Russian composer Edison Denisov is one of the most significant representatives of contemporary Russian music

Edison Denisov (1929-1996) is one of the leading figures in 20th century Russian music. After studying mathematics at university in his hometown of Tomsk, Siberia, where everything pointed to a brilliant career as a scientist, he embarked on a completely different path and entered the composition class at the Moscow Conservatory. The precepts of the exact sciences exerted their influence tirelessly on Denisovian art and he would later say: “Music is an art of logical thought”.

The young composer entered the history of music with a work that was brilliant from every point of view, the cantata Le Soleil des Incas. If, in Russia, its creation caused a great scandal, this work will be the author’s first to be performed in the West: first in Darmstadt, in 1965, where it was presented as the serial pioneer of Soviet music, and the same year in Paris, where Pierre Boulez included Le soleil des Incas into the program of Domaine musical. It was conducted both times by Bruno Maderna. Since then, Denisov’s destiny has known its shadow and light: while his native Russia denied one of its most promising composers, friendly Europe launched his international career. Thus, already known and recognized in the West, Edison Denisov was persecuted in his own country, which banned for a long time the publication and recording of his works as well as performances at official concerts until the mid-1980s.

A leading figure of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1960s, he took on at the time of the stagnation of the ruling regime in Russia. Rebellious, incorruptible, conscientious and persevering, he remained true to himself through storms and trials. A rare, almost mystical force inhabited him and differentiated him from so many others.

Often accused in his own country of being a too “Western” musician, Denisov is nevertheless deeply attached to the Russian tradition and culture. He studied composition with Vissarion Shebalin, who was a student of Nicolai Miaskovsky, himself a disciple of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. As a young man, Denisov travelled to the Altai region in Siberia to record authentic peasant songs. We find the imprint of this everywhere in his work, where the multiple melodic lines intertwine in the manner of the heterophony of Russian folk songs. Other works bear even more striking witness to this, such as Les pleurs, which faithfully depicts the ancient funeral ritual, or History of the Life and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the first Russian-language Passions in the history of music.

An undeniable leader, of a rare charisma, Edison Denisov has gathered around him many personalities, contributed to the rapprochement between musicians from different countries, and was in this sense “European” before the time. A fervent defender of contemporary Russian music, Denisov has always worked to promote it in the West. His professional and friendly contacts were very numerous: Henri Dutilleux, Yannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, Paul Méfano, Francis Miroglio, Nadia Boulanger, Claude Ballif, Vinko Globokar, Gilbert Amy, Jean-Claude Eloy, François-Bernard Mâche in France, but also Henri Pousseur, Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Luigi Dallapiccola, Luis de Pablo, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, George Cramb, Heinz Holliger, György Ligeti, Kazimierz Serocki, Zygmunt Krauze, without naming the various performers and organizers.

Working with Russian and Western performers, faithful companions of daring experiences and innovations, including conductors Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Daniel Barenboim, pianists Alexei Lyubimov and Jean-Pierre Armangaud, violinists Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer and Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Natalia Gutman and Alexander Rudin, flute players Aurèle Nicolet and Alexander Korneev, oboist Heinz Holliger, clarinettists Eduard Brunner and Lev Mikhailov, saxophonists Jean-Marie Londeix and Claude Delangle, bassoonist Valery Popov, trombonist Anatoly Skobelev, percussionist Mark Pekarsky, allowed Denisov to create virtuoso opuses, responding to the latest findings in instrumental technique.

Beyond the composer, the man of action and the organizer, the scope of his personality includes a large part of pedagogical activity. Edison Denisov taught orchestration and composition at the Moscow Conservatory for almost forty years, between 1959 and 1996, and is the only one of his generation to form a real composition school in Russia, a role in which he is comparable to Olivier Messiaen in France.

His catalogue, with over 140 titles, contains a multitude of genres: instrumental and vocal music including three operas, a ballet, two symphonies for large orchestra, two oratorios, a Requiem, fifteen concertos for solo instruments, an impressive number of chamber works. In addition, there are scores for more than 30 dramatic plays and more than 60 film scores. Beside the most ingeniously composed works, there are many musical genres with “classical” nominations such as the symphony, concerto, sonata and other variations.

His style, avant-garde, though innovative and provocative in the 1960s, later calmed down, giving way to delicate and sensitive lyricism, to give some ultimate glories – expressionist, heartbreaking – in his latest opuses such as the Second Chamber Symphony or the Second Symphony for large orchestra.

Denisov’s stylistic evolution reveals a stable path, without rebounds or deviations, but constantly evolving. In the 1960s, he devoted himself entirely to chamber music. He found his own style, recognizable among all, in the early 1970s, as shown by Peinture for a large symphony orchestra (1970).

Edison Denisov’s creative credo resides in one of his favourite ideas: “Beauty is one of the essential notions in art”. His aesthetics are also defined by three other constants: light, shadow and mystery. These three notions are repeated many times in his words and in the symbolism of his works. In the centre, the monogram from his first and last name: E-D-Es, representing the motivic essence of his music.

In the 1970s, the central work of Denisovian production was born: the opera L'Écume des jours, based on the novel by Boris Vian. Completed in 1981, Denisov considered it the best he had ever composed.

In 1980, the Requiem was written: another work of identity, but also a confession of the composer. He would say: “While composing the Requiem, I was thinking of the cross that I carry in my life”.

The last period of his production, that spanned 16 years (1980-1996), is characterized by a synthesis of modern techniques that allowed him to reach a freedom in the creation and the handling of the sound material. The last creative decade, 1987-1996, saw the birth of large-scale works (in addition to the two operas previously composed), beginning with the Symphony No. 1 for large orchestra (1987), followed by two monumental oratorios for soloists, choir and orchestra: History of the Life and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ (1992) and Morgentraum (1993).

Edison Denisov was a corresponding member of the Bavarian and Berlin Academies of Arts. In 1986, the French Ministry of Culture appointed him an Officer of Arts and Letters and in 1993 he was awarded the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris.

Text: Ekaterina Kuprovskaïa; translation: Philip Firsov, Catherine Kustanczy

Dates and events:

1929 Birth on April 6 in Tomsk (Siberia).

1945 Beginning of musical studies in the General courses of musical training.

1946 End of studies at school (equivalent to the baccalaureate). He enters the Faculty of Mathematics & Physics at Tomsk University. At the same time, he enters the State Musical Education Establishment.

1948 Start of correspondence with Shostakovich.

1950 End of studies at the State Musical Education Establishment.

1951 End of studies at the Tomsk University (diploma with honours). He enters the University's advanced course.

1951 Enters the Moscow Conservatory and leaves Tomsk University. Studies composition with Vissarion Shebalin and piano with Vladimir Belov.

1954 Summer: travel to the Kursk region to record Russian folk songs.

1955 Travel to Altai, also for folklore recordings.

1956 End of studies at the Conservatory. Admission to the Union of Composers of the USSR. Enters the advanced course of the Moscow Conservatory of Music. Summer: travel for folklore recordings in Altai and Tomsk region.

1957 Marriage to Galina Grigorieva (musicologist, later - Professor of the Moscow Conservatory and Doctor of Art History).


1959 End of studies in the Conservatory’s advanced course. He begins teaching analysis and then orchestration at the same Conservatory.

1960 Birth of his son Dmitri (now a flutist).

1964 Creation, in Leningrad, of the cantata Le Soleil des Incas conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky (vocal part: Lidia Davydova).

1965 Creation of Le Soleil des Incas in Darmstadt and Paris, conducted by Bruno Maderna.

1965 Birth of his daughter Ekaterina (now a choral conductor, music theory teacher and president of the Edison Denisov Society).

1966 Publication of the article “A new technique is not a fashion”.

1967 In January, during the BBC Orchestra’s tour of Moscow, he meets Pierre Boulez.

1968 December: premiere of Les Pleurs (based on folk lyrics) for soprano, piano and percussion in Brussels, soloist - Basia Rechistka.

1969 September: premiere of DSCH for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano in Warsaw, by the ensemble Atelier de musique.

1970 October: premiere of Peinture in Weiz (Austria) under the baton of Ernest Bour.

1971 April: first performance of the Sonata for cello and piano in Royan (France), performed by Pierre Pénassou and Maria Helena Barrientos.

1973 May: premiere of the vocal cycle La Vie en Rouge on poems by Boris Vian, in Zagreb (Yugoslavia), soloist - Roswitha Trexler.

1975 June: premiere of Aquarelles for 24 string instruments in Paris, conducted by Daniel Chabrun.

1976 May: first performance of the Concerto for flute and orchestra in Dresden (DDR) by Aurèle Nicolet, conductor Hans-Peter Frank.

1978 July: premiere of the Concerto for violin and orchestra in Milan by Gidon Kremer, conducted by Hubert Soudant.

1980 First performance of the Requiem in Hamburg. Conductor Francis Travis, soloists - Eva Csapo, Lutz Michael Harder.

1982 Publication of Denisov’s book Percussion instruments in a modern orchestra.

1984 November: creation of the ballet Confession, after Alfred de Musset, at Tallinn State Opera and Ballet Theatre (Estonia, USSR).

1986 Publication of the book Modern music and some problems arising in the evolution of compositional techniques.

1986 Creation of the opera L'Écume des jours, after Boris Vian, at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Edison Denisov is named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.

1987 Marriage to Ekaterina Kouprovskaia, musicologist; Doctor of Musicology, Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV).

1988 Creation of the First Symphony for large symphony orchestra, commissioned by the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

1988 Birth of his daughter Anna.

1990 President of the Association of Contemporary Music in Moscow. Birth of his daughter Maria.

1990-1991 Invitation by Pierre Boulez to IRCAM, where Denisov composes Sur la nappe de l'étang glacé for tape and nine instruments.

1992 History of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, oratorio for tenor, bass, choir and large orchestra.

1993 Reconstruction and orchestration of Claude Debussy’s opera Rodrigue et Chimène, created for the inauguration of the Opéra de Lyon in 1993.

1994 July: serious car accident near Moscow. Denisov will be transferred to Paris for hospitalisation.

1995 Completion of Franz Schubert’s unfinished opera Lazarus (he finishes the second act and writes the whole third act). Premiere in Stuttgart under the baton of Helmuth Rilling.

1996 Denisov composes the Symphony No. 2 for large orchestra, the Concerto for flute and clarinet and Avant le coucher de soleil for alto flute and vibraphone.
Death in Paris on November 24. Buried in the Paris-Sud-Saint-Mandé cemetery.

Photos: from the personal archive of the composer's daughter Ekaterina.