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Dmitri (Felixovich) Yanov-Yanovsky
Uzbek
composer
Born: Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 24.04.1963
Yanov-Yanovsky was born into a
very musical family in Tashkent. He graduated in 1986 from the
State Conservatory of Uzbekistan
where he studied composition and instrumentation with his father
professor Felix
Yanov-Yanovsky. Felix (born May 28 1934) in Tashkent was himself educated at this
conservatory as a violinist (1957) and a composer (1959).and has become
known composer of orchestral music, chamber music, and vocal works that
have been performed in Asia and Europe As
a violinist, he worked in the State Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan (1954-64)
and the String Quartet of Uzbek Radio (1964-68). He has taught at the
State Conservatory of Uzbekistan since 1961, where he is now a professor..
During the period after his graduation Dmitri also travelled to European Russia, where he benefited
from the advice and support of, among others, Alfred Schnittke and Edison
Denisov.
Of all the many young composers who have emerged in recent years from the 15 new countries of what was once the
USSR, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky has one of the strongest and most individual
voices in which his remarkable surroundings are
distinctly reflected in his music. At the same time he is no mere local colorist. His disciplined musical upbringing
has given him an alertness to many other traditions, f.ex. American and
European.
In the following year he attended master-classes with Poul Ruders and Edison Denisov at the
Lerchenborg Music Days in Denmark.
He has won a number of awards for his musical
compositions. Among those: second prize at the 4th International
Competition of Sacred Music in Fribourg, Switzerland (1991) for his
piece Lacrymosa for soprano and string quartet; ALEA III
International Prize in Boston, USA(1992) for his work Presentment
for chamber ensemble and tape; Special Award of Nantes at the International
Film Festival (France, 1992) for the musical score to the film Kammie.
In 1993-94, Yanov-Yanovsky performed and recorded the chang part in his
piece Chang Music V together with the Kronos Quartet. And in 2000 he
together with Elisabeth Chojnacka performed and recorded on CD his piece Music
of Dreams for harpsichord
and chang. In 1999 took place two monographic concerts of the composer in
Roma and Torino, in 2003 – in Brussels and Mons (Belgium). In 2002 he won
a fellowship from Siemens Corporation, USA where he spent two months
in New Jersey as a composer-in-residence.
The exotic side of Yanov-Yanovsky's imagination is heard to effect in his cycle of five pieces based on the small Central Asian cimbalom called a
chang, a difficult instrument which the composer taught himself to play this.
Chang-Musics II, III and IV mimic the chang's jangling sound on other instruments, whether two pianos, string trio or quartet.
Other pieces turn to different oriental sounds. like in Presentiment, Awakening
and Conjunctions.
In a different vein are works like Lacrymosa and Hommage à Gustav Mahler (1996), both for soprano and string quartet,
Come and Go (1995), and Etude for the stage after Samuel Beckett. These
works reflect more Western interests, not only in their texts but in their
stylistic allusions to Catholic church music, late German romanticism and post-Webernian modernism. Other pieces, like the orchestral works
Sotto Voce (1993) and Ritual (1994), make no such appeal to historical memory, suggesting instead a purer and more self-referential world.
His works have been performed during the 23d International Music Festival
in Brno (1988), the cycles of concerts Europhonia in Zagreb
(1990), the Schleswig-Holstein Festival (1994, 1995), Lerchenborg
Music Days (1992, 1994), Vienna Jazz Festival (1993), ISCM
World Music Days in Stockholm (1994), Kronos And Friends Festival
(1993, 1994), Presences (1993, 2000) in Paris, the 17th Music Biennale
Zagreb (1993), the Festival Internationale Cervantino in Mexico
(1993), Warsaw Autumn (1997), Moscow Autumn (1996,97), Music
Today (1995), Munich biennale (1996), Settembre Musica
(2000), Musica Viva's Yarra Valley Festival (2002), Spoleto
Festival USA (2002, 2003), Melbourne Festival (2002), Sydney
Festival (2003), Alspekte Salzburg (2003), etc.
Among performers of his music were the Arditti Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, the Kronos
Quartet, the Moscow Ensemble of Contemporary Music, ALEA III
Ensemble, Erwartung Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Jerusalem
Contemporary Players, Xenia Ensemble, Musiques Nouvelles, Anti
Dogma Musica, the Xenakis Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble, Sentieri
selvaggi, Alter ego, Joel Sachs, Sarah Leonard,
Barbara Bayer, Dennis Rassel Davies, Diego Masson, Phillis
Bryn-Julson, Herve Desarbre, Pascal Rophe, Ensemble
Caput, Elisabeth Chojnacka, HK Gruber, David James,
Yo-Yo Ma, the London Sinfonietta, 2e2m, Ian Munro
etc.
In addition to his concert music, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky is known for his
scores for 48 films and over 25 theatre performances.
The following works should be also be mentioned - first for the stage: Thread
(text by Omar Khayyam), voice, dancer, ensemble (10 players) (1989), The
Little Match-Girl (ballet for children, after Hans Christian Andersen),
(1996-97); Breath (stage etude no. 2, after Samuel Beckett), flute,
clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion, tape, (1999); Eh Joe
(chamber opera, libretto by Samuel Beckett), mezzo-soprano, actor/video, (2001).
Of orchestral pieces Yanov-Yanovsky has composed Conjunctions (1995)
for string quartet, tape and orchestra and a Concerto for piano and small orchestra, (1983),
Ritual, (1994) and Takyr for 6 percussion players (using
almost 40 different percussion instruments) and string orchestra (1995).
Among his chamber music are String Quartet (1985), Coda, gijak,
chang, (1986) Epilogue for string quartet and piano, 1989, Fragments of
Bird Life for recorder (1991); Sounding Darkness for flute, oboe,
viola, cello, glass harmonica (1992), Haiku for Gert Sørensen
(Danish percussionist) (1992), Chamber Music, ensemble (12 players) (1993),
Lux aeterna for violin, ensemble (1997); Predestination (after
M. C. Escher) harpsichord, ensemble, (1997); 7 Miniatures, flute, (2001),
Twilight Music for flute, oboe, B-flat clarinet, harp, mandolin,
guitar, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, (2002).
Among his choral music include the most important is Ad amorem (text
from the Song of Solomon), vocal ensemble, French horn, 2 trumpets,
trombone, tuba, (1997), Autumn rain in the darkness, (text by
Matsuo Basho), soprano, small orchestra, (1987), Wiegelied für
Heidelberg, soprano, flute, guitar, violin, percussion, (1996), Moon
Songs (text by Federico García Lorca), soprano, 2 pianos, (1996) and Nach
der Lese (sentimental comment), (text by Stefan George), soprano, violin,
cello, piano, (1999).
Besides this Yanov-Yanovsky has composed Bagatelles,
(1982); Cadenza, (1988); Allusions and Reminiscences, (2000)
for piano, plus Facets, (1996) and Elf and Mirror, (2000) for
organ.
In 1996 he founded the International Festival of Contemporary Music «ILKHOM-XX
in Tashkent. Now he is an art director of the festival.
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The Australian Pianist Ian Munro. Being Fascinated by the Uzbek composer
D. Yanov-Yanovsky he commissioned
Silhouettes
and gave the premiere of the work at the
Adelaide Festival in 2002.
Munro is himself an inspired composer with many works to his credit. |
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Moderato
leggiero - for the left hand (Maurice Ravel or George Gershwin)
This is the second movement of Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky's
work Silhouettes (2001), a work dedicated to the memory of Hugh Munro, father
of pianist Ian Munro who commissioned it, premiered it at the Adelaide
Festival in 2002 and has played it many times since. About the work Ian
Munro explained to this author: [Silhouettes consist of seven movements]: 1.
Moderato (Igor Stravinsky), 2. Moderato leggiero - for the left hand (Maurice
Ravel or George Gershwin), 3.Allegro (Charles Ives), 4. Quasi Ragtime
(John Cage), 5. Tempo di Marcia (Dmitri Schostakovich), 6. Andante, molto rubato
(Claude Debussy) and 7. Largo—Moderato (Alfred Schnittke).
Each of the Silhouettes is not so much a pastiche of the
respective composer but, according to Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, a composition
“following their methods”.
Picture of
Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky brought with permission of
the composer who has also supplied this author with most
of the information about himself and his works.
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