Deshevov, Vladimir (1889-1955, Russia)

[Christopher]

Radio Orpheus in Moscow has been busy recording the music of obscure, almost-forgotten composers.  I have downloaded from their website a fair number of orchestral and stage works by Vladimir Deshevov which I have put into our Downloads section.

(The other composers whose orchestral, choral or stage works have been recorded are: Arensky (his opera Rafael, probably not unsung enough for us?); Nikolai Golovanov - works already on here; Georgy Catoire Alexander - work already on here; Mosolov (1900-73) and Leonid Polovinkin (1894-1949) - too avant-garde for us; and Aleksei Zhivotov (1904-64) - too modern!  But DM me if any of these are of interest.)

Deshevov's works, I would say, fall on the cusp of our style and era - some are full-blooded Slavic-late-romantic (eg Russian Fairy-Tale) while others arguably step slightly over that line.

A very brief bio of Deshevov reads as follows:

Vladimir Deshevov. Franz Liszt from Tsarskoye Selo
https://ouverture.energy/en/news/vladimir-deshevov-tsarskoselskiy-list/
Russian composer Vladimir Mikhailovich Deshevov is one of the authors of constructive realism and creators of the first Soviet operas and ballets. He was born in St. Petersburg on February 11, 1889, and left this world in Leningrad on October 27, 1955.

His contemporaries often called him "Franz Liszt from Tsarskoye Selo" and "A fragile Elf with the Face of Chopin." Both statements perfectly met the character of an elegant, nervous, impetuous prodigy and virtuoso Vladimir Deshevov. He was a friend of Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilyov. He was also an officer in the army of Ferdinand Wrangel during the Russian Civil War, fought in Sevastopol and got a serious wound. Deshevov is a composer with a hard fate and rich musical heritage.

Deshevov's music is a vivid example of the radical avant-garde of the so-called "first wave." It is permeated with the energy of big cities, construction of industrial ''giants'', sharp rhythm and uncompromising desire to create something new. In the end of the '20s, Deshevov was stigmatized and cut off from the history of Russian music. Deshevov spent the siege in Leningrad. He wrote music for the radio, worked in fire brigades, was wounded during shelling, was ill and starved.

A lot of research was done to restore the composer's legacy as part of the project "Russian Composers' Heritage Revival." The Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra recorded Deshevov's symphonic poem "Russian Fairy Tale" (1947) and his suite to "Bela" ballet (1941). The Orchestra will perform both compositions for the first time at the II International Music Festival "Energy of Discoveries", which was founded by Unipro PJSC and Orpheus Radio.

A much much longer biography/commentary can be read on Radio Orpheus's website here (in Russian, you will need googe translate) - https://composers-heritage.ru/composers/DESHEVOV/

He has a Russian wikipedia page - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дешевов,_Владимир_Михайлович
Vladimir Mikhailovich Deshevov ( February 11, 1889 , St. Petersburg - October 27, 1955 , Leningrad) - Soviet composer, Tsarskoye Selo musician-wunderkind, author of the first Soviet operas and ballets.

Father - mining engineer, inventor M. M. Deshevov; mother - chamber singer Anna Konstantinovna (née Loseva). In the family, who lived in Tsarskoe Selo since 1898 , everyone was fond of music, his father was a regular at concerts, studied music theory. Grandmother, Anna Konstantinovna Loseva, was a first-class pianist, possessed pedagogical skills and had a major influence on the development of her grandson's musical abilities.

Vladimir studied first at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium , where his brothers also studied: Konstantin (graduate of 1900, with a gold medal) and Sergey (graduate of 1905, future architect, co-author of the church-tomb of Oleg Bryansky in Ostashevo, author memories of childhood "Theatre for myself"); then - in the real school of Nicholas II , which he graduated in 1908 . He met and became friends with Sergei Prokofiev (later they corresponded). From 1904 he attended symphony concerts, which took place in Pavlovsk from May to September; in 1906 he took private lessons in music theory and solfeggio from the young composer A. Pashchenko. He constantly visited the Arensov house together with Vasily Komarovsky , Nikolai Gumilyov , Nikolai Punin and others.

In 1908 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory ; among his teachers: in the piano class - professors A. A. Winkler and L. V. Nikolaev , in harmony - V. P. Kalafati , in strict style - A. K. Lyadov , in instrumentation - M. O. Steinberg and practice - at the conductor A. V. Gauk . The development of the musician was followed with interest by A. K. Glazunov , B. V. Asafiev . In 1913, Deshevov's piano study was performed in St. Petersburg at a concert by the singer Zabela-Vrubel . He graduated from the conservatory in 1914 .

With the outbreak of war , he was drafted into the army, fought until the beginning of the February Revolution . Then he ended up in Elisavetgrad , where he worked as a secretary in the department of public education and taught piano and music theory at the city school. Later he taught in Sevastopol , where in 1921 he organized together with Sobinov and headed the People's Conservatory. In Sevastopol, the future composer and theorist of bell art, Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev , took lessons from him in the theory of composition .

In October 1922 he returned to Petrograd. Belonged to the left wing of the Leningrad composers. He was close to the Oberiuts . Darius Milhaud , who visited Leningrad in 1926, spoke highly of Deshevov's music (after that, Milhaud and Deshevov corresponded animatedly for several years). He taught at musical technical schools, acted as a conductor in drama theaters.

He wrote music for more than 30 dramatic and 5 musical performances, including the performance of the Leningrad Marionette Theater Gulliver in the Land of the Lilliputians (1936); many works were not staged or immediately removed from the repertoire. He worked in the cinema: he wrote music for the animated film Mail (1930 , based on the poem of the same name by Marshak), for the films Fragment of the Empire, Servant of Two Masters, Academician Pavlov and others.

Most of Deshevov's works remained in the archives, much has not been preserved. The systematic study of his heritage is just beginning. Since the late 1990s - early 2000s, Deshevov's compositions have been increasingly performed in Russia and abroad, along with the legacy of Roslavets, Mosolov, Alexei Zhivotov, Leonid Polovinkin and other representatives of the post-revolutionary musical avant-garde in Russia. A number of his works were performed by Oleg Malov, Valery Popov, Anton Batagov and others.


Among the music which I have uploaded is the music to his ballet "Bela".  "Bela" is the first of the five stories that make up Mikhail Lermontov's great 1839 novel "A Hero of Our Time". Bela is a Circassian princess with whom the protagonist of the five stories, Pechorin, falls in love.  His pursuit of her inevitably leads to her disgrace and death.

[der79sebas]

I knew Deshevov only for his great (and highly modernistic) opera "Ice and Steel". The pieces presented here are from his "socialist realism" period and as such more conventional but very crisp and enjoyable, more classicistic than romantic. Thanks for uploading this wonderful rarities, I am looking forward to repeated listenings!