Oskar Feltsman

Oskar Feltsman was a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. He was born on 18 February 1921 in Odessa in a Jewish family and died on 3 February 2013 in Moscow. He was named People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1989.

As a child he first studied violin with the famous teacher Pyotr Stolyarsky, but soon switched to piano. He studied piano with Berta Reingbald, and his first piano piece, "Autumn", appeared when he was six years old. In 1939 he graduated from the Stolyarsky School, where he also studied composition with Professor Nikolai Vilinsky, and in 1939-1941 he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory in the composition class of Vissarion Shebalin.

In 1941 Feltsman was evacuated to Novosibirsk. At the age of twenty he became secretary of the Siberian branch of the Union of Soviet Composers. There he wrote music for the philharmonic society and the Leningrad Alexandrinsky Theatre, worked as head of the music department of the Belarusian State Jewish Theatre, and composed the operetta based on Valentin Kataev's play "The Blue Handkerchief". In 1941 he married Yevgenia Kaidanovskaya, a student of the conducting and choral faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. He returned to Moscow with his wife in 1945.

After the war he established himself in musical theatre. In 1948 the Moscow Operetta Theatre staged the premiere of his musical comedy "Air Castle". In 1952 two more premieres followed: "Suvorochka" at the Moscow Operetta Theatre and "The Mediterranean Sea Is Roaring" at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre. He also wrote music for circus acts, variety productions, children's performances for Natalia Sats, and in 1952 composed a Violin Concerto in three movements.

Feltsman became especially famous as a songwriter. His first song, "Teplokhod", written for the satirical theatre "Blue Bird", was later performed by Leonid Utyosov. Wide popularity came with "Landyshi" and many other songs that sounded constantly on radio and in concert programs despite criticism in the Soviet press. In 1960 he wrote the musical call sign for the radio program "Good Morning!", and many of his songs were first heard there. Over the years he collaborated with major poets including Andrei Voznesensky, Rasul Gamzatov, Yevgeny Dolmatovsky, Mikhail Matusovsky, Lev Oshanin, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Kharitonov, Igor Shaferan, Mikhail Tanich, Naum Olev, and others.

His songs were performed by leading Soviet and Russian popular singers, among them Leonid Utyosov, Mark Bernes, Edita Piekha, Iosif Kobzon, Muslim Magomayev, Eduard Khil, Lev Leshchenko, Sofia Rotaru, Anna German, and many more. Edita Piekha was one of the performers most closely associated with his music, and Feltsman called her his favorite singer. In the 1970s and 1980s he was regularly among the laureates of the Song of the Year festival, and in the early 1970s he also served on the jury of the television contest "Hello, We Are Looking for Talents!".

His output extended far beyond songs. He wrote operettas including "Aunt Charlie", "Old Houses", and "Let the Guitar Play", chamber vocal cycles on poems by Inna Lisnyanskaya and Marina Tsvetaeva, a song cycle on poems by Haim Bialik, ballet scores including "Bulka" and a ballet based on Prosper Merimee's "The Venus of Ille", and music connected with Jewish themes. In 1987 he composed the vocal cycle "Songs of the Past" based on Jewish folk poetry, and at the end of the 1980s he felt a particular attraction to Jewish music.

Later in life he remained active with author concerts, jubilee evenings, recordings, and publications. In 1997 his book "A Suit from Fishman and Other Things" was published. Anniversary concerts devoted to his creative career were held in Moscow in 1999, 2001, and 2006, and documentary films about him appeared in 2007 and 2009. He lived in Moscow in the building popularly called the "House of 100 Pianos", where the Moscow House of Composers was located.

Feltsman died in Moscow from heart failure at the Semashko Central Clinical Hospital. The farewell ceremony took place at the House of the Union of Composers of Russia, and he was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery on 6 February 2013. Altogether he wrote about 1,500 songs and remained one of the best-known Soviet and Russian masters of popular song.

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