Oscar Feltsman
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Oscar Borisovich Feltsman ( Ukrainian & ; 18 February 1921 – 3 February 2013) was a Ukrainian-born
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
of
Lithuanian Jewish {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...
descent. He was the father of Vladimir Feltsman.


Biography

Feltsman was born in
Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...
, the son of Boris Osipovich Feltsman, a Lithuanian Jewish orthopedic surgeon who also played the
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
professionally. He had musical training from the age of five; learning the violin as a pupil of Pyotr Stolyarsky and the piano with Bertha Reynbald, who also taught
Emil Gilels Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (19 October 191614 October 1985, born Samuil) was a Soviet pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. His sister Elizabeth, three years his junior, was a violinist. His daughter Elena ...
and Tatiana Goldfarb. He produced his first musical composition for the piano "Autumn" when he was six years old. Feltsman graduated from the Pyotr Stolyarsky Music School in Odesa in 1939, where he studied composition with the composer Nikolai Vilinsky. Then Feltsman was admitted to the
Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...
, studying under
Vissarion Shebalin Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (; 29 May 1963) was a USSR, Soviet composer, music pedagogue. Rector of the Moscow Conservatory (1942-1948). People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947). Biography Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school t ...
who wrote a letter of thanks on behalf of the Moscow Conservatory to Vilinsky for teaching Feltsman composition. During the Second World War, Feltsman was evacuated to
Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...
, becoming at 20 the executive secretary of the Siberian Union of Composers, where he wrote music for the philharmonic, Leningrad Alexandrinsky Theater and the Jewish theater of Belarus. In the same period Feltsman wrote an operetta based on
Valentin Kataev Valentin Petrovich Kataev (; also spelled Katayev or Kataiev;  – 12 April 1986) was a Soviet writer and editor who managed to create penetrating works discussing post-revolutionary social conditions without running afoul of the demands of ...
's play "Blue Scarf", which was criticised in the newspaper "
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...
". In 1941, Oscar Feltsman married Evgenia Kaydanovskaya a student of the choral conducting faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. He returned to Moscow from Novosibirsk in 1945. Starting with musical comedies at the beginning of his career, Feltsman subsequently combined producing traditional classical music with writing music for circuses and children's variety shows. After around 1952 Feltsman started to write popular songs and later on produced a number of popular songs. The first of these was ''Cruise'' based on poems by B. Dragunsky and L. Davidovich and performed by
Leonid Utyosov Leonid Osipovich Utesov, also spelled Utyosov or Utiosov, born Lazar (Leyzer) Iosifovich Vaysbeyn or Weissbein (, Odessa – 9 March 1982, Moscow), was a famous Soviet estrada singer, and comic actor, who became the first pop singer to be award ...
as well as ''Convallarias'' which was based on poetry by Olga Fadeeva. In 1948, at the Operetta Theatre in Moscow his musical comedy ''Air castle'' was premiered and in 1952, were two further premieres - at the Operetta Theater ''Suvorochka'' and at the Stanislavsky Theater ''Mediterranean Sea Make a Noise''. Around this time Feltsman also began to write music for Circuses and children's variety shows, staged by Natalia Sats. Also in 1952, Feltsman wrote his Violin Concerto in three parts. Thereafter he wrote a few songs - the first of these was ''Cruise'' based on poems by B. Dragunsky and L. Davidovich and performed by
Leonid Utyosov Leonid Osipovich Utesov, also spelled Utyosov or Utiosov, born Lazar (Leyzer) Iosifovich Vaysbeyn or Weissbein (, Odessa – 9 March 1982, Moscow), was a famous Soviet estrada singer, and comic actor, who became the first pop singer to be award ...
. Feltsman subsequently went on to collaborate with a number of prominent Russian poets including Andrey Voznesensky, Rasul Gamzatov, Eugene Dolmatovsky, Mihail Matusovsky, I. Kohanovsky, Mark Lisyansky, Lev Oshanin, Robert Rozhdestvensky, V. Kharitonov, Igor Shaferan, M. Tanich, V. Orlov, N. Olev, M. Ryabinin. His music has been performed by notable singers including L. Utesov, Mark Bernes, Vladimir Troshin,
Joseph Kobzon Joseph Davydovich Kobzon (11 September 1937 – 30 August 2018) was a Soviet-born Russian singer, known for his crooner style. Early life Kobzon was born to History of the Jews in the Soviet Union, Jewish Ukrainians, Ukrainian parents in the ...
, Muslim Magomaev,
Edita Piekha Edita Stanislavovna Piekha (born 31 July 1937) is a Soviet and Russian singer and actress of Polish descent. The peak of her popularity in the countries of the former USSR was in the 1960s. Her most famous song is “Our Neighbor”. (Наш с ...
, Eduard Khil, V. Tolkunova, Yuri Gulyaev, G. Ots, Lev Leshchenko, O. Anofriev, M. Pahomenko, &
Leonid Serebrennikov Leonid Fyodorovich Serebrennikov (October 2, 1947, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian actor and a singer. His voice appeared in approximately 70 films. Performer of the song ''Absurdly, jokingly, blindly, madly, fairy''... (''Nelepo, smeshno, bezra ...
. In 1968, he co-writes a song " Ogromnoe nebo". His most popular song was "Lilies of the Valley" («Ландыши»), written to verse by Olga Fadeeva ( ru) and sung by Gelena Velikanova at its première. In 1973, Feltsman wrote music for the plays ''Charley's Aunt'', ''The Old Houses'' and ''Let the Guitar Play''. In the mid-1980s, Feltsman arranged concerts for the instrumental ensemble ''The Lights of Moscow'' with soloist Irina Allegrova before handing over to David Tuhmanov after two successful years. In 1987, Feltsman wrote his vocal cycle ''Songs of Bygone'', based on Jewish folk songs and produced the book ''Songs of Bygone'' In the late 1990s Feltsman wrote 12 songs based on poetry by Yuri Garin which was performed in Odesa to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the city. Feltsman wrote a number of chamber works: ''Ten romances on the poems of Inna Lisnyanskaya'', ''The cycle of romances on the poetry of
Marina Tsvetaeva Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva ( rus, Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈta(j)ɪvə, links=yes; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is some of the most well-known in twentieth-century Russ ...
'', ''The cycle of songs on poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik''. He died, aged 91 of heart failure, in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
.


Honours and awards

*
Order of Merit for the Fatherland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * ...
, 2nd class (2011), 3rd class (2006) and 4th class (2001) *
Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...
(1996) * Honoured Artist of the Chechen-Ingush Republic * People's Artist of the RSFSR (1989) * People's Artist of the
Dagestan ASSR The Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1921–1991), abbreviated as Dagestan ASSR or DASSR and also unofficially known as Soviet Dagestan or just simply Dagestan, was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union ...
(1975) * Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1972)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Feltsman, Oscar 1921 births 2013 deaths Musicians from Odesa Odesa Jews Jewish classical composers Soviet composers Soviet male composers Russian opera composers Russian male opera composers Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class People's Artists of the RSFSR Honored Artists of the RSFSR Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery 20th-century Russian male musicians Moscow Conservatory alumni