Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (born Ivanov; until 1881 he used the surname Ivanov in documents) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born on 19 November 1859 in Gatchina, near Saint Petersburg, and became one of the prominent musical figures associated with the Moscow Conservatory, where he spent most of his professional life.

He studied music from childhood, first as a violinist, and later in Saint Petersburg at the music classes for young choristers attached to St Isaac's Cathedral (1872–1875). In 1875 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, initially studying double bass, then music theory; in 1880 he joined the composition class of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and graduated in 1882.

From 1882 to 1893 he worked in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) as the head of a branch of the Russian Musical Society that he founded, as an opera and symphonic conductor, and as a teacher at the music school. Among his students there was the Polish composer and pedagogue Witold Maliszewski. During these years and later he drew on regional folk traditions; he created the “Armenian Rhapsody” (1895) based on Armenian melodies he had collected in Nakhichevan, and in 1933 he wrote four pieces on Armenian folk themes for string quartet.

From 1893, invited by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ippolitov-Ivanov served as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and from 1906 to 1922 he was its rector (having acted as deputy director in 1905 and becoming director after Vasily Safonov declined to continue). He taught harmony, orchestration, and composition and led the opera class; his pupils included Aram Balanchivadze, Sergei Vasilenko, Reinhold Gliere, Alexander Goldenweiser, Konstantin Igumnov, and others. During World War I and the October Revolution he worked to preserve the Conservatory’s traditions, staff, and financial stability; in 1917 he and his wife, the opera singer V. M. Zarudnaya, founded the P. I. Tchaikovsky Opera and Vocal Studio (active until 1924). In October 1922 the Conservatory accepted his resignation as rector.

Alongside his pedagogical work, he maintained an active conducting career. He conducted for Savva Mamontov’s Moscow Private Russian Opera and Zimin’s Opera (1899–1906), took part as a conductor in S. N. Vasilenko’s Historical Concerts from 1909, and from 1925 worked as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre. Under his direction, operas including Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tsar’s Bride” and “Kashchey the Immortal” received their first performances.

In composition he followed the example of Rimsky-Korsakov, avoided harmonic innovation, and made extensive use of Russian, Georgian, and Armenian folklore. He paid particular attention to opera, also wrote Russian Orthodox church music, and contributed significantly to the notation of Georgian sacred chants and to the collection and publication of Georgian folk songs. Among his most frequently performed works are the orchestral suite “Caucasian Sketches,” the choral pieces “Bless the Lord, O My Soul,” “Behold, Now Bless the Lord,” and “Hymn of the Pythagoreans.” He was named People’s Artist of the Republic in 1922 and received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1934. He died on 28 January 1935 in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery; his name has been given to music schools and institutions, and monuments to him were unveiled in Moscow (2019) and Gatchina (2021).

Connections

This figure has 6 connections in the art history graph.