ALEXANDER ILYICH SILOTI (NEAR KHARKOV, RUSSIA/UKRAINE,
OCTOBER 9, 1863 – NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA, DECEMBER 8, 1945)
Alexander Siloti was born on his father’s estate near Kharkiv, Ukraine
(then part of Imperial Russia). He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory
with Nikolai Zverev from 1871, then from 1875 under Nikolai Rubinstein, brother
of the more famous Anton Rubinstein; from that year he also studied
counterpoint under Sergei Taneyev, harmony under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and
theory under Nikolai Hubert. He graduated with the Gold Medal in Piano in 1881.
He received some lessons from Anton Rubinstein after the death of Rubinstein’s
brother, Nikolai. After Siloti’s graduation it was decided that he would be
sent to Weimar, Germany on scholarship to further his studies with Franz Liszt,
co-founding the Liszt-Verein in Leipzig, and making his professional debut on 19
November 1883. Returning to Russia in 1887, Siloti taught at the Moscow
Conservatory, where his students included Alexander Goldenweiser, Konstantin
Igumnov, Leonid Maximov, and his first cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff. During this
period he also began work as editor for Tchaikovsky, particularly on the First
and Second piano concertos. Siloti married Vera Tretyakova, herself a pianist
and the daughter of the wealthy industrialist and art collector Pavel
Tretyakov. He left his post at the Conservatory in May 1891, and from 1892-1900
lived and toured in Europe with his wife and young children. He also toured New
York City, Boston, Cincinnati and Chicago in 1898. As a conductor Siloti gave
the world premiere of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the composer as
soloist in 1901. From 1901–1903, he led the Moscow Philharmonic; from
1903–1917, he organized, financed, and conducted the influential Siloti
Concerts in St Petersburg, collaborating with the critic and musicologist
Alexander Ossovsky. He presented Leopold Auer, Pablo Casals, Feodor Chaliapin,
George Enescu, Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, Willem Mengelberg, Felix Mottl,
Arthur Nikisch, Arnold Schoenberg and Felix Weingartner, and local and world
premieres by Debussy, Elgar, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff,
Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Sibelius, Stravinsky and others. Ballet impresario
Sergei Diaghilev first heard Stravinsky’s music at one of the Siloti Concerts.
In the generation prior to 1917, Siloti was one of Russia’s most important
artists, with music by Arensky, Lyadov, Blumenfeld, Szymanowski, Liszt,
Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky dedicated to him. In 1918,
Siloti was appointed Intendant of the Mariinsky Theatre, but late the following
year fled what had become Soviet Russia for England, finally settling in New
York City in December 1921. From 1925-1942 he taught at the Juilliard School,
performing occasionally in recital, and in November 1930 gave a legendary
all-Liszt concert with Arturo Toscanini. His many students included Ilmari
Hannikainen, Bertha Melnik, Marc Blitzstein, Gladys Ewart, and Eugene Istomin.
Siloti, who was one of the great practitioners of the art of transcription,
wrote over 200 of these arrangements, as well as orchestral editions of the
music of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Possibly his most
famous transcription is the Prelude in B minor, based on a keyboard prelude by
J. S. Bach. His daughter, Kyriena Siloti, was a noted pianist and teacher in
New York and Boston until her death in 1989, aged 94. Alexander Siloti is
buried at the Russian Orthodox Convent Novo-Diveevo Cemetery, Nanuet, New York.
TRACKLIST
Alexander Siloti made 7 Duo-Art piano rolls
6600 BACH-SILOTI – Prelude to Cantata No. 29 “Wir danken Dir, Gott”
6636 LISZT – Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude (Abbrieviated by
Siloti)
6657 RIABININ-SILOTI – Russian Folk Song
6875 LIADOV – Cradle Song
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