Samuil Feinberg

[Richergar]

Not entirely new.

He was the subject of one thread a few years ago, and also mentioned on another on Russian composers 'of the day'.

I have been reading his essay on composers and performers.

There is A translation here


http://math.stanford.edu/~ryzhik/Feinberg1.html

Although the essay I am reading is either a different essay on the same topic, or the translation is SO different that we have essentially two different essays.

I the next day I'll provide mine to the moderator if he wants to upload.

The (sic) essay is fascinating in a number of ways, not least the resemblance it bears to some of the written work of Kandinsky on the mystic symbolism of color. I have no idea if Feinberg was aware of this work, or if there might be some similar influences (ie Theosophical). I don't know much about Feinberg that I haven't read in Wiki, so I have no idea whether he was an observant Jew of any kind. He survived Lenin and Stalin in a public position of fame and adulation, which means he was certainly a politically savvy one. (Some artists got away with what others did not - Yudina was born Jewish, although she was devout Orthodox, and at one point, when Stalin gave her some money to fix a broken window in her apartment, she sent it to the church and wrote Stalin a note saying that she'd have them pray for his soul (from memory). This was usually a certain passport to death). The site I listed above also has some of the writings of Yudina herself, including a wonderful - but ultimately chaotic - talk on Brahms.

The essay is well worth reading, not only for what it says about composition, but about changing styles, and about one of my favorite topics, the interaction of listener and performer to 'create' one work that is really incomplete if it is not both performed and listened to. It also bears some resemblance to some of the writings of Furtwangler on music, and one wonders, again, about Feinberg's exposure to Schenker.

I've spent the evening yesterday listening to a slew of the Feinberg piano sonatas and concerti on you tube. There is also a site, for those interested, which is  Feinberg 'fan club', here

http://www.skfe.com/aifs/aifs/index_aifs.html

The you tube renditions are good enough that I think I may spring for some of the cds.

I wonder if anyone has listened to him lately, or has any interest in his philosophy.

Richard

[Alan Howe]

Feinberg's interesting if you want to find out what happens to Scriabin's brand of extreme late-romantic chromaticism without it going over into pure atonality. It's his earlier stuff that will be of interest here...