Nikolai Kazanli
Nikolai Ivanovich Kazanli (17 December 1869 – 5 August 1916) was a Russian composer and journalist. He was born in Tiraspol, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire.
From 1879 to 1883, Kazanli studied violin at the Music School of the Society of Fine Arts in Odesa. He graduated from the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps in 1886 and studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1891 to 1894. There he studied composition theory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, learned counterpoint from Yuliy Johansen, and received advice from Mily Balakirev, with whom he was close.
His compositions were noted for technical command, taste, imagination, and particularly colourful orchestration. He also produced numerous orchestrations of works by other composers.
From 1897 to 1904, Kazanli conducted Kaim's Russian symphonic concerts in Munich. Under his direction, Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Lyudmila received its first complete performance in Germany; the performance was repeated in Berlin in 1900. He also conducted in Prague and Kissingen in 1902.
Kazanli edited and translated from German Johansen's posthumous Textbook of Strict Counterpoint, following the author's instructions. He contributed music writing to the newspaper Den in 1890–1891, the magazine Artist in 1891–1893, and the publications Münchener Allgemeine Zeitung, Deutsche Musik-Zeitung, and Die Musik between 1901 and 1905. He led music teaching at a lycée, an engineering school, and the Second Cadet Corps, and served on a commission for the improvement of military music.
His orchestral works include the Symphonietta in G major (1893), a Symphony in F minor, the ballad Lenore (1897), Villa by the Sea, a fantasy on a painting by Böcklin (1913), and Carnival Night, a musical picture (1914). He also wrote the opera Miranda, staged at the Mariinsky Theatre; works for chorus and orchestra including Rusalka, The Wolf in the Kennel, and a ceremonial cantata for the Second Cadet Corps's bicentenary in 1912; the a cappella Great Memorial Service; and several romances.
Kazanli died in Petrograd on 5 August 1916 and was buried at the Nikolskoye Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.