Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer.
Background
Alexander Ilyich Siloti was born on his father's estate near Kharkov, Russia, the fourth in a family of five sons and two daughters. His father, Ilya Matvey Siloti, a member of the nobility, traced his surname to an early Italian immigrant to Russia. His mother, Vera (Rachmaninoff) Siloti, was an aunt of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both parents were musically gifted. Siloti's maternal grandfather, Arkadi Rachmaninoff, a competent pianist, had studied with the Irish composer-pianist John Field, who lived in Russia for many years.
Education
Siloti revealed a musical aptitude at an early age and was enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory in 1876. He studied piano with Nikolai Rubinstein, the founder of the conservatory, whose method of teaching and sympathetic spirit deeply impressed Siloti, and with Nikolai Zverev, who was also Siloti's guardian. The composer Tchaikovsky taught him theory and composition. The musical circle in Moscow at the time included Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Anton Rubinstein, Mily Balakirev, Anton Arensky and Ferruccio Busoni, all of whom had some influence on Siloti, who met them at Zverev's home. He graduated in 1881 as a gold medal winner.
From 1883 to 1886 he studied at Weimar with Franz Liszt.
Career
While still a student in the conservatory, Siloti had made his first appearance as soloist with an orchestra, in Moscow in 1880. After graduating, he went to Germany, where a concert he gave in Leipzig in 1883 brought him considerable acclaim.
This was the formative experience of Siloti's life, for not only did he regard Liszt as an incomparably great pianist - as far above Anton Rubinstein as the latter was above others - but he came to have a close personal relationship with Liszt, who gave him private lessons; he was regarded as one of Liszt's finest pupils. Throughout his career Siloti sought to perpetuate the spirit of Liszt's playing. Siloti returned to Russia in 1887 to teach at the Moscow Conservatory, where he helped guide the musical training of his cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff.
A disagreement with the new director of the conservatory led Siloti to resign in 1890 and turn to a concert career.
His piano style has been described as "a combination of vitality and refinement, backed by a big technique". He toured England and America in 1898 - 99, receiving critical acclaim. His programs often featured Rachmaninoff's works, especially the Prelude in C-sharp Minor. Siloti also gained a reputation as a conductor.
He led the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, 1901-02, and from 1903 to 1917 he conducted and organized in St. Petersburg what came to be called the Siloti Concerts. These became immensely popular and soon eclipsed the academicism of the Imperial Russian Musical Society.
Siloti was remarkably cordial to contemporary music and musicians. Among the composers he invited to perform or to introduce their newest works were Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Scriabin, Sibelius, and Schoenberg. He also gave first performances of new works by Stravinsky, Prokofieff, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Elgar, Delius, de Falla, and Enesco.
In 1919, during the political upheaval following the Russian Revolution, Siloti left his post as director of the Marinsky Opera in St. Petersburg and fled the country. After living in England and Belgium, he came to the United States in 1922. Two years later he became a member of the faculty of the Juilliard Graduate School of Music in New York City, and from then until his retirement in 1942 he devoted his principal energies to teaching and to music editing.
Siloti continued to make concert appearances, performing over the years with the nation's most prominent symphony orchestras. In 1929, at the age of sixty-six, he gave a memorable performance in Carnegie Hall, playing three major works - Tchaikovsky's Concerto in B-flat Minor, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, and Liszt's Totentanz or Danse Macabre - with a virtuosity and youthful spirit that evoked critical praise.
He died at his New York City apartment, after a long illness, at the age of eighty-two.
Achievements
He quickly gained renown as one of the great virtuosos in the era of the grand manner of piano playing.
His arrangements include Bach's Concerto in D for piano, violin, flute, and strings; Vivaldi's Concerto in D Minor for small orchestra; and special editions of piano pieces.
Personality
Tall, slender, and animated, he had immense hands which sometimes enabled him to employ unusual fingering.
Siloti in his later years was a genial, kindly man who handled his pupils with sympathy and insight.
Connections
On Feburary 6, 1887, Siloti had married Vera Tretyakova, wealthy daughter of Pavel Tretyakov, art collector and founder of the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. They had five children: Alexander, Levko, Vera, Oxana, and Kyriena.
