Weniamin Efimowitsch Basner

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Weniamin Efimovič Basner ( Russian Вениамин Ефимович Баснер , scientific transliteration Veniamin Efimovič Basner ; born  January 1, 1925 in Yaroslavl , Soviet Union ; †  September 3, 1996 in Repino near Saint Petersburg , Russia ) was a Russian composer and violinist.

Life

The parents came from Dvinsk and were evacuated to Yaroslavl during the First World War . Here Basner grew up as the son of a shoemaker in a Russian-assimilated Jewish family. From 1933 he went to the music school and in 1942 became solo violinist of the Yaroslavl Philharmonic. After serving in the army in Kostroma from 1943 to 1944 , he studied violin with Mikhail Bjeljakow and composition with Dmitri Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory until 1949 . He then worked as a soloist and musician in the Estraden -Orchester des Rundfunks until 1955 , where he was promoted by Vasily Solowjow-Sedoi . In 1955 he became a member of the Leningrad Composers' Union, where he directed youth work. A long-term friendship developed with his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich and his student Mieczysław Weinberg . Weinberg, who was temporarily imprisoned in 1953, handed his personal archive over to Basner after his release from prison.

For his 2nd string quartet Basner received a prize at the International Composers' Competition in Warsaw in 1955. During this time he was also commissioned to write his first film music for The Immortal Garrison (1956), directed by Zakhar Agranenko - with this work he achieved his breakthrough as a film composer .

1979 belonged Basner to the six Soviet composers who now widely recognized in a public statement Solomon Volkov's signature Свидетельство ( Testimony - The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich ) as "fake" designated - co-signer at the time were Boris Tishchenko , Kara Karajew , Karen Khachaturian , Yuri Levitin and Mieczysław Weinberg.

As a film and song composer, Basner achieved great popularity, which continued into the post-Soviet period. He wrote music for over 100 films and over 300 songs, many of which reached an audience of millions. The most popular songs included a. На безымянной высоте from the film Тишина (1964) and С чего начинается Родина from the film Щит и меч (1968). He also left behind two operas, a ballet, operettas and musicals, symphonies, concerts, other orchestral works, vocal and instrumental chamber music.

style

The first compositions still showed the influence of Shostakovich, but Basner soon developed his own handwriting. In the 3rd string quartet he processed his war experiences, the violin concerto was composed after a visit to Auschwitz . A tragic keynote often dominates, but there are also lyrical moods and grotesque moments - elements of Jewish folk music can be found in some themes; his stage works are kept in a lighter tone. Many of Basner's serious works, writes Soviet music expert Boris Yoffe , “remained in the shadow of his popularity as a hit writer”.

Others

The asteroid (4267) Basner, discovered in 1971, is named after him .

Awards

  • 1974: Заслуженный деятель искусств РСФСР
  • 1980: Государственная премия РСФСР имени братьев Васильевых for the score for Блокада (1977)
  • 1982: People's Artist of the RSFSR
  • 1994: Order of Friendship

Works (selection)

Operas

ballet

Operettas, musicals

  • Полярная звезда (1966)
  • Требуется героиня (1967/68)
  • Южный крест (1970/71)
  • Год голубого зайца (1978)
  • Между небом и землей (1980)
  • Блистающие облака (1982)
  • Настоящие мужчины (1983)
  • Моя хата с краю (1985)
  • Еврейское счастье (1994)
  • Ты - великая актриса! (1995)

Orchestral works

  • Поэма об освобождённом Ленинграде (1957/58)
  • 1st symphony (1958)
  • Violin Concerto (1966)
  • Cello Concerto Царь Давид (1967–1980)
  • 2nd Symphony Blockade (1983/84)
  • 3rd Symphony Love on texts by Émile Verhaeren (1988)

Choir and other vocal music

  • Земля , oratorio (1961)
  • Весна. Песни. Волнения , oratorio (1964)
  • Вечный огонь , cantata (1971)
  • Eight poems by Anna Akhmatova for mezzo-soprano and guitar (1977)
  • Памяти Владимира Высоцкого , six ballads in memory of Vladimir Vysotsky for voice and instrumental ensemble (1981)

Chamber music

  • 1st string quartet (1948, rev. 1964)
  • Poem for violin and piano (1950)
  • 2nd string quartet (1953)
  • 3rd string quartet (1960)
  • 4th string quartet (1969)
  • 5th string quartet (1975)

Film music

  • Бессмертный гарнизон - Immortal Garrison (1956)
  • Человек родился (1956)
  • Судьба человека - A Human Fate (1959)
  • Полосатый рейс - Save yourself who can! (1961)
  • Родная кровь (1963)
  • Тишина (1964)
  • Друзья и годы (1965)
  • Звонят, откройте дверь - They're Calling, Open the Door (1965)
  • Щит и меч (1968)
  • Мировой парень (1971)
  • Дни Турбиных (1976)
  • Блокада (1977)
  • Тайная прогулка (1985)
  • Возвращение "Броненосца" (1996)

Songs

  • На безымянной высоте from the movie Тишина (1964)
  • Это было недавно, это было давно from the film Друзья и годы (1965)
  • С чего начинается Родина from the film Щит и меч (1968)
  • Березовый сок from the film Мировой парень (1971)
  • Белой акации гроздья душистые from the movie Дни Турбиных (1976)

arrangement

  • Katerina Ismailowa Symphony , Basner's arrangement based on Shostakovich's opera (1958)

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. Most of the sources - u. a. BNF, SNAC, kino-teatr.ru and basner.narod.ru - names September 3, 1996 as the date of death.

Individual evidence

  1. Information on Veniamin Êfimovič Basner in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
  2. Planet Basner , book excerpt by Lukerja Basner
  3. a b c d Article Russian composer of Jewish nationality in Argumenty i Fakty of January 14, 2005 (Russian)
  4. a b c biography on basner.narod.ru
  5. a b c d e f Lyudmila Kovnatskaya:  Basner, Veniamin Yefimovich. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  6. Interview on the performance project Sun and Rain with works by Shostakovich, Basner and Weinberg in DSCH Journal No. 23 from July 2005 (English)
  7. Bessmertnyy Garnizon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ^ The memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich , Brigitte van Kann on the state of research in: Deutschlandfunk from March 6, 2000
  9. A pathetic forgery . About the so-called "Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich". In: Ernst Kuhn (Ed.): People's enemy Dmitri Shostakovich . A documentation of the public attacks against the composer in the former Soviet Union. Ernst Kuhn, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-928864-26-2 , p. 215-218 .
  10. biography on kino-teatr.ru
  11. List of songs on basner.narod.ru
  12. Boris Yoffe: In the flow of the symphonic . Wolke, Hofheim 2014, ISBN 978-3-95593-059-2 , pp. 517 f .
  13. Asteroid Basner
  14. ^ Certificate ( memento of March 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the asteroid Basner
  15. Bearer of the order in 1994
  16. All string quartets on earsense
  17. Data on the Katerina Ismailowa Symphony in the catalog of the German National Library