Alexander Aronowitsch Knaifel

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Alexander Aronowitsch Knaifel

Alexander Aronowitsch Knaifel (also: Knayfel; Russian Александр Аронович Кнайфель ; born November 28, 1943 in Tashkent / Uzbek SSR ) is a Russian composer .

Life

Knaifel was born in Tashkent during the war-related evacuation of the family from Leningrad (father: Aron Knaifel, solo violinist and well-known violin teacher; mother: Muza Shapiro, professor of music theory). In 1944 the Knaifel family returned to Leningrad. Alexander Knaifel began playing the cello at the age of six and studied with Emanuel Fishman at the Special Music School of the Leningrad Conservatory from 1950 to 1961 and from 1961 to 63 with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory . From 1963 to 1966 he studied composition with Boris Alexandrowitsch Arapow in Leningrad. Since then he has lived as a freelance composer in Saint Petersburg. Alexander Knaifel is the author of over 100 compositions from all genres of serious music.

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From the beginning, Knaifel joined the progressive forces of his country. "As the youngest representative of the Soviet post-war avant-garde, he has gone his own way for the Russian music scene." Fundamental to his tonal language was the examination of the works of the 2nd Vienna School ( Arnold Schönberg , Alban Berg and Anton von Webern ). Building on this, he tried out various techniques of the western avant-garde and developed his own, unmistakable style. In doing so, he came to the realization that in the first half of the 20th century "everything had been said" with regard to the techniques in musical language and responded to the avant-gardists' belief in progress with a liberation aimed at the individual freedom of the artistic personality.

In his music, Knaifel gives free rein to his preference for tonally bound harmonies, but in principle rejects his classification in any "drawer system" and above all does not feel that his music belongs to the group of composers named " New Simplicity " . He attaches particular importance to the individual tone, whereby each tone can assume a central function. Seen in this way, the music of Alexander Knaifel does indeed have a resemblance to the works of Morton Feldman and Giacinto Scelsi , but the Russian's compositions are characterized by a spirituality that is “in the tradition of Russian art, esotericism and mysticism”. Knaifel's religiosity, supported by cosmic thinking, found expression in works such as Prayer to the Holy Spirit . In his music, which is characterized by breadth and transcendence, the basic principles of the Pythagorean view of music have taken shape.

An important point of reference in Knaifel's compositional thinking is also the music of Johann Sebastian Bach . This becomes particularly clear in his work Bach - The Second Hymn of the Soloists (1992), where he engages five vocal soloists, a children's choir and an instrumental ensemble in a “dialogue” (Knaifel) with the prelude and the fugue in B flat minor from 1st Volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier .

For its success at a festival of modern music in Cologne, Knaifel was heavily criticized in 1979 at the 6th Congress of the Soviet Composers' Union by its chairman, Tichon Nikolajewitsch Chrennikow . With six other composers ( Jelena Olegowna Firsowa , Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Smirnow , Viktor Suslin , Vyacheslav Artyomov , Sofia Asgatowna Gubaidulina and Edisson Wassiljewitsch Denisov ) he was accused that his music was as "senseless" as "musical mud" because it is refuse real innovation. Similar to Dmitrij Shostakowitsch , who fell out of favor with his music in 1936, the tide turned for Knaifel as well. The accusation made against him had no long-term negative consequences, and today Alexander Knaifel is considered an internationally recognized composer.

One of the reasons for this is likely to be Knaifel's turn to religious issues, as it has emerged from the Agnus Dei (1985). The Agnus Dei is one of Alexander Knaifel's most important works, with a performance of about two hours, the work composed for four instrumentalists impresses not only with its extreme length and calm, but above all with its intellectual depth. The text background is the diary of a girl who witnessed and recorded the deaths of all family members during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. Knaifel, whose grandfather also died in 1942 as a result of the famine in Leningrad, feels like a “traitor” to his compatriots because he was fortunate enough to have been born and raised a safe distance from the war: “I may have Agnus Dei composed as atonement for my (nonexistent) guilt of being born outside of St. Petersburg. ”In view of the beauty of creation, which he experiences in all its fullness in every moment of his life, he renounces the verbal Recitation of the liturgical text. He speaks of the "endlessness and the great unity of the word-tone mystery", through which the tones he created are connected with the prayer Agnus Dei .

He celebrated great success in later years, including in Amsterdam with the premiere of his opera Alice In Wonderland in 2001 (based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll ) and with a portrait concert at the Eclat Festival New Music 2005 in Stuttgart.

Awards and memberships

  • Since 1968 member of the Soviet Union of Composers of the USSR
  • Since 1987 member of the Cinematography Association of the USSR
  • 1993/94 guest of the artist program of the DAAD ( German Academic Exchange Service )
  • 1993 Award as "Honored Creator" of the Russian Federation
  • 2003 " Order of Friendship " of the Russian Federation
  • 2013 Prize Winner of the Government of St. Petersburg

Discography

  • A silly horse . Interpr .: Tatiana Melentieva (soprano), Oleg Malov (piano); Megadisc Classics CD 7844 (1996)
  • Make me drunk with your kisses [Song of Solomon, Chapter 8]. Interpreter: Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); Choral Arts Soc. Washington et al. a .; Norman Scribner (lead); Teldec Classics CD 0630-10160-2 (1997)
  • Lux Aeterna . Interpr .: Patrick u. Thomas Demenga; ECM New Series CD 465 341-2
  • Svete Tikhiy and In Air Clear and Unseen . Interpreter: Tatiana Melentieva (soprano); Keller Quartet; Oleg Malov (piano); ECM NEW SERIES CD 461 814-2 (2002)
  • Amicta Sole and Psalm 51 . Interpreter: Mstislav Rostropovich (cello); Soloists d. Boys' choir Glinka Choral College; ECM New Series CD 472 0832 (2005)
  • Lamento and Blazhenstva . Interpreter: Ivan Monighetti (cello); State Hermitage Orchestra; Lege Artis Choir; ECM New Series CD 1975 476 6767 (2008)
  • The Canterville Ghost . Artist: Moscow Forum Theater Orchestra; Michail Jurowski (head); Brilliant Classics CD 9295; EAN code 5029365929523 (2012)
  • EF and three visiting cards from the poet . Interpr .: Goeyvaerts-Trio; CD "String Trios from the East" Challenge Records Int. CC 72503 (2012)
  • Scarry March , Passacaglia , Postludia and O heavenly King . Interpr .: Tatjana Milentieva (soprano), Oleg Malov (piano); Megadisc Classics CD 7855 (2013)
  • Agnus Dei . Interpr .: Ensemble Musique Nouvelle; Megadisc Classics CD 7808-07 (2013)
  • Lukomoriye . Interpr .: Oleg Malov (piano); Tatiana Melentieva (soprano); Piotr Migunov (bass); Lege Artis Choir; Boris Abalian (head); ECM New Series 2436 (2018)

Literature (selection)

  • Contemporary composers, Edition Text & Criticism Munich, Loseblattsammlung (since 1992) ISBN 3-883-77414-6
  • Music in the past and present ( MGG ). 2nd edition, personal part vol. 10, Kassel (2006) ISBN 3-7618-1120-9
  • The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 13, pp. 689-90 (2001) ISBN 0-333-60800-3
  • Svetlana Savenko: The magic of Alexander Knaifel's message . In: Valeria Tsenova (Ed.): Underground Music from the Former USSR . Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam 1997, ISBN 3-7186-5821-6 , pp. 174 f .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In an interview with Klaus Hinrich Stahmer (Berlin, May 12, 2015), Alexander Knaifel corrected the wording handed down in literature that he had been teaching at the St. Petersburg Conservatory since 1967.
  2. ↑ Detlef Gojowy, in: Contemporary composers (loose-leaf dictionary), Verlag text + kritik , 1992 (basic sheet)
  3. ↑ Alexander Knaifel; see. Footnote 1
  4. ↑ Alexander Knaifel; see. Footnote 1
  5. ↑ The music in past and present (2nd edition, 2003), Person Teil Vol. 10, p. 326
  6. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, 2001, Vol. 13, p. 689
  7. ^ Andreas Kloth: The Russian composer Vjačeslav Artëmov - An example of the politically and socially conditioned reception of nonconformist Soviet composers. Essen 2009 [The Blue Owl, Vol. 88], pp. 101ff. ISBN 3-89924-244-0
  8. ↑ Alexander Knaifel: Agnus Dei , accompanying text for publication on Megadisc Classic ( Memento from June 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Alexander Knaifel at the “eclat” festival 2005 in Stuttgart , Sikorski.de , news archive December 2004
personal data
SURNAME Knaifel, Alexander Aronowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian cellist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Tashkent , Uzbek SSR