Konyus, Georgy

Preface

Konyus, Georgy – La forêt bruisse Op. 30 pour grand orchestre

(b. Moscow, 18. July 1862 – d. Moscow, 28. August 1933)

Preface
Composed following his graduation from Moscow Conservatory in 1899 but before his compositional work really began, Georgi Konyus’ tone poem (or symphonic picture), La forêt bruisse Op. 30, was among one of the first serious outputs at a time when his career was the talk of many. While you may not recognize the name, Konyus’ influence on early Soviet music theorizing was great, if only as a reflection of the ingenuity pre-Stalinist musicology had to offer. Taught by some of the strongest, late-Imperial academicians like Anton Arensky and Sergei Tanyeev, the latter a fierce oppositionalist to the nationalist romanticism of the Slavophile “Balakirev Circle,” and despite many of Konyus’ works having no home in the contemporary performance circles, there may be some hope yet. Recent recordings like Jonathan Powell’s 2018 CD of Konyus’ many piano works, from his early pieces (Op. 1, Trois compositions, From Childhood Life) to later ones (Op. 39, Largo), have given new life to his exceptional compositional competencies. During his time, Konyus was not just a theorist but a recognized composer by the likes of Tchaikovsky and Tsar Nicholas II, the former authoring an (unpublished) letter in praise of Konyus whilst the latter, given his consummate talent, awarded Konyus a 1,200 ruble (approx. $1,200) monthly allowance to support his compositional career. At the turn of the 20th century, much was underway within the pre-Soviet/late-Imperial world of Russian music. Everything from the birth of movements like late-Romantic Mysticism and post-Impressionist Symbolism with Alexander Scriabin, to the dawning of the “Silver Age” with Rachmaninoff, early Stravinsky, Prokofiev, even the later works of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, among many others, well before the failed 1905 revolution and the cataclysmic 1917 revolution, greatness was on the horizon. One could go so far as to say before Modernism took over the compositional zeitgeist of both Europe and Russia alike, real progress was being made to reconceptualize human emotion, nature/man relations, and neo-spirituality only to be undermined with the gradually increasing supremacy of the individual and the weaponization-cum-exploitation of nature, order, and harmony. Works from the early-20th century, specifically the first decade (1901-1912), marked a development in Konyus’ compositional progress, demonstrating his courageousness towards both small-scale and large-scale works. …

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