Background
He was born in Borovichi St. Petersburg, May 12, 1855, of a musical family, his father being conductor at the Maryinsky Theater.
He was born in Borovichi St. Petersburg, May 12, 1855, of a musical family, his father being conductor at the Maryinsky Theater.
He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory but was expelled from Rimsky-Korsakov's harmony classes for "incredible laziness. " He graduated from the conservatory with honors in 1877.
He assisted Mili Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov in editing a new publication of the scores of Mikhail Glinka's operas A Life for the Czar and Ruslan and Ludmila. In 1878 he joined the faculty of St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming professor of harmony and composition. Teaching bored him, but his pupils found him acidly witty, lucid, and inspiring. In 1885 he became professor at the imperial chapel.
Later, for the Imperial Geographical Society, he made valuable researches in the field of Russian folk music, publishing several collections that are highly regarded by scholars. As a result, his output as a composer was limited, and he was successful chiefly in the smaller forms. His best-known works include two groups of children's songs (Op. 14 and 18); and a number of piano pieces, including The Music Box. He also composed two orchestral scherzos (Op. 10 and 16), and cantatas based on Schiller's Braut von Messina ("Bride of Messina"; Op. 28) and Maeterlinck's Soeur Béatrice ("Sister Beatrice"; Op. 60). In 1909 he was commissioned by the impresario Serge Diaghilev to compose a ballet based on the Firebird legend, but he procrastinated so long that the task was given to Igor Stravinsky.
Lyadov was a man of curious personality, a sensitive aristocrat who was both pathologically shy and fantastically indolent.