Georgy Sviridov

The music of Georgy Sviridov expresses spiritual consolation and fulfilment, always with a distinctively Russian voice. His works often employ the rich textures and warm harmonies of Russian Orthodox chant. Sviridov was born in Fatezh in 1915. He studied at Kursk and then in Leningrad, where his teachers included Dmitri Shostakovich, a formative influence. Sviridov’s first important work was his Six Romances (1935) for voice and piano, set to poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In his early career, Sviridov mainly wrote instrumental music, for example his Piano Trio and Piano Quintet (both 1945), each a reflection on Russia’s suffering in the war. He moved to Moscow in the mid-1950s, and from then on primarily composed choral music. From the 1980s, the freedoms brought about by glasnost allowed him to finally write choral works to openly religious texts. Sviridov’s sacred choral music culminated with the expansive cycle Canticles and Prayers (1980-97), completed shortly before his death in 1998.