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Tchaikovsky |
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Vladimir ShilovskiiVladimir Stepanovich Shilovskii (Владимир Степанович Шиловский), later Count Vasill'ev-Shilovskii (Васильев-Шиловский), was a Russian artist, singer, poet and amateur composer, born in 1852. The son of Major Stepan Stepanovich Shilovskii and his wife Mariia, Vladimir showed an early aptitutde for music, and he enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory aged 15. Here his abilities were recognised and encouraged by his professor of composition — Tchaikovsky. After Shilovskii's graduation from the conservatory, a number of his pieces were perforrmed in theatres and concert halls, and he also contributed an entr'acte to Tchaikovsky's opera The Oprichnik (1870–72). Vladimir's mother and older brother Konstantin were also friends of the composer, and during the 1870s Tchaikovsky frequently stayed at the family estate at Usovo (Tambov province), where he completed his fantasia The Tempest (1873), the opera Vakula the Smith (1874), and the Symphony No. 3 (1875). The latter work, together with the Two Pieces for piano, Op. 10 (1872), was dedicated to Vladimir Shilovskii. In 1877 Shilovskii married Anna Vasil'ev (b. 1841), daughter of Count Aleksei Vasil'ev (1808–1879). On the death of his father-in-law, Vladimir assumed the title Count Vasill'ev-Shilovskii. Vladimir Shilovskii died on 30 June/6 July 1893, following a long illness. |