Vladimir Senilov (1875-1918)

[Christopher]

Vladimir Alexeievich Senilov (1875-1918) - this Russian composer has been mentioned in passing on this forum before.

His brief Wikipedia page, in Russian (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сенилов,_Владимир_Алексеевич), reads as follows:

Vladimir Alekseevich Senilov (July 9 (21), 1875, Vyatka (present day Kirov) - September 18, 1918, Petrograd) - Russian composer.

Biography
From childhood, he studied piano and flute. He studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated in 1899. In 1899-1901 in Leipzig he was a listener of lectures by X. Riemann on the theory of music. From 1902 to 1906 he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Works
operas:
   "George the Brave" (text by A. M. Remizov);
   "Vasily Buslaev" (musical drama, on his own text);
   "Hippolytus" (after Euripides).
1 symphony;
"Autumn" overture;
Symphonic poems:
   "Wild ducks" (after Maupassant);
   "Mtsyri" (based on the poem of the same name by Lermontov)
   "Pan";
   "Scythians";
Poem for cello and piano;
Three string quartets;
about 90 romances (to the words of K. D. Balmont, A. A. Blok, B. Ya. Bryusov, F. K. Sologub, F. Nietzsche, J. Rischpen, G. Heine and others

His other wikipedia pages, in German and Catalan, add "Senilov studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov and worked as a music teacher and lawyer. In addition to several stage works, he composed a symphony , four symphonic poems , an orchestral overture and variations for orchestra, chamber music works, a cantata and choir and piano music. He set three poems by Anna Akhmatova : The Prayer ( Молитва ), The Gray-Eyed King ( Сероглазый король ) and The Statue of Tsarskoye Selo (Царскосельская статуя)."  "a Poem for cello and orchestra, a Variation for piano, a suite for soprano and orchestra, various choral pieces for women's voices, lieder , and various arrangements of old Russian folk songs"

His Variations for Clarinet and Piano were recently posted on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtzb9BwM84w. As the work is quite substantial (over 15 minutes long), I thought I would post it up.  It is performed by students from the music conservatory of his home town Vyatka (now Kirov).

There is a much larger biography of Senilov on that youtube page - in Russian only so you will have to use google translate.

I also found this page - https://1dmsh.ru/category/news/ which appears to be that of the music school which performs the piece. It says that 11/23/2019 a concert was held in the school's large concert hall as part of the cycle "From the Past of Vyatka", dedicated to the work of the first Vyatka professional composer, student of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov - Vladimir Alekseevich Senilov (1875-1918). The students got acquainted with the fate of a descendant of the Vyatka merchants, with the difficult choice this composer made to devote his life to his favourite work - music. Listeners got acquainted with the unique, rarely performed works of V. Senilov: romances performed by the ensemble of classes 6-7 of the choral department (headed by T. Shurakova, end - E. Sedelnikov), V. Shabalina, T Skurikhina .A., Gersimova V.N., I. Myachina, Leushina Alisa (teacher Shatunova V.P., piano - Kurteeva O.I.), variations for clarinet performed by E. Yushin (clarinet) and E. Lavrenova (piano). The evening was led by Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Valentina Pavlovna Shatunova, who has been studying the work of our countryman for more than 30 years.

I have identified Ms Shatunova on social media and will write to her to ask if there have been any regional performances/recordings in Kirov of Senilov's works. She appears to be a person of some regional standing.
http://www.culture.admkirov.ru/sfera-cultury/kultura-v-licah/shatunova-valentina-pavlovna.html

[MartinH]

Please keep us posted; there's always hope that some more music along the lines of Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Balakirev, Kalinnikov and the rest of the gang will be found.