Rodion Shchedrin

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Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (Template:Lang-rus; 16 December 1932 – 29 August 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer, pianist, and music teacher. He wrote in a wide range of genres, including operas such as Lolita and The Left-Hander, and ballets such as the Carmen Suite, created for his wife, the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya of the Bolshoi Theatre. His orchestral works includes five concertos for orchestra and six piano concertos, in which he often appeared as soloist. He also composed vocal works such as The Sealed Angel, as well as chamber music and film scores, including Anna Karenina. His works have been widely performed and commissioned internationally, particularly in the United States and Western Europe. Shchedrin is regarded as one of the leading composers of the late Soviet period and an important figure in Russian contemporary music in the decades that followed.<ref name="Dixon" /> Template:TOC limit

Life and career

Shchedrin was born in Moscow on 16 December 1932, into a musical family: his father was a composer and teacher of music theory,<ref name="Schott" /> and his grandfather was an Orthodox priest. He was exposed to spiritual independence and critical awareness at an early age.<ref name="Neef" /> He studied at the Moscow Choral School and Moscow Conservatory, where he studied composition with Yuri Shaporin and piano with Yakov Flier, graduating in 1955.<ref name="Schott" />

Maya Plisetskaya as Carmen, 1974

Shchedrin's early works are tonal and colourfully orchestrated, often incorporating elements of folk music, while some of his later compositions employed aleatoric and serial techniques.<ref name="Kandell" /> An accomplished pianist and organist, he performed the solo part of his First Piano Concerto in 1954, while still a student, with Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting.<ref name="Dixon" /> The concerto draws on Russian folklore, combining empathy with ironic detachment.<ref name="Neef" /> Although a capable performer, he decided early to focus primarily on composition.<ref name="Dixon" /> Among his early works was the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse, premiered in 1955.

In 1958 Shchedrin married the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who later became prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre, and they remained together until her death in 2015.<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="Schott" /> Many of his ballets were written with her in mind, including Carmen Suite (1967), Anna Karenina (1971, based on Tolstoy's novel), and Lady with a Lapdog (1985, after Chekhov's short story).<ref name="Neef" /><ref name="Guardian" /> The couple were prominent figures in the cultural life of the Soviet Union, although both were closely monitored by the KGB.<ref name="Guardian" />

Shchedrin composed his First Symphony in 1958, characterized by "movements in the wrong order" and a tone of "wildness and aggression". His Second Symphony, written between 1962 and 1965, is structured as 25 overlapping preludes, including a double fugue and canon. In 1963 he completed his first Concerto for Orchestra, a single-movement work in which monothematic material is combined with other motifs and variations. Subtitled Naughty Limericks (Osorniye chastushki), the piece achieved success with both audiences and critics, and was later choreographed by George Balanchine.<ref name="Neef" /> Between 1964 and 1970 Shchedrin composed a cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues after he heard those of Dmitri Shostakovich, in turn inspired by those of J. S. Bach. He followed this with the Polyphonic Notebook, a collection of 25 piano preludes written in 1972 as homages to earlier music.<ref name="Neef" />

Shchedrin taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1965 to 1969.<ref name="Dixon" /> In his Second Piano Concerto he experimented with Twelve-tone techniques and incorporated elements of jazz. In 1967 he toured Europe with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky, performing the work.<ref name="Neef" /> The following year Leonard Bernstein commissioned his Second Concerto for Orchestra, subtitled Zvony (The Chimes), for the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic. The music evokes the sounds of traditional Russian bells, though without nostalgic intent.<ref name="Neef" />

In 1968 Shchedrin refused to sign an open letter approving the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact.<ref name="AdK" /> He became president of the Union of Russian Composers in 1973, succeeding Shostakovich<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="AdK" /> who had suggested him for the post.<ref name="Zeit" /> Shchedrin's third Concerto for Orchestra is based on music of Russian provincial circuses. It was premiered in 1989 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel.<ref name="Dixon" /> The fourth, Khorovody (Round Dances), was written in 1989, and the fifth, Four Russian Songs, was composed in 1998. He used the "phenomenon of notated aleatorics" in his Third Piano Concerto, in 33 variations with a theme at the end. He premiered it on 5 May 1974, playing his earlier concertos the same night, which caused a sensation.<ref name="Neef" /> The performance with the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov was recorded and released on LP and later on CD. Shchedrin wrote his Fourth Piano Concerto in 1991, commissioned by Steinway for the centenary of the company's founding. It is subtitled "sharp keys", and the composer used only sharp keys as his "kind of musical minimalism" but with "timbral effects and thematic variety", as the musicologist Sigrid Neef noted.<ref name="Neef" />

Shchedrin and his wife in 2009

Shchedrin was made a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1989. He worked towards the transformation of the Soviet Union as a member of the Inter-regional Deputies Group, an opposition party inspired by Andrei Sakharov. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shchedrin took advantage of the new opportunities for international travel and musical collaboration, and largely divided his time between Munich and Moscow.<ref name="Dixon" /> He was also a citizen of Lithuania<ref name="UPI" /> and Spain.<ref name="Spain" /> He was regarded as one of the leaders of Russian new music during the following decades, while also building a significant reputation in the United States and Western Europe.<ref name="Dixon" />

Shchedrin's concert opera The Enchanted Wanderer was commissioned by Lorin Maazel for the New York Philharmonic; the composer based his libretto on a story by Nikolai Leskov. It was premiered in New York 2002.<ref name="Vieth" /> A festival of Shchedrin's music was given in Moscow that year on the occasion of his 70th birthday. In June 2008, Shchedrin Days took place in Armenia with the participation of Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya as honorary guests.<ref name="Armenia" /> He was invited to the 2009 Rheingau Musik Festival by Walter Fink, as the 19th composer to be featured in the annual Komponistenporträt.<ref name="Döring" /> He and his wife attended the concerts which included his Russian liturgy The Sealed Angel for choir and flute, performed in Eberbach Abbey. His chamber music included Ancient Melodies of Russian Folk Songs (2007) with the cellist Raphael Wallfisch and himself at the piano, and the song cycle Meine Zeit, mein Raubtier (My Age, my Wild Beast) with tenor Kenneth Tarver and pianist Roland Pöntinen who played it also at the Verbier Festival.<ref name="My Age">Template:Cite web</ref> His Double Concerto "Romantic Offering" for piano, cello and orchestra was premiered on 9 February 2011 by Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester conducted by Neeme Järvi.<ref name="accentus" /> The premiere of a German version of his opera Lolita was performed as the opening night of the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden in a production of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 2011.<ref name="Milch" /> His dramatic scene Cleopatra i zmeja (Cleopatra and the Serpent) for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, was premiered by Mojca Erdmann and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, on 28 May 2012.<ref name="Salzburg" />

Shchedrin died in Munich on 29 August 2025, at the age of 92.<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Kandell" /><ref name="currenttime" />

Compositions

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Shchedrin composed in many genres: stage works, including operas such as Not Love Alone (1961) and Dead Souls (1976, after Nikolai Gogol's novel); ballets; incidental music;<ref name="Dixon" /> orchestral works, including symphonies, concertos for orchestra, and concertos for solo instruments (often piano); chamber music; solo piano works; vocal music for soloists and choirs; arrangements; and film scores.<ref name="Schott" /><ref name="Sikorski" /><ref name="Rijen" />

Stage works

Operas

Ballets

Orchestral works

Symphonies

  • Symphony No. 1 (1958) in three parts (1958)<ref name="Neef" />
  • Symphony No. 2 "Twenty-Five Preludes" (1962–1965).<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" />
  • Symphony No. 3. Symphony Concertante "Scenes of Russian Fairy Tales" in five parts (2000).<ref name="f824">Template:Cite web</ref>

Concertos for Orchestra

  • Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 "Naughty Limericks" (1963)<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" />
  • Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 "The Chimes" (1968)<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" />
  • Concerto for Orchestra No. 3 "Old Russian Circus Music" (1989)<ref name="Neef" />
  • Concerto for Orchestra No. 4 "Round Dances (Khorovody)" (1989)<ref name="Neef" />
  • Concerto for Orchestra No. 5 "Four Russian Songs" (1998)<ref name="Neef" />

Concertos for solo instrument with orchestra

  • Piano
    • Piano Concerto No. 1 in four parts in D major (1954).<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" />
    • Piano Concerto No. 2 in three parts (1966).<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" />
    • Piano Concerto No. 3 "Variations and Theme" (1973)<ref name="Neef" />
    • Piano Concerto No. 4 "Sharp Keys" in two parts (1991)<ref name="Neef" />
    • Piano Concerto No. 5 in three parts (1999)<ref name="m135">Template:Cite web</ref>
    • Piano Concerto No. 6 "Concerto Lontano" for piano and string orchestra (2003)<ref name="parlando" /><ref name="g836">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Trumpet Concerto (1994)<ref name="parlando" />
  • Cello Concerto "sotto voce" (1994)<ref name="parlando" />
  • Concerto "cantabile" for violin and string orchestra (1997).<ref name="Zeit" />
  • Oboe Concerto (1998)<ref name="Zeit" />
  • Double Concerto "Romantic Offering" for piano, cello and orchestra (2010).<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="AdK" /><ref name="r005">Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Other orchestral works

  • Self-Portrait, variations (1984).<ref name="AdK" />
  • Beethoven's Heiligenstädter Testament (2008)<ref name="AdK" />
  • Symphonic Diptych (2009)<ref name="parlando" />
  • Lithuanian Saga (2009)<ref name="parlando" />

Vocal music

  • Poetoria, concerto for poet accompanied by a woman's voice, mixed chorus and symphony orchestra (1968), to words by Andrei Voznesensky<ref name="Neef" />
  • Lenin Is Amongst Us, oratorio (1969)<ref name="Döring" />
  • The Sealed Angel, Russian liturgy for mixed chorus a cappella with shepherd's pipe (1988)<ref name="Dixon" /><ref name="Neef" /><ref name="Zeit" />
  • Meine Zeit, mein Raubtier (My Age, my Wild Beast), song cycle for tenor and piano<ref name="My Age" />
  • Cleopatra i zmeja (Cleopatra and the Serpent) dramatic scene for soprano and orchestra (2011)<ref name="Salzburg" />

Chamber and instrumental works

  • Musical Offering for organ, three flutes, three bassoons and three trombones (1983). Written for the 300th anniversary of J.Template:NbspS. Bach's birth.<ref name="Neef" />

Film scores

Writings

Discography

Awards and honors

  1. Nomination Concerto cantabile (2001)<ref name="parlando" />
  2. Nomination for the opera The Enchanted Wanderer (2009)<ref name="parlando" />

Memberships

Honorary academic

References

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Further reading

Obituaries

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