LYADOV Life&times

1855

Life:anatoly Lyadov is born in

St Petersburg, the second child of the chief conductor of the Russian Opera. Showing talent from an early age, he receives piano lessons from his aunt. TIMES: Alexander II begins his reign as Tsar of Russia. Over his 26-year rule, he will carry out major reforms including emancipating the serfs.

1873

LIFE:HE is introduced by Rimsky-korsakov, his teacher at St Petersburg Conservatoire, to Borodin, Cui and Musorgsky, who hails him as ‘a new, unmistakable, original and Russian young talent’.

TIMES: Russia and Austria-hungary are persuaded by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck to form the League of Three Emperors, intended primarily to prevent any alliance with France.

1894

LIFE: He meets Alexander Scriabin and becomes a loyal champion of his music, later conducting the world premieres of Scriabin’s First and Second Symphonies. TIMES: Alexander III, Russia’s ultra-reactionary Tsar who succeeded the throne after the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 and reversed many of his reforms, dies aged 49.

1905

LIFE: He resigns from St Petersburg Conservatoire in solidarity with Rimskykorsakov, who has been sacked for his support of students on strike.

TIMES: On ‘Bloody Sunday’, unarmed demonstrators are fired upon by the Imperial Guard as they march towards the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

1884

LIFE: In near secrecy, he marries Nadezhda Ivanovna Tolkacheva, allowing just two relatives to be present as witnesses, and otherwise only telling his sister whom he instructs not to attend.

TIMES: The Russian painter Marie Bashkirtseff’s The Meeting receives great acclaim when it is displayed at the Paris Salon. She, though, is outraged that it does not win a medal.

1914

LIFE: On 28 August, he dies at his country estate in Polynovka, where he has spent every summer since 1894. He is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery. TIMES: Russia enters the First World War when, in response to Austriahungary’s invasion of Serbia in

July, it mobilises a large army. Germany subsequently declares war on Russia itself.