Aleksandra Pakhmutova
Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pakhmutova is a Soviet and Russian composer. She has remained one of the best-known figures in Soviet and later Russian popular music since she first achieved fame in her homeland in the 1960s. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1984.
Biography
She was born on November 9, 1929, in Beketovka, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, and began playing the piano and composing music at an early age. In 1936, she entered the Stalingrad City Music School. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, she briefly went to Karaganda for refuge and study. She was admitted to the prestigious Moscow Conservatory and graduated in 1953. In 1956, she completed a post-graduate course led by composer Vissarion Shebalin.Her career is notable for her success in a range of different genres. She has composed pieces for the symphony orchestra ; the ballet Illumination; music for children ; and songs and music for over a dozen different movies from Out of This World in 1958 to Because of Mama in 2001.
She is best known for some of her 400 songs, including such enduringly popular songs as The Melody, Russian Waltz, Tenderness, Hope, The Old Maple Tree, Song of Restless Youth, a series of the Gagarin's Constellation, The Bird of Happiness and Good-Bye Moscow which was used as the farewell tune of the 22nd Olympic Games in Moscow. Tenderness was used with great effect in Tatyana Lioznova's 1967 film Three Poplars in Plyushchikha. Her husband, the eminent Soviet-era poet Nikolai Dobronravov, contributed lyrics to her music on occasion, including songs used in three films.
One of her most famous ballads is Belovezhskaya Pushcha, composed in 1975, which celebrates Białowieża Forest, a last remnant of the European wildwood split now between Poland and Belarus. Another much-aired song was Malaya Zemlya, about a minor outpost where the then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev served as a political commissar during World War II.
Alexandra Pakhmutova found favor with the state establishment as well as the public. Reputedly Brezhnev's favorite composer, she received several Government Awards and State Prizes and served as the Secretary of the USSR and Russian Unions of Composers. She was named a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990. Her name was given to Asteroid # 1889, registered by the planetary centre in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
Personal life
In 1956, Pakhmutova married an actor and poet Nikolai Dobronravov. He was assigned by the radio officials to work with her as a lyricist on a children's tune "Little Motor Boat". They have written a lot of songs for children but the couple didn't have children of their own.Compositions
Songs
Pakhmutova is accredited with composing over 500 individual songs; and thus, only the most well-known are listed here.- «Надежда»
- «Песня о тревожной молодости|Песня о тревожной молодости»
- «Мелодия»
- «Беловежская пуща»
- «Нежность»
- «Команда молодости нашей»
- «Старый клён»
- «Как молоды мы были»
- «Трус не играет в хоккей»
- «И вновь продолжается бой»
- «Слава вперёдсмотрящему»
- «Знаете, каким он парнем был»
Vocal cycles
- Gagarin's Constellation
- Songs about Lenin
- Aiga Stars
- Motherland
- Hugging the Sky
Orchestral
- 1953: Russian Suite for symphony orchestra
- "Ode to Lighting the Fire".
- 1957: Music for children: Suite "Lenin in our heart"
- 1972: Heroes of Sport
Concerto
- 1955: Trumpet Concerto
- 1972: Concerto for Orchestra
Cantata
- Beautiful as youth, country
- 1953: Vasily Turkin
- 1962: Red Pathfinders
- 1972: Squad Songs
Overtures
- 1957: Youth
- 1958: Thuringia
- 1967: Merry Girls
- 1967: Russian Holiday, for the orchestra of Russian folk instruments
Instrumental
- The Rhythms of Time
- Carnival
- Auftakt
- Robinsonade
- Heart in the palm
- A moment of luck
- Morning big city
- Elegy
Film scores
- The Girls
- There Was an Old Couple
- Three Poplars in Plyushchikha
- O Sport, You Are Peace!
- ''Battle of Moscow''
Recordings
- 1971: Concerto for Orchestra in E Major
- 1985: Marshal Zhukov March
- 2015: Concerto for solo Trumpet and Orchestra
- 2019: Anniversary Concert for Aleksandra Pakhmutova
Honors and awards
- Hero of Socialist Labour № 21035 – for outstanding contributions to the development of Soviet musical art and productive social activities
- Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation – for special merits to the development of national musical art, multifaceted social activities and many years of fruitful creative work
- Two Orders of Lenin № ****** & № 460143
- Order of St. Andrew
- Order "For Merit to the Fatherland";
- *1st class – for outstanding contribution to the development of national musical art, and many years of creative activity
- *2nd class – for great personal contribution to the development of musical art
- *3rd class – for great contribution to the development of domestic musical art and achieved creative success
- Order of the [Red Banner of Labour], twice
- Order of Friendship of Peoples
- State Prize of the Russian Federation
- USSR State Prize – for the songs of recent years
- USSR State Prize – for the music for the film O Sport, You Are Peace!
- Lenin Komsomol Prize – a song cycle about youth and the Komsomol Prize of the Union State of Russia and Belarus for literary and artistic works that make a significant contribution to strengthening the relations of brotherhood, friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the countries – members of the Union State
- Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR
- People's Artist of the RSFSR
- People's Artist of the USSR
- Honorary Citizen of Volgograd
- Honorary Citizen of Bratsk
- Honorary citizen of Moscow
- Order of Francysk Skaryna – for outstanding work on the development and strengthening of the Belarusian-Russian cultural relations
- Order of St. Euphrosyne, Grand Duchess of Moscow, 2nd class
- The title "Living Legend" by the national Russian award "Ovation"
- The award "Russian National Olympus"