Miaskovsky, Nikolai

Nikolaj Myaskovsky – Dramatic Overture for Wind Band op. 60 (1942)

(b. Modlin, Polen, 20. April 1881 – d. Moskau, 8. August 1950)

Short biography
Nikolaj Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (b. 20 (or 8) April 1881 in the fortress of Novogeorgievsk (now Modlin, Poland), †8 August 1950 in Moscow) was a Russian composer best known for his songs, piano pieces and symphonies.

He was the second son of the military engineer Yakov Konstantinovich Mjaskovsky and his wife Vera Nikolayevna Myaskovskaya, who also came from a military family. Nikolaj spent his first seven years in Novogeorgievsk. In 1888 the family moved to Orenburg and in 1889 to Kazan. His aunt Elikonida Konstantinovna took care of the family after the death of his mother Vera in 1890 and she also became his first music teacher. In 1893 Nikolaj Mjaskovsky attended the cadet school in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1895-1899 he continued this military education at the cadet school in St Petersburg, where his father taught as a teacher at the Military Engineering Academy. Nikolaj received some violin lessons from his cousin Karl Brandt, who was a violinist in an orchestra in St. Petersburg. He then began to study harmony with the leader of the cadet orchestra, Nikolaj Kazanli, and made his first attempts at composition. In 1902, Mjaskovsky graduated as a military engineer and was transferred to Moscow. From January to May 1903 he had private lessons with the composer Reinhold Moritzewitsch Glière.
In early 1904, Nikolaj was called to the 19th Pioneer Battalion in St Petersburg and in 1906 he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied music with Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov, among others. Already in his first year at the conservatory, he formed a lifelong friendship with Sergei Prokofiev, ten years his junior, and the two men played music together regularly. In the spring of 1907, Mjaskovsky submitted his resignation from the army, but he was transferred as a reservist a year later. In August 1911, the composer worked as a music critic for various magazines such as Musika in Moscow. He published about 114 articles dealing with musical life in St. Petersburg and the latest music. …

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