Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich (1881–1950)

Russian composer. Intending to follow a military career, he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1906, where he studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, and Wihtol. His compositions include 27 symphonies and 13 string quartets. Although he was denounced in 1948 with Prokofiev and others for ‘formalism’, his music is in a tonal, conservative idiom.

He was the son of a Russian military engineer stationed in Poland, whence the family moved successively to Orenburg, Kazan, and Nizhniy-Novgorod, where Miaskovsky joined the cadet corps. Intended to follow his father's career, he did not finally take to music until 1907, when he resigned his commission, though he had composed many piano preludes, studied with Glière and Krizhanovsky, and entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1906. In 1914–17 he fought on the Austrian front and was badly wounded; in 1921 he became composition professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

Works Oratorio Kirov is with us.

Orchestral 27 symphonies (1908–50), 2 sinfoniettas, symphonic poems Silence (after Poe) and Alastor (after Shelley), serenade and Lyric Concertino for small orchestra; violin concerto (1938); cello concertino (1945); Salutatory Overture on Stalin's 60th birthday (1939).

Chamber 13 string quartets (1913–49); 2 cello and piano sonatas; 9 piano sonatas.

Other piano pieces; 13 Op. nos. of songs.