 |
| Anton Arensky |
Still probably best known for his chamber music, Russian composer Anton Arensky (1861-1906) managed to fit an enormous amount into his relatively short life. He wrote three operas, a ballet (which was reused by Diaghilev and Fokine for the Ballet Russes’ Cléopâtre starring Anna Pavlova and Ida Rubenstein in 1909), two symphonies, three orchestral suites, two concertos, and significant amounts of chamber music. All in addition to teaching at the Moscow Conservatory for twelve years, then becoming the director of the Imperial Choir.
However, Rimsky Korsakov, who was Arensky’s teacher, was less complimentary in his autobiography alleging that drinking and gambling undermined Arensky’s health. Arensky died from TB aged 44. Rimsky Korsakov might have been his teacher, but it was his relationship with Tchaikovsky that was a big influence on Arensky’s music [the Tchaikovsky research website has a selection of Tchaikovsky’s letters to the younger composer].
Another side to Arensky’s output was song. He wrote some 86 songs in all, a significant number. A new disc on SOMM from soprano Anastasia Prokofieva and pianist Sergey Rybin features a selection of Arensky’s romances alongside those of his pupil, Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff studied with Arensky from the age of 12 to 15. The relationship between teacher and pupil was unusually close: while Arensky had a reputation for impatience and a fiery temper, he treated Rachmaninoff with encouragement and respect, praising his talent and marking him out of the crowd.
But Arensky could be difficult too. Scriabin, who was also a pupil, clashed with Arensky. Their relationship ended poorly, with Arensky expelling the young composer from his class. The contrast between the experiences of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin highlights Arensky’s mercurial temperament as a teacher: he could be inspiring when he sensed talent aligned with his own values, but intolerant when confronted with students whose musical instincts diverged from his
Last night (22 January 2026), Anastasia Prokofieva and Sergey Rybingave a private recital to celebrate the launch of their disc, performing romances by Arensky and Rachmaninoff. The selection of songs on the disc highlights the commonality between the romances by the two composers, and also brings out the links to Tchaikovsky.
The recital included a selection from Arensky’s Five Romances, Op. 70 from 1900, and the five-song cycle Reminiscence, Op. 71 circa 1905. This latter was a setting of poems by Konstantin Balmont (1867–1942) based on Shelley’s To Jane: The Recollection. A song cycle in all but name (it is called a suite), this was a form rather unusual in Russian lyric music with Mussorgsky being virtually the only composer to create song cycles. At the performance, Prokofieva and Rybin interleaved the songs with readings by Jasper Dweck of Shelley’s original poems.
Given that we had the printed Russian text along with Rybin’s excellent translations, this was a fascinating exercise in quite how far from Shelley Balmont strayed. [Balmont’s free Russian translation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Bells formed the basis for Rachmaninoff’s choral symphony]. The evening also included other familiar poems in translation, Rachmanoff’s Op.8 No. 2 being a setting of Aleksey Plescheyev’s version of Heine’s Du bist wie eine Blume along with Plescheyev’s version of Heine’s Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland in Rachmaninoff’s Op.8 No.5. Op.21 No. 4 featured Lev Mey translating Victor Hugo’s Comment disaient-ils (Autre guitare), a poem also set by Liszt, Lalo, Bizet, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Massenet.
Anastasia Prokofieva & Sergey Rybin’s Arensky & Rachmaninoff Romances is on SOMM Records. I am very grateful to Sergey Rybin’s excellent liner notes [PDF] for some of the information in this article.
