Arensky, Arienski, Anton Stiepanowicz, *12 July (30 June) 1861 Nowogród Wielki, †25 (12) February 1906 Perkjarvi near Terijoki (Finland, now near Zelenogorsk, Russia), Russian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He began learning music at home under the supervision of his mother, then continued it in St. Petersburg with K. Zike, at the Russeau music school. In 1879–82, he studied at the conservatory in St. Petersburg (counterpoint with J. Johannsen, composition with N. Rimsky-Korsakov). After graduating with a gold medal, he took up teaching work at the Moscow Conservatory, where in 1882–89, he taught theoretical subjects, and from 1889 to 1894, he taught composition classes. His students included A. Scriabin, S. Rachmaninoff, A. Goldenweiser, and H. Pachulski. In 1888–95, Arensky was also a conductor of the Russian Choral Society in Moscow. In 1895, he became the director of the Imperial Choir in St. Petersburg, from which he retired in 1901 to devote himself to composition and concert activities. In 1904, he stopped performing due to lung disease.
Arensky’s work was strongly influenced by P. Tchaikovsky, with whom he was friends during the years of his professorship at the conservatory in Moscow. Not equal to him in terms of creative individuality, Arensky absorbed only the superficial features of Tchaikovsky’s music: the melancholic tone, the elegance of style, and the penchant for euphemistic harmonics. He also showed great melodic inventiveness and a predisposition to lyrical forms of expression. Arensky’s work suited the musical tastes of wide circles of the Russian bourgeoisie. The most popular were songs (Rozbitaja waza, Nie zażygaj ognia, Osien’), piano and chamber pieces (elegiac Piano Trio in D minor dedicated to the memory of K. Davydov). He failed in the attempt to achieve a national character of music by referring to folk songs; in terms of large vocal forms, Arensky did not go beyond the mood of romantic lyricism (Son na Volge); in piano and chamber works, folk themes were given an alien harmonic setting and a virtuoso texture of salon provenance (Fantasia on Themes of Ryabinin).
Literature: G. Cypin Anton Stiepanowicz Arienski, Moscow 1966. K. Płużnikow Zabytyje stranicy russkogo romansu, Leningrad 1988.
Compositions
Instrumental:
orchestra:
Symphony in B minor Op. 4, 1883
Symphony in A major Op. 22, 1889
Suite in G minor 1886
Fantasia for orchestra, Op. 9, 1886
Intermezzo in G minor for string orchestra, Op. 13, 1889
Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky for string orchestra, Op. 35
for an instrument and orchestra:
Concerto in F minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 2, 1882
Concerto in A minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 54, 1901
Fantasia on Themes of Ryabinin for piano and orchestra, Op. 48, 1899
chamber:
Piano Quintet in D major 1900
String Quartet in G major 1888
String Quartet in A minor 1894
String Trio in D minor 1894
String Trio in F minor 1905
pieces for violin and piano, for cello and piano
piano:
Essais sur des rythmes oubliés for piano, Op. 28
24 morceaux for piano, Op. 36
12 préludes for piano, Op. 63
4 suites for 2 pianos, Op. 15, 23, 33, 62
Dietskaja siuita Op. 65 (canons for piano for 4 hands)
Vocal and vocal-instrumental:
60 songs for voice and piano
Wołki, ballad for bass and orchestra, lyrics by A. Tolstoy, 1902
Kubok, ballad for voice, choir and orchestra, lyrics by F. Schiller, Russian transl. W. Żukowski, 1902
Wospominanije, suite for voice and orchestra, lyrics by P. Shelley, Russian transl. K. Balmont, 1904
duets and vocal quartets
choral pieces (secular and orthodox)
Lesnoj car, cantata, lyrics by J.W. Goethe, Russian transl. W. Żukowski, 1882
Cantata for the Tenth Anniversary…, lyrics by A. Kryukov, 1893
3 melodeclamations with an orchestra to poetic and prose texts by I. Turgenev, 1903
Scenic:
operas:
Son na Volge, libretto after A. Ostrovsky, 1882–90, staged in Moscow 1890
Rafael…, staged in Moscow in 1894
Nal i Damajanti, libretto after W. Żukowski, 1891–1903, staged in Moscow 1904
music for the staging of the poem The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by A. Pushkin, 1899
music for The Tempest by W. Shakespeare, staged in Moscow 1905
Egyptian Nights, ballet, 1900, staged in Paris 1908 (as part of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes), St. Petersburg 1909
Works:
Kratkoje rukowodstwo k prakticzeskomu izuczeniju garmonii, Moscow 1891, 5th ed.1929, German transl. P. Juon 1900
Rukowodstwo k izuczeniju form instrumientalnoj i wokalnoj muzyki, 2 parts, Moscow 1893–94, 6th ed. 1930
Sbornik zadacz (1000) dla prakticzeskogo izuczenija garmonii, Moscow 1897, last ed. 1960
