Nikolai Myaskovsky – 140th birth anniversary. Rediscovering the composer in the present times

Abstract

Abstract On the occasion of the 140th anniversary of composer Nikolai Myaskovsky’s birth, in the spring of 2021, in the city of Ekaterinburg there took place the Myaskovsky Dialogues festival dedicated entirely to the Russian composer, being one of the few musical events with a musical programme based on his works. Known as the “father” of the Soviet symphony, Nikolai Myaskovsky was one of the pillars of resistance in Russian music culture in the first half of the 20th century, managing to maintain a stylistic balance between traditional genres, harmonic language with innovative tendencies, ideas promoted within the new political system and a neutral way of integrating communist ideals musically. Although his contemporaries perceived him with respect and consideration, N. Myaskovsky was discredited after the tensions and political events of 1948, entering a shadow zone during the Cold War, until the fall of the Iron Curtain. Therefore, it was only in the last three decades that he was rediscovered in the music world, due to the interest given to his works by well-known conductors such as E. Svetlanov, V. Gergiev, V. Petrenko, V. Jurowski. In this paper, our aim is to accomplish a historical perspective on N. Myaskovsky’s rediscovery and his approach in concert programs, records, reviews, chronicles, articles, musicological studies, papers and volumes from the 1970s to the present.