Samuil Abramovich Samosud (; , Tiflis — 6 November 1964,

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 ...

) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n conductor and pedagogue. He started his musical career as a cellist, before becoming a conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre, Petrograd in 1917. From 1918 to 1936 he conducted at the Maly Operny, Leningrad. In 1936 he became musical director at the Bolshoi Theatre,

. He founded what became the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in 1951. He premiered several important works, including Shostakovich's '' Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'', '' The Nose'' and the Seventh Symphony; as well as Prokofiev's '' War and Peace'' and '' On Guard for Peace''. Shostakovich "had a high opinion" of Samosud's theatrical performances, and regarded him as "the supreme interpreter" of operatic works including ''Lady Macbeth''. Nonetheless, after hearing Samosud conduct the Seventh Symphony, the composer wrote that he wanted to hear Yevgeny Mravinsky perform the symphony, as he didn't "have great faith in Samosud as a symphonic conductor".

Awards and honors

* Honored Artist of the RSFSR * People's Artist of the RSFSR (1936) * Order of the Badge of Honour (1936) * People's Artist of the USSR (1937) * Order of Lenin (1937) * Three Stalin Prizes (1941, 1947, 1952) * Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1964) * Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" * Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"

References

External links

Samuel Samosud — Biography on Prokofiev.org
(on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, captured on 4 February 2012) 1884 births 1964 deaths Soviet cellists 20th-century Russian conductors (music) 20th-century Russian male musicians Musicians from Tbilisi Academic staff of Saint Petersburg Conservatory Tbilisi State Conservatoire alumni Honored Artists of the RSFSR People's Artists of the RSFSR People's Artists of the USSR Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Music directors (opera) Cellists from the Russian Empire Conductors (music) from the Russian Empire Music educators from the Russian Empire Russian classical cellists Russian Jews Russian male conductors (music) Russian music educators Soviet classical cellists Soviet conductors (music) Soviet Jews Soviet music educators Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery {{russia-conductor-stub