- Source: Yuri Sakhnovsky
Yuri Sergeevich Sakhnovsky (September 25, 1866 – April 2, 1930) was a Russian composer, conductor, and music critic.
Sakhnovsky came from a well-off family and was known as a "bon vivant (he weighed 260.lbs) handsome, brilliant and wealthy".
Sakhnovsky studied chant with Stepan Vasilevich Smolensky, to whom Sergei Rachmaninoff dedicated his Vespers, though Sakhnovsky later turned to a more "lush" style of choral writing. While a student Sakhnovsky took in his eight-year younger fellow student Rachmaninoff during the difficult winter when it seemed he was suffering from malaria.
In later life Sakhnovsky was active more as a critic than a composer. Particularly notorious were his attacks on Alexander Scriabin's music as "decadent" from 1911-1914.
His song "The Blacksmith" was recorded by Maxim Mikhailov and his song "The Clock" was recorded by Vladimir Rosing.
Notes
References and Sources
Bowers, Faubion (1996). Scriabin, a Biography. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-28897-0. OCLC 33405309.
Strimple, Nick (2003). Choral Music in the Twentieth Century. Amadeus. ISBN 978-1-57467-074-5.