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Scan 131
Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
43 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 103. See the scan on archive.org.
1ARENSKY
3Italian company (Piccolomini, Giuglini, etc.) on an artistic tour to Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, etc., and thus became known and liked by the German public. In the winters of 1871 and 1873 he conducted the Italian Opera at St. Petersburg, and from 1870 he performed the same office each spring at Vienna. [From 1874 to 1877 he conducted the promenade concerts at Covent Garden, dividing his time between London and Vienna. In 1878 he conducted a two-months' season at Madrid. He returned to Her Majesty's Theatre for the season of 1880, the year of the production of 'Mefistofele.' He was connected about the same time with various operatic tours in America organised by Mapleson. In 1885 he was at Covent Garden, and after conducting several provincial tours under Harris, was engaged for the season of 1889. In 1891 he conducted the season of opera at the Shaftesbury Theatre, during which Lago produced 'Cavalleria Rusticana.' In 1892, under the same management at the Olympic Theatre, Arditi was principal conductor, and after a tour with the Carl Rosa Company in 1894, he was engaged for the run of 'Hänsel and Gretel' at Daly's Theatre. He died at Brighton, May 1, 1903.] His compositions, besides those mentioned above, comprise a 'Commemoration Ode,' performed at the Crystal Palace, June 10, 1873. His vocal waltz 'Il Bacio' was a universal favourite. G.
5ARENSKY, ANTONY STEPANOVICH, one of the leading composers of the younger Russian school, born at Novgorod, July 31, 1861. He inherited musical talent from both parents; his father, a doctor, played the violoncello, and his mother was an excellent pianist. He studied harmony and composition first with Zikke, and afterwards (1879-82) with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatorium. Having finished his course with honours, he was appointed professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatorium in 1882. From 1889 to 1893, Arensky was a member of the Council of the Synodal School of Church-music at Moscow, and for seven years conductor of the concerts of the Russian Choral Society. In 1894 he was recommended by Balakirev for the directorship of the Imperial Chapel at St. Petersburg. In this post he was succeeded by Smolensky in 1901. Arensky's first opera, 'A Dream on the Volga,' was given at Moscow in 1890, with great success. The subject, taken from a play by Ostrovsky, is identical with Tchaikovsky's 'Voyevoda.' In this work Arensky makes considerable use of folk-tunes, which he harmonises and develops most effectively. His operatic style is a compromise between the declamatory and the melodic. A second opera, in one act, 'Raphael,' was composed for the first Congress of Russian Artists held at St. Petersburg in April 1894. A third opera, 'Nal and Damayanti,' was completed in 1899.
7Both in style and temperament Arenksy shows considerable affinity to Tchaikovsky. He is best known in England by his songs and piano pieces, but more especially by his pianoforte trio in D minor (op. 32), a work full of sincere, elegiac feeling, dedicated to the memory of the great violoncellist, Charles Davidov. As a composer of sacred music Arensky inclines to a florid and cosmopolitan rather than to the strictly ecclesiastical style. Subjoined is a list of his principal works:
9OPERAS, CANTATAS, VOCAL MUSIC.
101. A Dream on the Volga. Moscow 1892 (op. 16).
112. Raphael. Opera in one act. St. Petersburg, 1894 (op. 37).
123. Nal and Damayanti. Opera in one act, 1899.
134. Cantata for solo, chorus, and orchestra. Composed for the tenth anniversary of the Coronation (op. 25).
145. The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (poem by Poushkin). Cantata for solo, chorus, and orchestra (op. 46).
156. Songs (op. 6, 10, 17, 21, 27, 38, 44, 49).
167. Chorus for mixed voices, a cappella, 'Anchar' (op. 14)
178. Vocal duets (op. 29, 45).
18A considerable quantity of church-music.
20INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
211. Pianoforte Concerto (op. 2)
222. Symphony, B minor (op. 4).
233. Symphony, A minor (op. 22).
244. Two string Quartets, G major and A minor (op. 11 and 35)
255. Intermezzo for string Orchestra (op. 13).
266. Pianoforte Trio, D minor (op. 32).
277. Fantasia on Russian folk-songs, for Pf. and Orchestra (op. 48)
288. Ballet 'Egyptian Night' (op. 50).
299. Pianoforte Quintet, D major (op. 51).
3010. About 100 pieces for piano, including three suites for two pianos, and six pieces for four hands.
32THEORETICAL.
331. Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony (German ed. 1900).
342. Guide to the Study of Form, in Vocal and Instrumental Music.
36R. N.
38ARETINO, GUIDO. See GUIDO.
40ARGHOOOL, a wind instrument still used in Egypt, the primitive type of the Chalumeau, and therefore of the modern Clarinet (see CLARINET).
42ARGYLL ROOMS. At the commencement of the 19th century there stood in Argyll Street, Oxford Street, a mansion fitted up by Col. Greville for the meetings of a fashionable association termed the Pic-Nics, who had burlettas, vaudevilles, and ballets on a small scale performed there. But the fashionable folk soon deserted the place, and Greville was compelled to seek refuge on the continent, having made over 'The Argyll Rooms' (as he had named them) to one of his creditors, one Slade, who conducted the business of the rooms for several years, letting them for concerts and other entertainments. During his management one of the events of interest which occurred there was a reading by Mrs. Siddons, on Feb. 10, 1813, of Shakespeare's Macbeth, for the benefit of the widow of Andrew Cherry, dramatist and actor. In the same year the rooms acquired greater celebrity by being selected by the then newly formed Philharmonic Society as their place of performance. In 1818 the western end of the concert-room falling within the line required for the formation of Regent Street, Slade was awarded by a jury £23,000 as compensation (a sum considered at the time as far beyond the real value of the property), and the whole of the old building was removed and new rooms
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