Muradeli, Vano (Ilyich)
Muradeli, Vano (Ilyich)
Muradeli, Vano (Ilyich), Russian composer; b. Gori, Ga., April 6, 1908; d. Tomsk, Siberia, Aug. 14, 1970. As a child he improvised songs, accompanying himself on the mandolin. He studied with Barchudarian and Bagrinsky at the Tiflis Cons, (graduated, 1931) and with Shekhter and Miaskovsky at the Moscow Cons, (graduated, 1934). His early compositions were influenced by his native folk music; he wrote a Georgian Suite for Piano (1935) and incidental music to plays on Caucasian subjects. His first important work was a sym. in memory of the assassinated Soviet dignitary Kirov (Moscow, Nov. 28, 1938); his 2nd Sym. (1946) received a Stalin prize. The performance of his opera Great Friendship (Moscow, Nov. 7, 1947) gave rise to an official condemnation of modernistic trends in Soviet music, culminating in the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Feb. 10, 1948, which described the opera as “chaotic, inharmonious, and alien to the normal human ear.” His reputation was rehabilitated by his subsequent works, which included The Path of Victory, symphonic poem for Chorus and Orch. (1950), a series of choruses (Stalin’s Will Has Led Us; Song of the Fighters for Peace; and Hymn to Moscow, which received a Stalin prize in 1951), and an opera, October (Moscow, April 22, 1964).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire