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Elena Firsova
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Name
Elena Firsova
Role
Composer
Education
Moscow Conservatory
Albums
The Mandelstam Cantatas (Studio for New Music Moscow feat. conductor: Igor Dronov, soprano: Ekaterina Kichigina)
Firsova was born in Leningrad into the family of physicists Oleg Firsov and Viktoria Lichko. She studied music in Moscow with Alexander Pirumov, Yuri Kholopov, Edison Denisov and Philip Herschkowitz. In 1979 she was blacklisted as one of the "Khrennikov's Seven" at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers for unapproved participation in some festivals of Soviet music in the West. She is married to the composer Dmitri Smirnov and they currently live in the United Kingdom. Their children are Philip Firsov (an artist and sculptor), and Alissa Firsova (a composer, pianist and conductor).
She composed more than a hundred compositions in many different genres including chamber opera The Nightingale and the Rose after Oscar Wilde and Christina Rossetti (premiered at the 1994 Almeida Opera Festival, London), an orchestra work Augury, (premiered at the 1992 BBC Proms) that includes a choral setting of William Blake's famous lines 'To see the world in a grain of sand...' and Requiem to Anna Akhmatova's poem for soprano, chorus and orchestra (premiered at the Berlin Konzerthouse in September 2003).
Her favourite genre is a chamber cantata for solo voice and ensemble (or orchestra). Some of them are written to the poems by Alexander Pushkin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak and Oleg Prokofiev. However, the most of them are setting the poems by her favourite poet Osip Mandelstam that include Earthly Life, Tristia, The Stone, Forest Walks, Before the Thunderstorm, Stygian Song, Secret Way, Seashell, Whirlpool, Silentium, Winter Songs, and Petrarch's Sonnets (in Russian translation by Osip Mandelstam).
She received commissions from many music festivals, orchestras and ensembles including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Brodsky Quartet, Manchester Wind Orchestra, Schubert Ensemble, Freden Festival, BBC Proms, Asiago Festival, and Expo 2000 (Hanover). Her music is available through publishers Boosey & Hawkes, London; Hans Sikorski, Hamburg; G. Schirmer, New York.
Selected works
Suite for viola solo, Op. 2 (1967)
A Feast in Time of Plague, chamber opera after Alexander Pushkin (1973)
Cello Concerto No.1 (1973)
Petrarch's Sonnets (translated by Osip Mandelstam) for voice and ensemble (1976)
Chamber Concerto No. 1 for flute and strings (1978)
The Night for voice and saxophone quartet (Boris Pasternak, 1978)
Tristia, cantata for voice and chamber orchestra (Mandelstam, 1979)
Three Poems of Osip Mandelstam, for voice and piano (1980)
Misterioso (String Quartet No. 3, 1980)
Shakespeare's Sonnets for voice and organ (or saxophone quartet, 1981)
The River of Time for chorus and chamber orchestra in memory of Edison Denisov (Gavrila Derzhavin, 1997)
La malinconia (String Quartet No. 10, 1998)
Captivity for wind orchestra (1998)
Leaving for string orchestra (1998)
The Scent of Absence for bass, flute and harp (Oleg Prokofiev, 1998)
Das erste ist vergangen (Christushymnus 2000) (The Former Things are Passed Away) for soprano, bass, mixed choir, and chamber orchestra (Franz Kafka, Bible, etc., 1999)
Requiem for soprano, chorus and orchestra (Anna Akhmatova, 2001)
Winter Songs for soprano and cello (Mandelstam, 2003)
Purgatorio (String Quartet No. 11, completed in 2008)
Selected discography
Misterioso, String Quartet No.3 Op.24 in: Lydian Quartet in Moscow: E. Firsova, Chaushian, Child, Lee Art and Electronics: AED 10108 Stereo
Amoroso, String Quartet No.4 Op.40 in: Chilingirian Quartet: Stravinsky, Schnittke, Smirnov, Roslavets, E. Firsova: Music for String Quartet, Conifer Classics 75605 512522
La Malinconia, String Quartet No.10 Op.84 in: Brodsky Quartet: Beethoven Op.18 and six more: Alvarez, Beamish, E. Firsova, Jegede, Smirnov, Tanaka, Vanguard Classics 99212
Chamber Concerto No.1 for Flute and Strings Op.19 in: Works by modern composers of Moscow: Smirnov, Bobilev, E. Firsova, Pavlenko, Artiomov, Mobile Fidelity MFCD 906
Cassandra for symphony orchestra Op.60 (1992) together with Sofia Gubaidulina: Pro et contra BIS CD-668 STEREO
The Mandelstam Cantatas (Forest Walks, Earthly Life, Before the Thunderstorm) Studio for New Music Moscow, Igor Dronov, conductor; Ekaterina Kichigina, soprano Megadisc MDC 7816 see at Megadisc site
For Alissa Op. 102 (2002) in: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS: Rachmaninov, Smirnov, E. Firsova, A. Firsova: Alissa Firsova, piano: Vivat 109 DDD
Homage to Canisy, Op.129 for Cello & Piano
Lost Vision, Op. 137 for Piano SoloA Triple Portrait, Op.132, commissioned by Marsyas Trio (2011)Night Songs, Op.125 for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute & CelloSpring Sonata, Op.27 for Flute & PianoFor Slava, Op.120 for Solo CelloMeditation in the Japanese Garden, Op.54 for Flute, Cello & PianoThree Poems of Osip Mandelstam, Op.23 for Soprano & PianoTender is the Sorrow, Op.130 for Flute, String Trio and Piano in: A Triple Portrait. Chamber Music by Elena Firsova - Marsyas Trio, Meridian: CDE84635 see at Meridian site