Nikolai Ivanovich Peiko

Nikolai Ivanovich Peiko ( Russian Николай Иванович Пейко ., Scientific transliteration Nikolai Ivanovich Pejko ; born March 12 ^{. Jul} / 25. March  1916 ^greg. In Moscow ; † 1. July 1995 ) was a Russian composer .

Life

Peiko showed a pronounced interest in music from a young age and wrote his first compositions as a child. From 1933 he studied composition at the music school in Moscow; In 1937 he moved to the Moscow Conservatory , where he studied composition with Nikolai Mjaskowski and Nikolai Rakow until 1940 . After working in a military hospital in Ufa from 1941 to 1943 , Peiko became a lecturer and assistant to Dmitri Shostakovich at the Moscow Conservatory in 1944 . From 1952 he was a lecturer at the same site. In 1959 he moved to the Moscow Gnessin Institute , a music school where he worked as a professor of composition until the end of his life. Peiko was considered an important composition teacher and taught his students, including Sofia Gubaidulina and Alexander Arutjunjan , more modern composition techniques such as dodecaphony if requested . Peiko has received numerous awards, including two Stalin prizes for his first symphony (1947) and his Moldavian suite (1951).

Audio language

Peiko was a rather traditional composer who stuck to an expanded tonality enriched with dissonances . His work partly reflects the influence of his acquaintance Dmitri Shostakovich, but he incorporated the folk music of the Soviet peoples into his musical language much more strongly than he did, and for this purpose he often undertook research trips. Around 1960 Peiko found an independent tonal language, which is mainly based on often repeated short, rhythmically concise motifs and seemingly abrupt pauses. His works are rather short and concentrated, characteristic is an ironic, grotesque tone. Peiko preferred a distant, harsh, almost cool expression. He also emerged as a conductor and pianist of his own works.

Works

• Orchestral works
  • Symphony No. 1 in F sharp minor (1944–46)
  • Symphony No. 2 in D major (1946)
  • Symphony No. 3 in F major (1956/57)
  • Symphony No. 4 in B minor (1963–65)
  • Symphony No. 5 in A major (1968/69)
  • Symphony No. 6 in E minor (1972)
  • Symphony No. 7 in A minor for folk instrument orchestra (1977)
  • Symphony No. 8 in E minor (1982–85)
  • Symphony No. 9 for string orchestra (1988–90)
  • Symphony No. 10 "12 Aphorisms and Postlude" (1993)
  • Concert Symphony in E flat major (1972-74)
  • Sinfonietta for small orchestra in C minor (1959)
  • "From Early Russia", Suite (1948)
  • "Moldavian Suite" (1950)
  • "7 Pieces on Themes of the Soviet Peoples", Suite (1950)
  • "From the Legend of Yakutia ", Suite (1940–59)
  • Elegisches Poem for string orchestra (1980)
  • "November 7th", symphonic poem (1986/87)
• Concerts
  • Piano Concerto (1942–54)
  • 2 Fantasias for Violin and Orchestra (No. 1 in E minor on Finnish themes, 1953, No. 2 in G minor, 1964)
  • Concert variations for violoncello and orchestra (1981)
  • Concert Poem for balalaika, clarinet and orchestra (1978)
  • Concerto for oboe and chamber orchestra (1982/83)
• Stage works and vocal music
  • "Spring Winds", ballet (1950)
  • " Jeanne d'Arc ", ballet (1953–56, rev. 1978/79)
  • "Abakajada", ballet (1981/82)
  • "Aichylu", opera (1941, rev. 1951)
  • "A Night from Tsar Ivan", oratorio (1968, adapted into opera in 1982)
  • Song cycles
• Chamber music
  • String Quartet No. 1 in F sharp minor (1963/64)
  • String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor (1965)
  • String Quartet No. 3 in E minor (1976)
  • String Quartet No. 4 (1983)
  • Piano quintet in D major (1961)
  • Decimet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass in E minor (1971)
  • " Bashkir Melodies" for violoncello and piano (1942)
• Piano music
  • Piano Sonata No. 1 in E minor (1946–54)
  • Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major (1972-75)
  • Piano Sonata No. 3 (1990/91)
  • Sonata for the left hand (1992)
  • Sonatina No. 1 (1942)
  • Sonatina No. 2 (1957)
  • Ballad in B minor (1939)
  • Concert Variations in A minor for two pianos (1983)

literature

• Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea World of Music - The Composers - A lexicon in five volumes . tape 4 . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 282 .

Web links

• Catalog raisonné ( memento of December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from Onno van Rijen
• Catalog of works ( memento from April 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) on: Национальное Музыкальное Издательство (Russian)
• Audio samples - piano sonata and concert variations