Margarita Fyodorova

Margarita Alekseyevna Fyodorova was a Soviet and Russian pianist and harpsichordist, born on 4 November 1927 in Moscow and died there on 14 August 2016. She was awarded the title People's Artist of the Russian Federation in 2007 and became a prominent representative of the Moscow piano tradition. Her interpretation of Alexander Scriabin's music was especially admired and was regarded internationally as among the finest.

She began studying music in 1938 in the pedagogical practice sector of the Moscow Conservatory, with I. S. Rabinovich as consultant. In 1939 she entered the fourth class of the Central Music School, initially associated with the class of K. N. Igumnov. After an interruption in studies during the Second World War, she continued her education with E. K. Nikolayeva and later, from the eighth class of the Central Music School, studied with the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus. In 1951 she graduated with honors from the Moscow Conservatory and from 1951 to 1955 pursued postgraduate studies there, also in Neuhaus's class.

Fyodorova began teaching as early as 1946, when she worked at the Central Music School as a musical illustrator and teacher. From 1965 she served as assistant to Yakov Milshtein at the Special Piano Department of the Moscow Conservatory and soon received her own class. She became an associate professor in 1972 and a professor in 1998. For many years she taught at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, later working under the leadership of Vera Gornostayeva and then Mikhail Voskresensky. She also gave open lessons and master classes in many Russian cities and abroad, chaired state examination commissions, and worked with young musicians on behalf of the Russian Culture Foundation.

As a pedagogue she trained more than sixty students, many of whom later became prize-winners at international competitions. She also served on the juries of numerous international piano competitions in Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, the United States, and other countries, including as jury chair and honorary president in some cases. Her teaching and artistic activity made her an influential figure in Russian pianism across several generations.

Fyodorova maintained an active concert career for about sixty years, giving more than 3,000 solo concerts, in some seasons up to one hundred performances a year. She toured widely in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, appearing in more than thirty countries. Her performances were heard in leading venues including the Great and Small Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Column Hall of the House of Unions, halls of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, the Royal Albert Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York, and other major concert stages.

Her repertoire was exceptionally broad, comprising around 1,000 solo works and more than seventy concertos for piano and orchestra. She gave first performances of several works by Soviet composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, the Twelfth Sonata by Anatoly Alexandrov, and Recitatives and Fugues by Aram Khachaturian. She collaborated with many distinguished conductors and chamber musicians, and as a member of a noted women's trio performed piano trios by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Sviridov, and Shostakovich.

Fyodorova was also notable as a harpsichordist. In the 1971-72 season she performed all of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard concertos on the harpsichord in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. In the 1974-75 season she appeared both as pianist and harpsichordist in duo repertoire that included works by C. P. E. Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Hindemith. Many of her programs were built as monographic cycles, including thematic concerts devoted to Russian and Soviet sonatas, fantasies, and anniversary tributes to composers such as Schubert, Bach, Scriabin, Chopin, and Neuhaus.

One of the major artistic achievements of her career was the cycle "Alexander Scriabin. Complete Works for Piano," performed in six solo recitals plus the piano concerto during the 1971-72 season for the centenary of the composer's birth. This project included more than 200 works and was regarded as a remarkable artistic feat. She made numerous radio recordings and issued recordings on LP and CD, including Beethoven's "33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli" for the Melodiya label in its "Outstanding Pianists" series.

Among her honors were the title People's Artist of Russia, the title Honored Artist of the RSFSR, the medal "Glory and Pride of the Central Music School," the medal commemorating the 850th anniversary of Moscow, the Veteran of Labor medal, and a badge for services to Polish culture. Earlier in her career she won second prize at the first International J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1950 and second prize at the International Bedrich Smetana Competition in Prague in 1951. She was buried at Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.

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