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Aleksandra Pakhmutova

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Aleksandra Pakhmutova
Александра Пахмутова
Pakhmutova in 2004
Born
Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pakhmutova

(1929-11-09) 9 November 1929 (age 94)
Alma materMoscow Conservatory
OccupationComposer
Years active1955–present
Title
SpouseNikolai Dobronravov (1956–2023)
Awards

Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pakhmutova (Russian: Александра Николаевна Пахмутова listen; born 9 November 1929) is a Soviet and Russian composer. She has remained one of the best-known figures in Soviet and later Russian popular music since she first achieved fame in her homeland in the 1960s. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1984.

Biography

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She was born on November 9, 1929, in Beketovka (now a neighborhood in Volgograd), Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, and began playing the piano and composing music at an early age. In 1936, she entered the Stalingrad City Music School. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, she briefly went to Karaganda for refuge and study. She was admitted to the prestigious Moscow Conservatory and graduated in 1953. In 1956, she completed a post-graduate course led by composer Vissarion Shebalin.[1]

Her career is notable for her success in a range of different genres. She has composed pieces for the symphony orchestra (The Russian Suite, the concerto for the trumpet and the orchestra, the Youth Overture, the concerto for the orchestra); the ballet Illumination; music for children (cantatas, a series of choir pieces, and numerous songs); and songs and music for over a dozen different movies from Out of This World in 1958 to Because of Mama in 2001.

She is best known for some of her 400 songs, including such enduringly popular songs as The Melody, Russian Waltz, Tenderness, Hope, The Old Maple Tree, The Song of the Perturbed Youth, a series of the Gagarin Constellation, The Bird of Happiness (from the 1981 film O Sport, You Are Peace!, this song is subsequently very known in both Russia and China when performed by Russian singer Vitas since 2003) and Good-Bye Moscow which was used as the farewell tune of the 22nd Olympic Games in Moscow. Tenderness was used with great effect in Tatyana Lioznova's 1967 film Three Poplars in Plyushchikha. Her husband, the eminent Soviet-era poet Nikolai Dobronravov, contributed lyrics to her music on occasion, including songs used in three films.

One of her most famous ballads is Belovezhskaya Pushcha, composed in 1975, which celebrates Białowieża Forest, a last remnant of the European wildwood split now between Poland and Belarus. Another much-aired song was Malaya Zemlya, about a minor outpost where the then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev served as a political commissar during World War II.

Alexandra Pakhmutova found favor with the state establishment as well as the public. Reputedly Brezhnev's favorite composer, she received several Government Awards and State Prizes and served as the Secretary of the USSR and Russian Unions of Composers. She was named a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990. Her name was given to Asteroid # 1889, registered by the planetary centre in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Personal life

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In 1956, Pakhmutova married an actor and poet Nikolai Dobronravov. He was assigned by the radio officials to work with her as a lyricist on a children's tune "Little Motor Boat" (Lodochka motornaya). They have written a lot of songs for children but the couple didn't have children of their own.[2]

Compositions

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Songs

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Pakhmutova is accredited with composing over 500 individual songs; and thus, only the most well-known are listed here.[3]

Vocal cycles

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  • Gagarin's Constellation
  • Songs about Lenin
  • Aiga Stars
  • Motherland
  • Hugging the Sky

Orchestral

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  • 1953: Russian Suite for symphony orchestra [4]
  • "Ode to Lighting the Fire" (for mixed choir and symphony orchestra).
  • 1957: Music for children: Suite "Lenin in our heart"
  • 1972: Heroes of Sport (Written for the final credits of the Russian sports movie Moving Up)

Concerto

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  • 1955: Trumpet Concerto
  • 1972: Concerto for Orchestra (based on the ballet Illumination, staged in 1974, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow).

Cantata

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  • Beautiful as youth, country
  • 1953: Vasily Turkin
  • 1962: Red Pathfinders
  • 1972: Squad Songs

Overtures

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  • 1957: Youth
  • 1958: Thuringia
  • 1967: Merry Girls
  • 1967: Russian Holiday, for the orchestra of Russian folk instruments

Instrumental

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  • The Rhythms of Time
  • Carnival
  • Auftakt
  • Robinsonade (from the film "My Love in the Third Year of Study")
  • Heart in the palm
  • A moment of luck
  • Morning big city
  • Elegy (from the film O Sport, You Are Peace!)

Recordings

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  1. 1971: Concerto for Orchestra in E Major (USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra, under Evgeny Svetlanov)[5]
  2. 1985: Marshal Zhukov March (from film "Battle of Moscow," Central Military band of Ministry of Defence of USSR, under Colonel Anatoly Maltsev)[6]
  3. 2015: Concerto for solo Trumpet and Orchestra (Trumpet Records, Timofei Aleksandrovich Dokschitzer)[7]
  4. 2019: Anniversary Concert for Aleksandra Pakhmutova (Bolshoi Theater, under Mikhail Pletnev and Yuri Bashmet)[8]

Honors and awards

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Soviet and Russian
Foreign
  • Order of Francysk Skaryna (Belarus, 3 April 2000) – for outstanding work on the development and strengthening of the Belarusian-Russian cultural relations
Public
  • Order of St. Euphrosyne, Grand Duchess of Moscow, 2nd class (Russian Orthodox Church, 2008)
  • The title "Living Legend" by the national Russian award "Ovation" (2002)
  • The award "Russian National Olympus" (2004)
Awards
Ovation
Preceded by Living Legend Award
2002
Aleksandra Pakhmutova
Succeeded by

References

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  1. ^ "Александра Пахмутова: биография легендарного композитора и автора любимых многими поколениями песен" [Alexandra Pakhmutova: biography of the legendary composer and author of songs loved by many generations]. Argumenty i Fakty. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  2. ^ "Пахмутова и Добронравов рассказали историю своей любви" [Pakhmotova and Robronravov Told Their Love Story]. mk.ru (in Russian). Moskovsky Komsomolets. November 7, 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Famous Soviet songs composer Alexandra Pakhmutova turns 89". russkiymir.ru. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  4. ^ "Симфонические произведения" [Symphonic pieces of music]. pakhmutova.ru. Official site. Retrieved 30 November 2020. 1990 recording, conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov
  5. ^ Alexandra Pakhmutova Concerto for Orchestra in E major (1971) [Score-Video], 9 November 2019, archived from the original on 2021-12-22, retrieved 2021-08-28
  6. ^ March "Marshal Zhukov" (Aleksandra Pakhmutova) / Марш Маршал Жуков (Александра Пахмутова), 6 February 2012, archived from the original on 2021-12-22, retrieved 2021-08-28
  7. ^ Alexandra Pakhmutova - Concerto for trumpet and Orchestra (Timofei Dokshizer - trumpet), 27 November 2015, archived from the original on 2021-12-22, retrieved 2021-08-28
  8. ^ Большой юбилейный концерт Александры Пахмутовой, retrieved 2021-08-28[dead YouTube link]
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