Boris Tishchenko


Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.

Life

Tishchenko was born in Leningrad. He studied at the Leningrad Musical College from 1954 to 1957. There he learnt composition under Galina Ustvolskaya and piano under Mikhelis. Then from 1957 to 1963 he studied composition with Vadim Salmanov, Victor Voloshinov and Orest Evlakhov, and piano with L. Logovinski at the Leningrad Conservatory. He took a postgraduate course with the composer Dmitri Shostakovich from 1962 to 1965. He subsequently joined the faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory from 1965, and became a professor there in 1986.
Tischenko was married three times. His first marriage, to the pianist Anastasia Braudo, produced a son, Dmitri. His second wife was the singer Galina Kulichenko, and the couple had a son, Vsevolod. Both of these marriages ended in divorce. His third wife was the harpist Irina Donskaya, and their marriage produced a son, Andrei. His third wife and all of his sons survived him.

Music

His output includes eight numbered symphonies, nine unnumbered symphonies, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, a piano concerto, a harp concerto, a concerto for flute and piano, a concerto for violin and piano, six string quartets, two cello sonatas, eleven piano sonatas, a requiem, chamber and vocal works, the opera The Stolen Sun, the operetta A Cockroach, three ballets The Twelve, Fly-bee and Yaroslavna, and incidental music for theatre and film.
Tishchenko's music style and composing manner shows him to be a typical representative of the Leningrad composers' school. He was very much influenced by music of his teachers Dmitri Shostakovich and Galina Ustvolskaya, turning these influences in his own way. He tried to use some experimental and modernist ideas like twelve-tone or aleatoric techniques, but was much more attached to the native traditions of his homeland. He demonstrated a kind of originality, scoring his Second Cello Concerto for 48 cellos, 12 double-basses and percussion. Ten years later, however, he re-orchestrated it for a more practical combination.
He was honored by Shostakovich's orchestration of his First Cello Concerto, and repaid his master by the orchestration, editing and transcription of a few scores by Shostakovich. Tishchenko's Requiem, to the forbidden poem by Anna Akhmatova, written in the period of political stagnation in 1966, was a courageous cultural gesture.

Works

Stage