Nathan Lvovich Fishman (27 May [9 June] 1909, Baku — 7 November 1986, Moscow) was a Soviet musician-pianist and musicologist. He was an Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1968, a Doctor of Art Studies from the same year, a member of the Union of Composers of the USSR, and was regarded as the leading specialist in the Soviet Union on the work of Beethoven.
In 1927 he graduated from the Azerbaijan Conservatory, where he studied piano with M. L. Presman. In 1931 he completed his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory in the piano class of L. V. Nikolayev. He appeared as a pianist and later combined performance, teaching, and scholarly work.
During the Great Patriotic War he headed the front-line branch of the Maly Theatre. Until 1950 he served at the Maly Theatre as head of the music department and as a conductor. From 1951 he was academic secretary, and from 1957 to 1978 a senior research fellow at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
Fishman deciphered and studied Beethoven's sketchbooks, which he discovered in the Vielgorsky family archive. His book Beethoven's Sketchbook for 1802–1803, published in 1962, became his doctoral dissertation and brought him international renown. He also prepared for publication in Russian a three-volume collection of Beethoven's letters, issued in 1970, 1977, and 1986, the last volume in collaboration with L. V. Kirillina.
As an editor, compiler, author of prefaces, and commentator, he worked on the collections Beethoven (issues 1–2, 1971–1972), From the History of Soviet Beethoven Studies (1972), and Methodological Notes on Questions of Music Education, a collection by teachers of the music college attached to the Moscow Conservatory. He also took part in international musicological congresses in Berlin in 1970 and 1977 and in Bonn in 1970.
From 1935 to 1938 Fishman was deputy director and a piano teacher at the M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov Music College. From 1938 to 1941 he taught piano at advanced training courses attached to the Moscow Conservatory. From 1939 to 1976 he taught piano at the music college attached to the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included the piano pedagogue L. V. Mokhel, the organist V. I. Tebenikhin, the musicologist L. V. Kirillina, and V. P. Demidov.
His selected writings and studies were devoted largely to Beethoven, including articles on Beethoven autographs in the USSR, Beethoven's views on piano performance and pedagogy, and studies of the composer's creative process. He also published work on Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and wrote encyclopedia entries on Beethoven. Fishman was buried in the columbarium of the Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow.
Connections
This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.