melodies of the Central Asian Peoples, 1934; Mukanna, suite, 1944; Turkmen Capriccio, 1945; Uzbek Poem-Rhapsody, 1945

Vocal: Uzbekskiy vokaliz, 1934; Liricheskaya poėma pamyati Alishera Navoi [Lyrical Poem in Memory of Alishera Navoi], female v, 3 solo male vv, Uzbek insts, orch, 1947

Pf: 2 sets of Uzbek pieces, 1936; Novella, 1947

Other works: incid music, film scores, arrs.

Principal publisher: Muzgiz

WRITINGS

with V.M. Belyayev: Turkmenskaya muzïka (Moscow, 1928)

Uzbekskaya vokal'naya muzïka (Tashkent, 1950)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BDRSC

SKM

J.B. Pekker: V.A. Uspenskiy (Moscow, 1953, 2/1958)

DETLEF GOJOWY

Uspensky, Vladislav Aleksandrovich

(b Omsk, 7 Sept 1937). Russian composer. He studied at the Music College attached to the Moscow Conservatory under Frid, whilst benefiting from consultations with Kabalevsky (1955–7). He then attended the Leningrad Conservatory, studying under Arapov (1957–62), and later, as a postgraduate, under Shostakovich (1962–5). He runs the composition class at the St Petersburg Conservatory, and was appointed professor in 1982. He is the secretary of the Russian Union of Composers, and is a People's Artist of Russia (1988).

Uspensky has composed in almost all of the major musical genres and in a wide variety of styles. Thus, alongside Interventsiya (‘Intervention’), an opera with a traditional dramatic structure, one also finds the opera-pamphlet Voyna s salamandrami (‘War Against the Salamanders’), which gained especial popularity in its television version. The latter incorporates elements of the political theatre piece in the spirit of Brecht and Weill. Besides instrumental concertos, in which he preserves many of the traditional attributes of the genre, he has also written works such as Muzïka dlya skripki i orkestra (‘Music for Violin and Orchestra’) and Muzïka dlya strunnïkh i udarnïkh (‘Music for strings and percussion’) which are based on free, rhapsodic structures. In his oratorio S toboy i bez tebya (‘With You and Without You’) Uspensky introduces snatches of popular songs. Concerts devoted to the composer's works and the performance of individual compositions have taken place in all the major cities of Russia, and also in England, France, Germany, Israel, Japan and other countries. Uspensky's songs have entered the repertory of variety artists, and have gained widespread popularity throughout Russia.

WORKS

(selective list)

Ops: Voyna s salamandrami [War with the Salamanders] (TV op, I. Taymanova and Uspensky, after K. Čapek), 1967, TV version, Leningrad, 1984; Interventsiya [Intervention] (Yu. Dimitrin, after L. Slavin), 1970, Leningrad, Kirov

Ballets: Kostyum tsveta slivochnogo morozhenogo [A Suit the Colour of Plum Ice-Cream] (Yu. Slonimsky, after R. Bradbury), 1965, Leningrad, Oktyabr'skiy; Pamyati geroya [To the Memory of a Hero] (I. Chernïshev), 1969, Leningrad, Kirov; Doroga v den'/Spaseniye [The Road into Daylight/Salvation] (G. Tomas), 1974, Berlin, Volksbühne; Dobrïy zayats i drugiye obitateli lesa [The Kind Hare and other Denizens of the Forest] (V. Khintsert), 1976, Berlin, Volksbühne; Dlya tebya na more [For You at Sea] (Khintsert), 1978, Berlin, Volksbühne; Robot (Khintsert), 1982, Berlin, Volksbühne; Letyat zhuravli [The Cranes are Flying] (I. Bel'sky, after V. Rozov: Vechno zhivïye [Those who Live for Ever]), 1984, Leningrad, Malïy; Gribnoy perepolokh [A Commotion over Mushrooms] (V. Dauvalder), 1990, Berlin, Volksbühne

Musical: Zhenshchinï Bogemii [The Women of Bohemia] (N. Denisov, after A.C. Doyle), 1990, St Petersburg, Bouffe; Moya Karmen [My Carmen], 1995, St Petersburg, Music-hall; Kazanova v Rossii [Casanova in Russia] (I. Shtockbant after G. Casanova's diaries), 1998, St Petersburg, Bouffe; Iskusheniyye Zhannï [Temptation of Jeanna] (I. Schtockbant), 1999, St Petersburg, Bouffe

Concs.: Double Pf Conc., 1965; Navazhdeniye [Diabolic Suggestion], pf, variety band, orch, 1982; Elec Gui Conc., 1984; Fantasmagoriya, 2 vn, orch, 1989; Conc., va, chorus, orch, 1993; Difiramb lyubvi [A dithyramb of Love], 2 pf, orch, 1995; Trbn Conc., 1995

Other orch: Trbn Concertino, 1963; Muzïka dlya skripki i malogo simfonicheskogo orkestra [Music for Vn and Small Sym. Orch], 1966; Muzïka dlya strunnïkh i udarnïkh [Music for Str and Perc], 1967; Muzïkal'nïye nastroyeniya [Musical Moods], lyrical sym., 1973; Muzïka dlya golosa, arfï, royalya i udarnïkh [Music for V, Hp, Pf and Perc], 1976; Simfonicheskiye freski [Sym. frescoes], 1977; Dialogi, pf, variety band, orch, 1980; Vesna nadezhd [A Spring of Hopes], 1981; Romanticheskaya poėma [Romantic Poem], 1982; Posvyashcheniye muzhestvu [Dedication to Courage], 1983; K svetu [Towards the Light], sym., 1985; Posvyashcheniye [Dedication], sym., 1988; Syuita, 1988 [from the ballet Letyat zhuravli, 1984]; Simfoniya v stile retro [Sym. in the Retro Style], 1994

Vocal: Noktyurnï [Nocturnes], 1v, orch, 1980; Ozhidaniye ‘Monolog zhenshchini’ [Expectation/A Monologue for a Woman] (R. Rozhdestvensky), 1v, orch, 1982; S toboy i bez tebya [With You and Without You] (orat, K. Simonov), S, Bar, chorus, orch, 1984; Gospodi, vozzvakh k Tebye [O Lord, I Have Called Out to Thee], conc., female v, chorus, orch, 1990; Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye [All-Night Vigil], 1990; Bozhestvennaya liturgiya [The Divine Liturgy], 1991; Na iskhod dushi [The Departure of the Soul], funeral service, chorus, 1992; Monologi o lyubvi [Monologues about Love] (song cycle, M. Tsvetayeva), 1v, orch, 1995; Nostal'giya (poets of the Silver Age), 1v, orch, 1996; Conc., 1v, orch, 1997

Film scores, TV scores, over 100 songs, vocal works with chbr acc.

Principal publishers: Muzïka, Kompozitor, Leduc, Max Eschig

WRITINGS

‘Velikoy otechestvennoy voyne posvyashchayetsya: o sobstvennïkh sochineniyakh’ [Dedicated to the Great Patriotic War: concerning the composer's own works], SovM (1980), no.6, p.128 only

‘Chto uslïshal kompozitor’ [What the composer heard], Rasskazï leningradskikh kompozitorov o svoey muzïke, iii (Leningrad, 1987), 40–53

‘O P.A. Serebryakove’ [On Serebryakov], Pavel Serebryakov: vospominaniya, stat'i, materialï (St Petersburg, 1996), 108–11

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. Shostakovich: ‘Muzïka, rozhdyonnaya segodnya’ [The music born today], Literaturnaya gazeta (4 Dec 1968)

S. Khentova: ‘V rabote nad operoy’ [During work on the opera], O muzïke i muzïkantakh nashikh dney (Leningrad and Moscow, 1976), 178–92 [on the opera Interventsiya]

A. Yusfin: ‘Vladislav Uspenskiy’, Kompozitorï Rossii, iii (Moscow, 1983), 239–62

N. Entelis: Vladislav Uspenskiy, monograficheskiy ocherk [Uspensky, an essay in monographic form] (Leningrad, 1987)

MIKHAIL GRIGOR'YEVICH BYALIK