Khrennikov, Tikhon (Nikolaievich)
Khrennikov, Tikhon (Nikolaievich)
Khrennikov, Tikhon (Nikolaievich), important Russian music administrator and composer; b. Elets, June 10, 1913. He was the 10th child in the musical family of a provincial clerk; his parents and siblings played the Russian guitar and the mandolin and sang peasant songs. He took piano lessons with a local musician. In 1927 he went to Moscow, where he was introduced to Gnessin, who accepted him as a student in his newly founded musical Technicum; there he studied counterpoint with Litinsky and piano with Ephraim Hellman. After graduation, he entered the Moscow Cons., where he studied composition with Shebalin and piano with Neuhaus (1932–36). He later continued postgraduate work with Shebalin. He developed a mildly modernistic, and technically idiomatic, type of composition which remained his recognizable style throughout his career as a composer. In 1961 he joined the faculty of the Moscow Cons., and was named a prof, in 1966. In the meantime, he became engaged in the political life of the country. He was attached to the music corps of the Red Army and accompanied it during the last months of World War II. In 1947 he joined the Communist party, and also became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. In 1948 he was named personally by Stalin as secretary-general of the Union of Soviet Composers, and in 1949 became president of the music section of the All- Union Soc. for Cultural Exchange with Europe and America. He further served as head of the organizing committee for the International Festivals and the Tchaikovsky Competitions in Moscow. He was named a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973, and in 1974 received the Lenin Prize. Amid all this work, he never slackened the tempo of his main preoccupation, that of composition. During his entire career, he was a stout spokesman for Soviet musical policy along the lines of socialist realism. He compromised himself, however, by his vehement condemnation of “formalist” directions in modern music, specifically attacking Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and, later, also Schnittke and Gubaidulina. But as Soviet aesthetical directions underwent a liberal change, Khrennikov himself became the target of sharp criticism. He defended himself by claiming that he had protected a number of young musicians from attacks by entrenched functionaries of the Soviet musical establishment, and he succeeded in retaining his position as secretary-general of the Union of Soviet Composers until 1991. His compositions express forcefully the desirable qualities of erstwhile Soviet music, a flowing melody suggesting the broad modalities of Russian folk songs, a vibrant and expressive lyricism, and effective instrumental formation.
Works
dramatic:Opera: V buryu (Into the Storm; Moscow, May 31, 1939; rev. version, Moscow, Oct. 12, 1952); Frol Skobeyev, comic opera (Moscow, Feb. 24, 1950; rev. as Bezrodniy zyat[The Unrelated Son-in-Law], after Gorky, Novosibirsk, Dec. 29, 1966); Mat (Mother; Moscow, Oct. 26, 1957); 200 Chertey i odna devushka (100 Devils and a Single Girl), operetta (Moscow, May 16, 1963); Belaya noch (White Night), operetta (Moscow, May 23, 1967); Malchik- velikan (Boy Giant), children’s fairy-tale opera (Moscow, Dec. 19, 1969); Mnogo shuma…iz-za serdets (Much Ado about…Hearts), comic opera (Moscow, March 11, 1972); Doroteya, comic opera (Moscow, May 26, 1983); Zolotoy telyonok (The Golden Calf), comic opera (Moscow, March 9, 1985); Golty korol (The Naked King), comic opera (Leningrad, May 1988). Ballet: Much Ado About Nothing (1976); Napoleon Bonaparte (1995); The Captain’s Daughter (1999).other: Incidental music to plays; film scores. orch.: 4 piano concertos (1933, 1970, 1982, 1992); 3 syms.: No. 1 (1935; Moscow, Oct. 10, 1955), No. 2, expressing “the irresistible will to defeat the Fascist foe” (1940-43; Moscow, Jan. 10, 1943), and No. 3 (1973); 2 violin concertos (1959, 1975); 2 cello concertos: No. 1 (Moscow, May 13, 1964) and No. 2 (1986). other: Chamber music; piano pieces; choruses; many songs.
Bibliography
L. Kaltat, T. K. (Moscow, 1946); V. Kukharsky, T. K. (Moscow, 1957); Y. Kremlev, T. K. (Moscow, 1963); I. Martinov, T.N. K. (Moscow, 1987).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire