Larks
Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Suborder:	Passeri
Family:	Alaudidae Vigors, 1825
Genera
Mirafra Pinarocorys Heteromirafra Certhilauda Chersomanes Eremopterix Ammomanes Alaemon Ramphocoris Melanocorypha Calandrella Spizocorys Eremalauda Chersophilus Galerida Pseudalaemon Lullula Alauda Eremophila

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. All species occur in the Old World, and in northern and eastern Australia; only one, the Horned Lark, has spread to North America. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in dry regions.

Description[link]

Larks are small- to medium-sized birds, 12 to 24 cm (5 to 8 inches) in length and 15 to 75 grams (0.5 to 2.6 ounces) in weight (Kikkawa 2003).

They have more elaborate calls than most birds, and often extravagant songs given in display flight (Kikkawa 2003). These melodious sounds (to human ears), combined with a willingness to expand into anthropogenic habitats — as long as these are not too intensively managed — have ensured larks a prominent place in literature and music, especially the Eurasian Skylark in northern Europe and the Crested Lark and Calandra Lark in southern Europe.

With these song flights, males defend their breeding territories and attract mates. Most species build nests on the ground, usually cups of dead grass, but in some species more complicated and partly domed. A few desert species nest very low in bushes, perhaps so circulating air can cool the nest. Larks' eggs are usually speckled, and clutch sizes range from 2 (especially in species of the driest deserts) to 6 (in species of temperate regions). Larks incubate for 11 to 16 days (Kikkawa 2003).

Like many ground birds, most lark species have long hind claws, which are thought to provide stability while standing. Most have streaked brown plumage, some boldly marked with black or white. Their dull appearance camouflages them on the ground, especially when on the nest. They feed on insects and seeds; though adults of most species eat seeds primarily, all species feed their young insects for at least the first week after hatching. Many species dig with their bills to uncover food. Some larks have heavy bills (reaching an extreme in the Thick-billed Lark) for cracking seeds open, while others have long, down-curved bills, which are especially suitable for digging (Kikkawa 2003).

Larks are the only passerines that lose all their feathers in their first moult (in all species whose first moult is known). This may result from the poor quality of the chicks' feathers, which in turn may result from the benefits to the parents of switching the young to a lower-quality diet (seeds), which requires less work from the parents (Kikkawa 2003).

In many respects, including long tertial feathers, larks resemble other ground birds such as pipits. However, in larks the tarsus (the lowest leg bone, connected to the toes) has only one set of scales on the rear surface, which is rounded. Pipits and all other songbirds have two plates of scales on the rear surface, which meet at a protruding rear edge (Ridgway 1907).

Relationships[link]

Larks are a well-defined family, partly because of the shape of their tarsus (Ridgway 1907). They were long placed at or near the beginning of the songbirds or oscines (now often called Passeri), just after the suboscines and before the swallows, for example in the American Ornithologists' Union's first check-list (American Ornithologists' Union 1886, according to Patterson 2002). Some authorities, such as the British Ornithologists' Union (Dudley et al. 2006) and the Handbook of the Birds of the World, adhere to that placement. However, many other classifications follow the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy in placing the larks in a large oscine subgroup Passerida (which excludes crows, shrikes and their allies, vireos, and many groups characteristic of Australia and southeastern Asia). For instance, the American Ornithologists' Union places larks just after the crows, shrikes, and vireos. At a finer level of detail, some now place the larks at the beginning of a superfamily Sylvioidea with the swallows, various "Old World warbler" and "babbler" groups, and others (Barker et al. 2002, Alström et al. 2006).

Cultural meanings[link]

Larks as food[link]

Larks, commonly consumed with bones intact, have historically been considered wholesome, delicate, and light game. They can be used in a number of dishes, for example, they can be stewed, broiled, or used as filling in a meat pie. Lark's tongues were particularly highly valued. In modern times, shrinking habitats made lark meat rare and hard to come by, though it can still be found in restaurants in Italy and elsewhere in Southern Europe (Hooper).

Symbolism[link]

The lark in mythology and literature stands for daybreak, as in Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale", "the bisy larke, mesager of day" (I.1487; Benson 1988), and Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, "the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate" (11-12). The lark is also (often simultaneously) associated with "lovers and lovers' observance" and with "church services" (Sylvester and Roberts 2000), and often those the meanings of daybreak and religious reference are combined (in Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion, into a "spiritual daybreak" (Baine and Baine 1986)) to signify "passage from Earth to Heaven and from Heaven to Earth" (Stevens 2001). In Renaissance painters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio the lark symbolizes Christ, in reference to John 16:16 (Cadogan 2000).

Species in taxonomic order[link]

FAMILY: ALAUDIDAE

• Genus: Mirafra
  • Foxy Lark, Mirafra alopex(sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Monotonous Lark, Mirafra passerina
  • Singing Bush Lark, Mirafra cantillans
  • Horsfield's Bush Lark, Mirafra javanica
  • Melodious Lark, Mirafra cheniana
  • White-tailed Lark, Mirafra albicauda
  • Madagascar Lark, Mirafra hova
  • Kordofan Lark, Mirafra cordofanica
  • Williams's Lark, Mirafra williamsi
  • Friedmann's Lark, Mirafra pulpa
  • Red-winged Lark, Mirafra hypermetra
  • Somali Lark, Mirafra somalica
  • Ash's Lark, Mirafra ashi
  • Angola Lark, Mirafra angolensis
  • Rufous-naped Lark, Mirafra africana
  • Flappet Lark, Mirafra rufocinnamomea
  • Clapper Lark, Mirafra apiata
  • Collared Lark, Mirafra collaris
  • Indian Bush Lark or Red-winged Bushlark, Mirafra erythroptera
  • Indochinese Bush Lark, Mirafra erythrocephala
  • Burmese Bush Lark, Mirafra microptera
  • Gillett's Lark, Mirafra gilletti
  • Fawn-colored Lark, Mirafra africanoides (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Bengal Bush Lark, Mirafra assamica
  • Jerdon's Bush Lark Mirafra affinis
  • Rusty Bush Lark, Mirafra rufa
  • Pink-breasted Lark, Mirafra poecilosterna (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Degodi Lark, Mirafra degodiensis
  • Sabota Lark, Mirafra sabota(sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
• Genus: Pinarocorys
  • Rufous-rumped Lark, Pinarocorys erythropygia
  • Dusky Lark, Pinarocorys nigricans
• Genus: Heteromirafra
  • Archer's Lark, Heteromirafra archeri
  • Sidamo Lark, Heteromirafra sidamoensis
  • Rudd's Lark, Heteromirafra ruddi
• Genus: Certhilauda
  • Cape Long-billed Lark, Certhilauda curvirostris
  • Algulhas Long-billed Lark, Certhilauda brevirostris
  • Eastern Long-billed Lark, Certhilauda semitorquata
  • Karoo Long-billed Lark, Certhilauda subcoronata
  • Benguela Long-billed Lark, Certhilauda benguelensis
  • Short-clawed Lark, Certhilauda chuana
  • Dune Lark, Certhilauda erythrochlamys (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Karoo Lark, Certhilauda albescens (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Barlow's Lark, Certhilauda barlowi (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
  • Red Lark, Certhilauda burra (sometimes placed in Calendulauda)
• Genus: Chersomanes
  • Spike-heeled Lark, Chersomanes albofasciata
• Genus: Eremopterix
  • Black-eared Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix australis
  • Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix leucotis
  • Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix nigriceps
  • Grey-backed Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix verticalis
  • Chestnut-headed Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix signata
  • Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix leucopareia
  • Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Eremopterix grisea
• Genus: Ammomanes
  • Bar-tailed Lark, Ammomanes cincturus
  • Rufous-tailed Lark, Ammomanes phoenicurus
  • Desert Lark, Ammomanes deserti
  • Gray's Lark, Ammomanes grayi
• Genus: Alaemon
  • Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Alaemon alaudipes
  • Lesser Hoopoe-Lark, Alaemon hamertoni
• Genus: Ramphocoris
  • Thick-billed Lark, Ramphocoris clotbey
• Genus: Melanocorypha
  • Calandra Lark, Melanocorypha calandra
  • Bimaculated Lark, Melanocorypha bimaculata
  • Tibetan Lark, Melanocorypha maxima
  • Mongolian Lark, Melanocorypha mongolica
  • White-winged Lark, Melanocorypha leucoptera
  • Black Lark, Melanocorypha yeltoniensis
• Genus: Calandrella
  • Greater Short-toed Lark, Calandrella brachydactyla
  • Blanford's Lark, Calandrella blanfordi
  • Hume's Short-toed Lark, Calandrella acutirostris
  • Lesser Short-toed Lark, Calandrella rufescens
  • Red-capped Lark, Calandrella cinerea
  • Asian Short-toed Lark, Calandrella cheleensis
  • Sand Lark, Calandrella raytal
  • Somali Short-toed Lark, Calandrella somalica
• Genus: Spizocorys
  • Pink-billed Lark, Spizocorys conirostris
  • Botha's Lark, Spizocorys fringillaris
  • Sclater's Lark, Spizocorys sclateri
  • Obbia Lark, Spizocorys obbiensis
  • Masked Lark, Spizocorys personata
• Genus: Eremalauda
  • Dunn's Lark, Eremalauda dunni
  • Stark's Lark, Eremalauda starki
• Genus: Chersophilus
  • Dupont's Lark, Chersophilus duponti
• Genus: Galerida
  • Crested Lark, Galerida cristata
  • Thekla Lark, Galerida theklae
  • Malabar Lark, Galerida malabarica
  • Sun Lark, Galerida modesta
  • Sykes's Lark, Tawny Lark or Sykes' Crested Lark, Galerida deva
  • Large-billed Lark, Galerida magnirostris
• Genus: Pseudalaemon
  • Short-tailed Lark, Pseudalaemon fremantlii
• Genus: Lullula
  • Woodlark, Lullula arborea
• Genus: Alauda
  • Eurasian Skylark, Alauda arvensis
  • Japanese Skylark, Alauda japonica
  • Oriental Skylark, Alauda gulgula
  • Raso Lark, Alauda razae
• Genus: Eremophila
  • Horned Lark or Shore Lark, Eremophila alpestris
  • Temminck's Lark, Eremophila bilopha

See also[link]

• Lark Bunting
• Lark Sparrow
• Magpie-lark (Neither a lark nor a magpie, but a giant Monarch flycatcher)
• Meadowlark
• Titlark, a synonym for Meadow Pipit
• Songlark

References[link]

• Alström, Per; Ericson, Per G.P.; Olsson, Urban; Sundberg, Per (February 2006). "Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38 (2): 381–397. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.015. PMID 16054402. 
• The American Ornithologists' Union (June, 1886). "The American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds". The American Naturalist 20 (6): 539. DOI:10.1086/274272. 
• "Check-list of North American Birds". American Ornithologists' Union. 1998–2006. Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20080315195843/http://www.aou.org/checklist/index.php3. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
• Baine, Rodney M.; Baine, Mary R. (1986). The scattered portions: William Blake's biological symbolism. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-935265-10-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=9UlaAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 
• Barker, F. Keith; Barrowclough, George F.; Groth, Jeff G. (2002). "A phylogenetic hypothesis for passerine birds: taxonomic and biogeographic implications of an analysis of nuclear DNA sequence data" (pdf). Proc. R. Soc. B 269 (1488): 295–308. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2001.1883. PMC 1690884. PMID 11839199. http://www.tc.umn.edu/~barke042/pdfs/Barker.et.al02.pdf. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
• Benson, Larry D. (1988). The Riverside Chaucer. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 45. ISBN 0-19-282109-1. 
• Cadogan, Jeanne K. (2000). Domenico Ghirlandaio: artist and artisan. Yale UP. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-300-08720-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=NGNEd9rplzcC&pg=PA215. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 
• Dudley, Steve P.; Gee, Mike; Kehoe, Chris; Melling, Tim M. (2006). "The British List: A Checklist of Birds of Britain (7th edition)". Ibis 148 (3): 526–563. DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00603.x. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00603.x?cookieSet=1. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
• Hooper, John (2010-02-17). "Cat, dormouse and other Italian recipes". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/17/cat-dormouse-italian-recipes. Retrieved 2010-05-07. 
• Kikkawa, Jiro (2003). "Larks". In Perrins, Christopher (ed.). Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp. 578–583. ISBN 1-55297-777-3. 
• Patterson, Bob (2002). "The History of North American Bird Names in the American Ornithologists' Union Checklists 1886 - 2000". http://members.aol.com/darwinpage/zoo/AOUd.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
• Ridgway, Robert (1907). "The Birds of North and Middle America, Part IV". Bulletin of the United States National Museum 50: 289–290. http://books.google.com/?id=UtAWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA289. Retrieved 2008-06-25. 
• Stevens, Anthony (2001). Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind. Princeton UP. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-691-08661-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=06We3O2BWVwC&pg=PA363. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 
• Sylvester, Louise; Roberts, Jane Annette (2000). Middle English word studies: a word and author index. Boydell & Brewer. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-85991-606-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=vnRmyM52G6cC&pg=PA17. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Larks

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alaudidae

Wikispecies has information related to: Alaudidae

• Lark videos on the Internet Bird Collection

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

The Lark (L'Alouette) is an English-language version of a 1952 play by Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden. Lillian Hellman made the English adaptation and Leonard Bernstein composed the incidental music. The two stars of the play reprised their roles in a 1957 television production of the play, as part of the anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. There is another English translation by Christopher Fry.

Plot summary[link]

The play covers the trial, condemnation, and execution of Joan, but has a highly unusual ending. Joan remembers important events in her life as she is being questioned, and is subsequently condemned to death. However, Cauchon realizes, just as Joan is burning at the stake, that in her judges' hurry to condemn her, they have not allowed her to re-live the coronation of Charles VII of France. The fire is therefore extinguished, and Joan is given a reprieve. The actual end of the story is left in question, but Cauchon proclaims it a victory for Joan.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Entire play online translated by Christopher Fry (Varies slightly from actual printed version) (PDF format)

Janine Jansen (born January 7, 1978^[1] in Soest in the Netherlands) is a violinist and violist^[2]. She began to study the violin at age 6. Her father and both her brothers are also musicians. Her mother is a classical singer and is a sister of the bass Peter Kooy. Jansen studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philippe Hirschhorn, and Boris Belkin.

Biography[link]

She appeared as soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto. She opened the BBC Proms in 2005. When performing live, she is sometimes rather adventurous with her performance, with emphasis on emotional accents more than on precision or adherence to the scores.^[3]

She has eschewed tradition by recording with only 5 solo strings rather than an orchestra, including her brother as cellist and father playing continuo. In live concerts, she has received standing ovations from enthusiastic audiences, such as in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 2006 concert in Berlin's Waldbühne Amphitheater, with a full attendance of 25,000, and in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 to a sold out audience.

Jansen currently uses the 1727 Stradivari "Barrere" violin, on extended loan by the Stradivari Society of Chicago.^[4] She has begun her own chamber music festival in Utrecht. She has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1998.

She received the Dutch Music Prize in 2003, and the distinguished Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award in Britain in 2009.^[5]

Jansen was a Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2002–2004.

She and her ex-boyfriend, the violinist Julian Rachlin, have collaborated in chamber music performances.^[6]

Recordings[link]

As of January 2006, she had recorded two mainstream CDs (one also a hybrid SACD). The first is a collection of encore pieces, conducted by Barry Wordsworth, the second a chamber ensemble rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. In particular, her Vivaldi recording has seen great success in terms of download sales.^[7]

In October 2006, she released her third album. This CD features the Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos, along with the Bruch Romance for Viola, with conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

In 2007 she released her fourth album, Bach: Inventions & Partita.^[8]

In 2008, she recorded a live session for the iTunes music store consisting of Bach's Trio Sonata in G Major and Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 6 In G Major.

In 2009 Jansen released her recording of the Beethoven and Britten Violin Concertos. The Beethoven was recorded with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Britten with the London Symphony Orchestra. Both orchestras were conducted by Paavo Järvi. Jansen said that recording these concertos together was a long-standing desire of hers, as she sees these two works as among the greatest concertos in the current repertoire.^[9]

In 2010, on December 29, Jansen played with Mischa Maisky and Hannes Minnaar Antonín Dvořák's Piano Trio in e minor, op.90 'Dumky' at the Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Utrecht, Vredenburg.^[10]

Janine Jansen has been a member of the chamber music series Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1998. Various CDs with Spectrum have been released on the NAXOS label: Ernő Dohnányi - Serenade for String Trio and the Sextet (Nr. 8.557153) Robert Helps - Piano Quartet, Postlude and Nocturne (Nr. 8.559199) John Harbison - Four Songs of Solitude, Variations and Twilight Music (Nr. 8.559173)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Janine Jansen at Allmusic
• Janine Jansen discography at Discogs
• Spectrum Concerts Berlin

Mikhail Glinka in 1856

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Гли́нка) (June 1 [O.S. May 20] 1804 – February 15 [O.S. February 3] 1857), was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music. Glinka's compositions were an important influence on future Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, who took Glinka's lead and produced a distinctive Russian style of music.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Mikhail Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the Smolensk Guberniya of the Russian Empire. His father was a wealthy retired army captain, as the family had a strong tradition of loyalty and service to the Tsar, while several members of his extended family had also developed a lively interest in culture. As a small child, Mikhail was reared by his over-protective and pampering grandmother who fed him sweets, wrapped him in furs, and confined him to her room, which was always to be kept at 25 °C (77 °F); as such, he developed a sickly disposition, later in his life retaining the services of numerous physicians, and often falling victim to a number of quacks. The only music he heard in his youthful confinement was the sounds of the village church bells and the folk songs of passing peasant choirs. The church bells were tuned to a dissonant chord and so his ears became used to strident harmony. While his nurse would sometimes sing folksongs, the peasant choirs who sang using the podgolosnaya technique (an improvised style — literally under the voice - which uses improvised dissonant harmonies below the melody) influenced the way he later felt free to emancipate himself from the smooth progressions of Western harmony. After his grandmother’s death, Glinka was moved to his maternal uncle’s estate some 10 km away, and was able to hear his uncle’s orchestra, whose repertoire included pieces by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He was about ten when he heard them play a clarinet quintet by the Finnish composer Bernhard Henrik Crusell. It had a profound effect upon him. "Music is my soul," he was to write many years later, recalling this experience. While his governess taught him Russian, German, French, and geography, he also received instruction on the piano and the violin.

At the age of 13 Glinka was sent to the capital, Saint Petersburg, to study at a school for children of the nobility. Here he was taught Latin, English, and Persian, studied mathematics and zoology, and was able to considerably widen his musical experience. He had three piano lessons from John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg. He then continued his piano lessons with Charles Meyer, and began composing.

When he left school his father wanted him to join the Foreign Office, and he was appointed assistant secretary of the Department of Public Highways. The work was light, which allowed Mikhail to settle into the life of a musical dilettante, frequenting the drawing rooms and social gatherings of the city. He was already composing a large amount of music, such as melancholy romances which amused the rich amateurs. His songs are among the most interesting part of his output from this period.

In 1830, at the recommendation of a physician, Glinka decided to travel to Italy with the tenor Nikolay Ivanov. The route was leisurely, ambling uneventfully through Germany and Switzerland, before they settled in Milan. There, Glinka took lessons at the conservatory with Francesco Basili, although he struggled with counterpoint, which he found irksome. Although he spent his three years in Italy listening to singers of the day, romancing women with his music, and meeting many famous people including Mendelssohn and Berlioz, he became disenchanted with Italy. He realized that his mission in life was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. His return route took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna, where he heard the music of Franz Liszt. He stayed for another five months in Berlin, during which time he studied composition under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn. A Capriccio on Russian themes for piano duet and an unfinished Symphony on two Russian themes were important products of this period.

When word reached Mikhail Glinka of his father's death in 1834, he left Berlin and returned to Novospasskoye.

Middle years[link]

Glinka in the 1840s, portrait by Yanenko

While in Berlin, Glinka had become enamored with a beautiful and talented singer, (for whom he composed Six Studies for Contralto). He contrived a plan to return to her, but when his sister's German maid turned up without the necessary paperwork to cross to the border with him, he abandoned his plan as well as his love and turned north for Saint Petersburg. There he reunited with his mother, and made the acquaintance of Maria Petrovna Ivanova. After courting her for a brief period, the two married. The marriage was short-lived, as Maria proved to be utterly without tact and uninterested in his music. Although his initial fondness for her was said to have inspired the trio in the first act of opera A Life for the Tsar (1836), his naturally sweet disposition coarsened under the constant nagging of his wife and her mother. After separating, she would remarry, while Glinka moved in with his mother, and later his sister (Lyudmila Shestakova).

A Life for the Tsar was the first of Glinka's two great operas. It was originally entitled Ivan Susanin. Set in 1612, it tells the story of the Russian peasant and patriotic hero Ivan Susanin who sacrifices his life for the Tsar by leading astray a group of marauding Poles who were hunting him. The Tsar himself followed the work’s progress with interest and suggested the change in the title. It was a great success at its premiere on December 9, 1836, under the direction of Catterino Cavos, who had written an opera on the same subject in Italy. Although the music is still more Italianate than Russian, Glinka shows superb handling of the recitative which binds the whole work, and the orchestration is masterly, foreshadowing the orchestral writing of later Russian composers. The Tsar rewarded Glinka for his work with a ring valued at 4000 rubles. (During the Soviet era, the opera was staged under its original title Ivan Susanin).

Ilya Repin's portrait of Glinka was painted thirty years after the composer's death

In 1837, Glinka was installed as the instructor of the Imperial Chapel Choir, with a yearly salary of 25,000 roubles, and lodging at the court. In 1838, at the suggestion of the Tsar, he went off to Ukraine to gather new voices for the choir; the 19 new boys he found earned him another 1,500 roubles from the Tsar.

He soon embarked on his second opera: Ruslan and Lyudmila. The plot, based on the tale by Pushkin, was concocted in 15 minutes by Konstantin Bakhturin, a poet who was drunk at the time. Consequently the opera is a dramatic muddle, yet the quality of Glinka’s music is higher than in A Life for the Tsar. He uses a descending whole-tone-scale in the famous overture. This is associated with the villainous dwarf Chernomor who has abducted Lyudmila, daughter of the Prince of Kiev. There is much Italianate coloratura, and Act 3 contains several routine ballet numbers, but his great achievement in this opera lies in his use of folk melody which becomes thoroughly infused into the musical argument. Much of the borrowed folk material is oriental in origin. When it was first produced on 9 December 1842 it met with a cool reception, although subsequently it gained popularity.

Later years[link]

Grave of Mikhail Glinka on Tikhvin Cemetery in Saint Petersburg

Glinka went through a dejected year after the poor reception of Ruslan and Lyudmila. His spirits rose when he travelled to Paris and Spain. In Spain, Glinka met Don Pedro Fernandez, who remained his secretary and companion for the last nine years of his life.^[1] In Paris, Berlioz conducted some excerpts from Glinka’s operas and wrote an appreciative article about him. Glinka in turn admired Berlioz’s music and resolved to compose some fantasies pittoresques for orchestra. Another visit to Paris followed in 1852 where he spent two years, living quietly and making frequent visits to the botanical and zoological gardens. From there he moved to Berlin where, after five months, he died suddenly on 15 February 1857, following a cold. He was buried in Berlin but a few months later his body was taken to Saint Petersburg and reinterred in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Legacy[link]

Statue near Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg

After Glinka's death the relative merits of his two operas became a source of heated debate in the musical press, especially between Vladimir Stasov and his former friend Alexander Serov.

In 1884 Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev founded the "Glinka prize", which was awarded annually. In the first years the winners included Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Cesar Cui and Lyadov.

Outside Russia several of Glinka's orchestral works have been fairly popular in concerts and recordings. Besides the well-known overtures to the operas (especially the brilliantly energetic overture to Ruslan), his major orchestral works include the symphonic poem Kamarinskaya (1848), based on Russian folk tunes, and two Spanish works, A Night in Madrid (1848, 1851) and Jota Aragonesa (1845).

Glinka also composed many art songs, many piano pieces, and some chamber music.

A much lesser work that received some attention in the last decade was Glinka's "The Patriotic Song", supposedly written for a contest for a national anthem in 1833; the music was adopted as the national anthem of Russia during 1990–2000.

Three Russian conservatories are named after Glinka:

• Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory (Russian: Нижегородская государственная консерватория им. М.И.Глинки) [1]
• Novosibirsk State Conservatory (Russian: Новосибирская государственная консерватория (академия) им. М.И.Глинки) [2]
• Magnitogorsk State Conservatory (Russian: Магнитогорская государственная консерватория) [3]

Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh named a minor planet 2205 Glinka in his honor. It was discovered in 1973.^[2] A crater on Mercury is also named after him.

Works[link]

See List of compositions by Mikhail Glinka.

See also: Category:Compositions by Mikhail Glinka

Media[link]

	Trio Pathetique in D minor Performed by Stanley Chapple (piano), William McColl (clarinet) and Arthur Grossman (bassoon)
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

References[link]

• http://www.biografija.ru/show_bio.aspx?id=25537 (Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich, biographic encyclopedia, in Russian)
• Brown, David (1974). Mikhail Glinka, a biographical and critical study, Oxford University Press.
• Glinka, Mikhail by Richard Taruskin, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
• ed. John Knowles Paine, Theodore Thomas, and Karl Klauser (1891). Famous Composers and Their Works, J.B. Millet Company.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mikhail Glinka

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Glinka, Michael Ivanovich.

• List of works (German)
• Cylinder recording of a Glinka composition, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Glinka — the author of Russian national anthem (Russian) by K.Kovalev (English)
• Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra performs Russlan and Ludmilla overture A short video from 1998
• Chamber Music Sound-bites & Short biography
• Free scores by Mikhail Glinka at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Mikhail Glinka in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Turgenev and Glinka (with music samples)

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Evgeny Kissin (2011)

Evgeny Igorevitch Kissin (Russian: Евге́ний И́горевич Ки́син Yevgeniy Igorevich Kisin; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian classical pianist. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has been a British citizen since 2002.^[1] He is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic repertoire, particularly Frédéric Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Franz Liszt.

Life[link]

Early Life and Career[link]

Kissin was born in Moscow to a Russian Jewish family. Recognized as a child prodigy, at age six, he began piano studies at the esteemed Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children. At the school, he became a student of Anna Kantor, who remained Kissin's only piano teacher.^[2]

At the age of ten, Kissin made his debut performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra. The year after that he gave his first recital in Moscow. Kissin's talents were revealed on the international scene in 1984, at the age of twelve, when he played and recorded both of Chopin's piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987 he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival as well as his United Kingdom debut, alongside conductor Valery Gergiev and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In September 1990, Kissin made his debut in North America playing Chopin's two piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the first piano recital in Carnegie Hall's centennial season. In 1997, he gave the first solo piano recital in the history of The Proms in London.^[3]

Achievements and Recent Engagements[link]

Kissin makes regular recital tours of Europe, America and Asia. He has performed with nearly all the leading orchestras of the world, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Georg Solti, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Yuri Temirkanov. Kissin has also performed chamber music with Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, James Levine, Mischa Maisky, Thomas Quasthoff, Isaac Stern and others, who admire Kissin's virtuosity.

Many musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic, and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert. In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia’s highest musical honors. In June 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In March 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the Hong Kong University.

In addition to classical music, Kissin has given recitals of Yiddish and Russian poetry. A CD compilation of Kissin's recitals from the contemporary Yiddish poetry was issued by the Forward Association in 2010.^[4] In 2007 he became Honorary Patron of a professional chamber opera company, City Opera of Vancouver, led by conductor Charles Barber.^[5][6]

Recordings[link]

Kissin’s piano recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, including the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France, as well as awards from music magazines throughout the world. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist and, in 2002, he was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. In 2010 he was awarded the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (With Orchestra) for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics).

His first studio recording, in 1988 for RCA Red Seal, was of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Gergiev/London Symphony Orchestra, and six Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39. Other works recorded for RCA Red Seal are two Chopin recital programs, one with the four Ballades, Barcarolle, Berceuse, and Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54, and another with the 24 Preludes Op. 28, Sonata No. 2 and Polonaise in A- flat; Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Paganini, and Francks’s Prelude, Choral and Fugue; Schumann’s Fantasy, Op. 17 and five Etudes d’execution transcendante by Liszt; Schumann’s Kreisleriana and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne; Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, Glinka-Balakirev The Lark and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition; Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor and Carnaval; and an all-Brahms disc including Sonata No. 3 in F Minor and five Hungarian dances. A duo recital with James Levine of works by Schubert was recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and released in 2006.

Other recital albums include Schubert Sonata No. 21 in B flat major and Schubert-Liszt Four Songs (BMG/RCA Victor Red Seal), Schubert Wanderer Fantasie, Brahms Seven Pieces, Op. 116, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 (Deutsche Grammophon) and Haydn Sonata No. 30 in A major, Sonata No. 52 in E flat major, and Schubert Sonata in A minor D784 (Sony).

Among his concerto recordings are the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI); Mozart Piano Concerto No 24 and Schumann Piano Concerto with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI); Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Giulini (Sony Classical); Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Levine (Sony Classical); Prokofiev Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon) and Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the Boston Symphony and Ozawa (RCA Red Seal); Mozart Concertos Nos. 12 and 20 and Rondo in D major KV. 382, Haydn Concerto in D major, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the Moscow Virtuosi and Spivakov (RCA Red Seal); Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon); Prokofiev Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). A recent recording with Kremerata Baltica of Mozart Concertos Nos. 20 and 27 will be a forthcoming release on EMI.

Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.

The 2010-2011 music season sees engagements in major cities across Europe. He will then embark on a North American tour, featuring solo recitals, chamber recitals with Yuri Bashmet, and performances with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Awards and Recognitions[link]

• Musical America, Instrumentalist of the Year, 1994
• Triumph Award, Outstanding Contribution to Russia's Culture (Youngest Awardee), 1997
• Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music, New York 2001
• Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music 2005^[7]
• Herbert von Karajan Award, Baden-Baden, Germany (2005)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), 2006
• Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Award, Brescia, Italy 2007
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra), 2009
• Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2010

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evgeny Kissin

• Full Biography
• (English) Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati (France Management) : Evgeny Kissin
• Evgeny Kissin's Fan Club Homepage
• "Sony BMG Evgeny Kissin Page". Sony BMG. http://www.kissinmusic.com/. Retrieved 2006-08-12. 
• "Evgeny Kissin at IMG". IMG Artists. http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=187. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". BMG Classics. http://www.bmgclassics.com/artists/artist.jsp?id=105438&artist=Evgeny%20Kissin. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". RCA Victor. Archived from the original on 2006-05-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20060509120614/http://www.rcavictor.com/artists/artist.jsp?id=105438. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". EMI Classics. http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/search_new.php?q=evgeny%20kissin. Retrieved 2008-06-05. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". Sony Classical. http://sonyclassical.com/artists/kissin/. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• Evgeny Kissin - on Allmusic
• DVD Times link on documentary We Want the Light