Hartmann, Thomas (Alexandrovich de)

Hartmann, Thomas (Alexandrovich de), Russian composer; b. Khoruzhevka, Ukraine, Sept. 21, 1885; d. Princeton, N.J., March 26, 1956. He studied piano with Essipova and composition with Taneyev and Arensky at the St. Petersburg Cons. His first important work, the ballet The Little Crimson Flower, was premiered at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg in 1907 with Pavlova, Karsavina, Nijinsky, and Fokine. After the Revolution, he went to the Caucasus; taught at the Tiflis Cons. (1919); then went to Paris, where he remained until 1951, when he settled in N.Y. His early music is in the Russian national style, influenced particularly by Mussorgsky; from about 1925, he made a radical change in his style of composition, adopting many devices of outspoken modernism.

Works

dramatic: Opera: Esther (not perf.). ba11et:The Little Crimson Flower (St. Petersburg, Dec. 16, 1907); Babette (Nice, March 10, 1935). orch.: 4 syms. (1915; 1944; 1953; 1955, unfinished); Cello Concerto (1935; Boston, April 14, 1938); Piano Concerto (1940; Paris, Nov. 8, 1942); Double Bass Concerto (1943; Paris, Jan. 26, 1945); Harp Concerto (1944); Violin Concerto (Paris, March 16, 1947); Flute Concerto (Paris, Sept. 27, 1950); 12 Russian Fairy Tales (Houston, April 4, 1955). chamber: Violin Sonata (1937); Cello Sonata (1942); Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano (1946); piano pieces. vocal: 3 song cycles to words by Verlaine, Proust, and James Joyce; other songs. other: Music to Kandinsky’s The Yellow Sound (arranged by G. Schuller; N.Y., Feb. 9, 1982).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire