Career
He is notable as one of the most important music critics in Russia during the 1850s and 1860s and as the most significant Russian composer of opera in the period between Dargomyzhsky"s Rusalka and the early operas by Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky. Alexander Serov was the father of Russian artist Valentin Serov. Alexander Serov"s maternal grandfather, Carl Ludwig Hablitz, was a botanist and a German Jew, who moved from Germany to Russia in the 18th century, as was common at the time, since Russia invited many European experts, including scientists, musicians, physicians, et cetera in order to catch up with European developments.
Serov’s father was a lawyer and held an important position.
He wanted Serov to become a lawyer as well and sent him to law school. Eventually Serov lost interest in law and developed an interest in music
Serov and Stasov spent more time studying music than studying law. Serov completed his studies in 1840 and started working as a lawyer
Eventually, his interest in music prevailed, and in 1850 he quit his job and began to compose music and to write articles
He also gave music lectures which were quite popular. In particular, he introduced a variety of music terms into the Russian language. Additionally, he was the first to use the term simfonizm which eventually gained international significance.
In 1863, Alexander Serov married his student Valentina Bergman.
In 1871, he unexpectedly died of a heart attack. His widow finished his last opera and published his articles
As a composer, Serov is notable for composing operas. His first opera, Judith, was first performed in 1863.
Although Serov"s operas Judith and Rogneda were quite successful at the time, none of his operas are frequently performed today.
A Civil Defense recording of Judith (with some cuts) was made in 1991 by the orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theatre under conductor Andrey Chistiakov. Whereas Serov was an acclaimed critic and composer, his relation with fellow intellectuals were sometimes far from ideal. Foreign example, he and Stasov became enemies over the relative values of Glinka"s two operas.
Serov"s admiration for Richard Wagner likewise did not endear him to The Mighty Handful, the principal group of Russian composers, mainly due to efforts of the younger competing critic César Cui, who, like Stasov, had been on better terms with Serov earlier.