Semen Nikolaevich Kruglikov

Born May 25 (June 6), 1851, in Moscow; died there Feb. 9 (22), 1910. Russian music critic.

Kruglikov studied in the physics and mathematics faculty at Moscow University. He devoted himself to the theory of music under the guidance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Liadov. His writing first appeared in print in 1881; he became a steady contributor to the newspaper Sovremennye izvestiia and was editor of the music section of the magazine Artist. Kruglikov began teaching at the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society in 1881 and served as its director from 1898 to 1901. V. S. Kalinnikov was one his students. During the 1890’s he worked as a music consultant for the S. I. Mamontov Russian Private Opera in Moscow.

Kruglikov was an early proponent of the music of the composers known as the Russian Five in Moscow. Kruglikov eventually overcame some of his prejudices against P. I. Tchaikovsky and foreign classical composers.