Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

(real surname, Ivanov). Born Nov. 7 (19), 1859, in Gatchina; died Jan. 28, 1935, in Moscow. Soviet composer, conductor, teacher, and music figure; People’s Artist of the Republic (1922).

Ippolitov-Ivanov graduated from N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s course in composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882. From 1882 to 1893 he lived in Tbilisi, where he headed the local branch and music school of the Russian Music Society and performed as a conductor. He was conductor for the S. I. Mamontov Private Opera of Moscow and S. I. Zimin Opera from 1899 to 1906. In 1925 he became the conductor for the Bolshoi Theater. In 1893 he was appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatory, which he directed from 1905 to 1918; he was rector of the conservatory from 1919 to 1922 and rector of the Georgian Conservatory from 1924 to 1925. His pupils included Z. I. Paliashvili, S. N. Vasilenko, and R. M. Glière. An important figure in music culture, after the Great October Socialist Revolution Ippolitov-Ivanov took an active part in building Soviet musical culture in its various fields.

He wrote the operas Ruf’ (premiere, 1887), Azra (1890), Assia (1900), The Betrayal (1910), Ole of Norland (1916), and The Last Barricade (composed 1933), as well as a symphony (performed 1908), love songs, and other works. He also completed Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera The Marriage. A student of the musical folklore of the Caucasus, he incorporated the folk melodies of the nations of this region in his works, for example, his suites Caucasian Sketches (1894) and Iveria (1895) and the symphonic poem Mtsyri (1924). His Anniversary March (1931) for symphony orchestra is popular. Ippolitov-Ivanov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.