Nikolay Lvov
Encyclopedia
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Lvov (May 4, 1753 – December 21, 1803) was a Russian
artist of the Age of Enlightenment
. Lvov, an amateur of Rurikid lineage, was a polymath
who contributed to geology
, history
, graphic arts
and poetry
, but is known primarily as an architect
and ethnographer
, compiler of the first significant collection of Russian folk songs (the Lvov-Prach collection).
Lvov's architecture represented the second, "strict" generation of neoclassicism
stylistically close to Giacomo Quarenghi
. Lvov worked in Saint Petersburg
but his best works survived in the countryside, especially his native Tver Governorate
. He redesigned the external appearance of Peter and Paul Fortress
and created an unprecedented Trinity Church combining a Roman
rotunda
with one-of-a-kind pyramid
al belltower. He adapted rammed earth
technology to the environment of Northern Russia and used it in his extant Priory Palace
in Gatchina
; Lvov's construction school, established in 1797, trained over 800 craftsmen. He managed geological surveys
and published a treatise on the coals from Donets Basin
and Moscow Basin. He experimented with coal pyrolysis
, proposed new uses for coal tar
and sulphur, and wrote a reference book on heating and ventilation
.
Lvov designed the badges of the Order of St. Vladimir
and the Order of St. Anna
, translated works by Anacreon
, Palladio
, Petrarch
, Sappho
and the Saga of King Harald
into Russian language
, wrote libretto
for opera
and vaudeville
, researched Russian chronicles
and published one of the first versions of the bylina
of Dobrynya Nikitich
. In 1783 he became one of the first 36 members of the Russian Academy
.
In 1931 Vladislav Khodasevich
called Lvov "an intelligent and subtle connoisseur
of everything ... who was not destined to do anything remarkable." Later researchers appreciated Lvov's contribution: Richard Taruskin considered Lvov's collection of folk songs "the greatest and most culturally significant of Russian folk collections", Philip Bohlman
credited discovery of Russian folk art "all from the actions of a single individual, Lvov", William Craft Brumfield
called Lvov "one of the greatest neoclassical architects produced in the reign of Catherine the Great
... neoclassical aesthetics
at its purest".
. Sources published before 2001 state date of birth March 4, 1751; in 2001 Galina Dmitrieva published newly found church records showing that Lvov was actually born May 4, 1753.
In line with tradition parents "enrolled" Nikolay into Preobrazhensky Lifeguard regiment in 1759. Ten years later Nikolay arrived in Saint Petersburg
and joined the regiment. In 1770–1771 he attended training courses at Izmaylovsky Regiment
; these courses were the only instance of formal education in his life. Until 1775 Lvov, along with his military service that became a mere formality, was also employed by the Collegium of Foreign Affairs as a diplomatic courier
and extensively travelled to German principalities and Denmark
. In July 1775 Lvov resigned both military and civil service in the rank of captain and returned to his parents' estate, but one year later returned to diplomatic service. This time he travelled to London
, Madrid
, Paris
and the Netherlands
; in Paris Lvov indulged in frequent theatre going and made good acquaintance with poet Ivan Khemnitser
and the Bakunin family.
Back in Saint Petersburg Lvov created a private theatre based in the Bakunin house and played lead parts in plays by Jean-François Regnard
, Antonio Sacchini
and, probably, Yakov Knyazhnin
. He led otherwise a modest lifestyle of a salaried clerk, living at his friends' houses, and could not afford renting his own until May 1779 when his pay was raised to 700 roubles per annum.
Around 1778 or 1779 Lvov developed relationship with Maria Dyakova (her sister Alexandra was engaged to Vasily Kapnist
). Maria's father, an influential statesman, distrusted Lvov at first sight and ruled out any marriage proposals. She and Lvov were secretly married in a church in Saint Petersburg on November 8, 1780; Maria still lived in her parents' house for three more years. By 1783 Lvov's social standing improved to the point where the father reluctantly approved the marriage; only then the secret ceremony of 1780 became public. The affair between Lvov and Maria Dyakova became a subject of romance novel
fiction (the most recent paperback
was issued in 2008).
In April 1781 Lvov was appointed secretary to the Russian Embassy in Dresden
, Kingdom of Saxony
, but "her majesty's will" retained him at Saint Petersburg court. Instead of Dresden he left for Warsaw
and Vienna
on government business and managed to carve out time for a personal tour of Italy
(Livorno
, Pisa
, Florence
, Bologna
and Venice
). In May 1783 Lvov transferred from Foreign Affairs to the Directorate of Post Offices, where he served under Alexander Bezborodko
until 1797. Most of his achievements in arts and sciences took place alongside with government service and clearly took precedence over it, so Lvov's career was not as rapid as that of Gavrila Derzhavin.
mainstream of his age, Lvov as a poet belonged to emerging sentimentalism
and pioneered exploration of "spontaneous, great-hearted sincerity in the Russian peasant" that defined yet unexpored national character. He belonged to a close-knit ring of fellow poets; its key members, Lvov, Derzhavin and Vasily Kapnist
were bonded by their marriages to three Dyakova sisters. Kapnist married Alexandra Dyakova in 1781; Derzhavin married Yekaterina Dyakova in 1795, his second marriage. Lvov, Kapnist and Ivan Khemnitser
shaped poetic self-determination of their elder and better known friend Derzhavin whose literary career started in 1779. The group also included painters (Dmitry Levitzky
, Vladimir Borovikovsky
), musicians (Yevstigney Fomin
and probably Dmitry Bortniansky), engravers and publishers; Marina Ritsarev called the Lvov ring "another Russian Academy
, albeit an informal one".
Lvov, "a matchless connoisseur
for his age" provided "artists of the high culture
with worthy models for emulation." Lvov's own verses contain one of the first literary imitations of a folk song, set to the metre
of traditional wedding chants later known as Koltsov's metre
, a precursor of one of the commonest poetic genres in 19th century Russian poetry and a testimony to an emerging new status of folk art and the very concept of a nation
. He composed one of the first literary stories about Dobrynya Nikitich
; unlike his contemporary James Macpherson
he never attempted to disguise it as a true folk bylina
.
Politically, Lvov was an "active royalist" faithful to Catherine and later Paul I, at the same time he was also loyal to his fraternity; he secured a diplomatic appointment to Khemnitzer, and tried to prevent the 1790 trial of Alexander Radishchev
. Lvov as a mature man parted with his affection to Western culture and became "sort of a slavophile
avant la lettre." He was the first to discover poetic qualities of Russian winter, previously overlooked or denied, and to turn in into a stylistic device
. For him, winter became a manly nationalistic symbol of what makes Russians different from its Western and Southern neighbors. In the end, Lvov produced "perhaps the most articulate early image of the exuberant Russian soul, and the most explicitly contemptuous of the West" predating nationalist writing by Nikolai Gogol
.
, "by far and away the ablest native-born Russian composer of his period" on a folk singspiel
The Coachmen , "the highest at which Russian opera
before Glinka ever aimed" and "astonishingly faithful to those of genuine oral polyphony." The Coachmen was written in 1786 as a one-time event to mark Catherine's visit to Tambov (a new town
managed by Lvov's buddy Derzhavin) and contained the first instance of A Birch Stood in the Field recorded and performed professionally. The song was later used by Mily Balakirev
in the Overture on Russian Themes and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
in the finale of his Fourth Symphony
.
Lvov's ethnographic activities were marked by a distinct form of nationalism
of his age, "idealization and flattery of the folk"; Lvov himself wrote that one of his objectives was to impress "present-day philosophers" in patriotic virtues of the Russians. He created the Russian name for a folk song (народная песня), adopting Herder
's concept of Volkslieder. Lvov's preface to his collection of folk poems published in 1790 contains the first professional description of Russian polyphonic
folk singing, a knowledge later forgotten and resurrected in 1870s.
The book, containing one hundred songs, Collection of Russian Folk Songs with Their Tunes (Cобрание народных русских песен с их голосами) was published at the expense of Her Majesty's Cabinet and was reissued in 1806 adding 53 new songs; vulgar or "antisocial" songs were excluded. The book was co-authored by Ivan Prach (or Jan Prač) who transcribed sheet music
, and is thus known in the English world as Lvov-Prach collection, shortly LPC.
One of the songs from the LPC, Glory to the Sun, has been used by Ludwig van Beethoven
in the Second Razumovsky Quartet
, by Modest Mussorgsky
in Boris Godunov
and by other composers. Verses of yet another song were previously published by Alexander Sumarokov
; its LPC version remained a staple of household music throughout the 19th century and was adopted by Mikhail Glinka
, Alexander Borodin
and Fernando Sor
although later critics branded it "fake folk". Margarita Mazo, on the contrary, wrote that LPC material is closer to modern understanding of folk music than scientific, surgical transcriptions of the end of the 19th century, and that the creativity of Lvov and Pratsch "influenced the folk tradition itself" through numerous songbooks that circulated all over Russia.
, Derzhavin, Olenin (Utkina Dacha
), Kochubey
, the Vorontsov
and Vyazemsky
families in the 1780s.
In 1780, shortly after the meeting of Catherine II
and Joseph II
in Mogilev
, Bezborodko introduced Lvov to the empress. Catherine commissioned Lvov the church of Saint Joseph in Mogilev
to commemorate the event, the project earned him honorary membership at the Imperial Academy of Arts
(1786). The neoclassical rotunda
church was built under his supervision until 1798. It became a cathedral
in 1802, was converted to a museum in 1934 and demolished in 1937. In the same 1780 Lvov proposed redesign of the Neva Gate of Peter and Paul Fortress
in Saint Petersburg; the project materialized in 1784–1787 and included complete refit of decrepit fortress walls with granite
cladding and construction of granite pier in place of an old wooden one. The Tuscan
portal
of the Neva Gate is ranked among his best, if not the best, architectural works.
In 1783 Lvov designed the new building for his new employer, the Directorate of Post Offices; the block-sized compound, completed in 1789, became his largest project in Saint Petersburg as well as his home: after completion Lvov and his family moved into an apartment on the northern side of the block. The building, rebuilt by Yegor Sokolov in the 19th century and Alberto Cavos
in 1850s, stands to date. Bezborodko, chief of the Directorate, remained Lvov's patron and provided him private and public commissions (including the extant Bezborodko Dacha
in Saint Petersburg) until his death in 1799.
Another high-ranking client, prince Vyazemsky, director of state porcelain
factories, commissioned a suburban estate (now within the limits of Saint Petersburg) including Lvov's most unusual work, the Trinity Church in Aleksandrovskoe also known as Kulich
and Paskha (1785–1787). The main rotunda was probably influenced by the Temple of Vesta
; the pyramidal belltower has no analogues, even remote, in Russian architecture and was a forerunner to the revival of Ancient Egyptian architecture
associated with Empire style of the Alexander I period.
In the same period Lvov designed the cathedral of Borisoglebsky Monastery in Torzhok
, a purely Neoclassical five-domed edifice that also contained hints of Russo-Byzantine architecture
, a style that emerged decades after Lvov's death. Belltower of the same monastery became Lvov's last known design; it was started after his death by Fyodor Ananyin and completed in 1811.
In 1798 Lvov published the first volume of Russky Pallady, an adapted translation of Andrea Palladio
's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
with Lvov's own lengthy comments. It was the second attempt to publish Palladio in Russian, after Prince Dolgorukov
's 1699 abstract that circulated only in handwritten copies; the first complete and unabridged Palladio was not published until 1938. Work took eight years: Lvov personally engraved in copper over 200 copies of original engravings from the 1616 Venetian
edition, the earliest he could acquire. Lvov wished "Palladio's taste to prosper in my country; French twists and English refinement already have plenty of imitators" and particularly criticized French adaptations of Palladianism
.
Paul I
, who ascended to the throne in November 1796, dismissed most of his mother's statesmen but retained Bezborodko in charge of foreign affairs. Paul extended the favor to Lvov and granted him state support and new commissions, although nowhere as significant or lucrative as those awarded to Vincenzo Brenna
(Khodasevich: "Even under new order Lvov was swimming along like a fish in water"). In an ironic twist of fortune, in April 1797 Paul I
dispatched Lvov to Moscow to redesign Bartolomeo Rastrelli
's modest Grand Kremlin Palace, a feat once attempted by Vasili Bazhenov
. Lvov produced a vast plan consisting of a three-part neoclassical palace core within a redesigned Gothic revival citadel, "an intimate royal villa in a park-like setting." His design was not as radical as Bazhenov's 1767 draft that was cancelled by Catherine at an early stage, but shared the same fate. After one year of preliminary work the project was cancelled; all alterations to existing Kremlin buildings done by Lvov were later absorbed into extant Grand Kremlin Palace
designed by Konstantin Thon
.
, one of 73 Scottish craftsmen recruited by Charles Cameron
, and the future house architect of Nicholas I
. Interaction and influence between Lvov and Menelaws are disputed. Andreyev, on one extreme, considered Menelaws completely dependent on Lvov's talent; Kuznetsov, on the other, considered Menelaws to be Lvov's mentor in design and construction management and suggested that Lvov's rammed earth
technology was actually developed by Menelaws while Lvov provided a respectable front and palace connections.
The first task assigned to Menelaws was something different: searching for coal
deposits in Lvov's native Tver Governorate. Lvov was concerned about Russia's dependence on imported British coals and deforestation
caused by charcoal
extraction, and gained support of Bezborodko and Vorontsov to survey for fossil coals. In August 1786 Lvov and Menelaws announced the find of commercial quality coal "not inferior to that from Newcastle
" in Borovichi
. Menelaws concurrently managed Lvov's construction projects in Torzhok and other places, raising suspicion that coal survey was merely an excuse for appropriating the Scotsman. Prospecting for coal continued for years, commercial coal mining in Borovichi commenced only eleven years later, after Paul I granted Lvov state support in his business.
Lvov arranged shipment of coal by barge
s to Saint Petersburg, but his coal did not sell well. Unaware of spontaneous combustion
hazard, the shippers dumped incoming coal in one lump on the bank of the Neva River
; the whole enterprise ended in a spectacular fire. Lvov's interest in fossil coal did not fade completely until at least 1800 when he sent Menelaws to recruit workers and purchase machinery in England
.
Lvov, concerned with inefficiency of existing heating oven
s, designed his own heating system and advertised it through a two-volume treatise on heating and ventilation (Русская Пиростатика / Russkaya Pyrostatica, 1793). Walls of Lvov's buildings contained elaborate heat exchanging
ductwork
that gently warmed up incoming outdoor air, heating and ventilating indoor space simultaneously. These ducts became his trademark and were used to identify Lvov's designs, notably the Trinity church.
In the 1790s Lvov privately experimented with adopting European rammed earth
technology to the environment of Northern Russia. Whether he imported the technology himself or relied on Menelaws, the novelty seemed promising and in August 1797 he obtained Paul's consent and state financing to set up a school training local workers in new technology, irrigation
and road construction. The main school was located in Lvov's own estate, and a branch in Moscow; in six years it trained 815 men.
In the end of 1797 Paul commissioned Lvov to design and build the Priory Palace
in Gatchina
Park - the largest rammed earth project ever built in Russia. It also used another of Lvov's inventions, a composite roofing material
made by impregnating cardboard sheets with coal tar
and mineral powders. Paul's manager count Prozorovsky forced Lvov to build the palace literally in a swamp, and the Priory, built literally of dirt and dust, was rated to stand for 25 years only. Contrary to expectations it survived over two hundred years, the neglect of Soviet period and the German attempts to destroy it in World War II.
in April 1799 slowed down Lvov's projects; Lvov himself fell ill in September 1800 and barely recovered by April 1801. In July 1801 Lvov wrote that he "returned from the other world
on crutch
es" but managed to get through to the new emperor Alexander I
and presented his album on rammed earth construction. The meeting paid back in October 1892, when Alexander granted Lvov the rank of privy council
or and appointed him to the Expedition of State Household. Lvov's health deteriorated again and he left Saint Petersburg for the Caucasus
. On his way south he designed and built the foundations for the Stone of Tmutarakan
in Taman
and wrote a description of mineral spring
s of Mount Beshtau
district. Spa
treatment did not help, and he died on the way back, in Moscow
. He was buried in a rotunda mausoleum
in his native Cherenchitsy that he designed in 1784 and built in 1790s.
Maria died in 1807; their three daughters (Elizaveta, Vera and Praskovya, 14 to 18 years of age in 1807) were raised by Gavrila and Darya Derzhavin. In 1809–1811 Elizaveta Lvova acted as Derzhavin's secretary and recorded his spoken memoirs. Lvov's two sons joined imperial service earlier and were not known for anything notable; the fame of Princes of Lvov passed to a different branch of the family.
Lvov's cousin Fyodor Petrovich Lvov (1766–1836), a composer, headed the Imperial Capella in Saint Petersburg. Fyodor's son Aleksey Fyodorovich Lvov (1799–1870) followed in his father's step and inherited his chair at the Imperial Chapel, but is better knovn as the author of the imperial Russian national anthem God Save The Tsar!
(Bozhe, tsarya khrani). Hector Berlioz
called Aleksey Lvov "an eminent musician, who is both virtuoso
and composer. His talent as a violinist is remarkable, and his latest work, Ondine, contains beauties of the highest order..." Aleksey Lvov also ventured into ethnography, focusing on the historical liturgical singing, and even attempted to enforce, in vain, his vision of historical truth in church music.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
artist of the Age of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. Lvov, an amateur of Rurikid lineage, was a polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
who contributed to geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, graphic arts
Graphic arts
A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, but is known primarily as an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and ethnographer
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, compiler of the first significant collection of Russian folk songs (the Lvov-Prach collection).
Lvov's architecture represented the second, "strict" generation of neoclassicism
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
stylistically close to Giacomo Quarenghi
Giacomo Quarenghi
Giacomo Quarenghi was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of Palladian architecture in Imperial Russia, particularly in Saint Petersburg.- Career in Italy :...
. Lvov worked in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
but his best works survived in the countryside, especially his native Tver Governorate
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...
. He redesigned the external appearance of Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...
and created an unprecedented Trinity Church combining a Roman
Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, creating a new architectural style. The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics...
rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
with one-of-a-kind pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
al belltower. He adapted rammed earth
Rammed earth
Rammed earth, also known as taipa , tapial , and pisé , is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods...
technology to the environment of Northern Russia and used it in his extant Priory Palace
Priory Palace
Priory Palace is an original palace in Gatchina , Russia. It was built in 1799 by the architect N. A. Lvov on the shore of the Black Lake ...
in Gatchina
Gatchina
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...
; Lvov's construction school, established in 1797, trained over 800 craftsmen. He managed geological surveys
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and published a treatise on the coals from Donets Basin
Donets Basin
Donbas or Donbass , full rarely-used name Donets Basin , is a historical, economic and cultural region of eastern Ukraine. Originally a coal mining area, it has become a heavily industrialised territory suffering from urban decay and industrial pollution.-Geography:Donbas covers three...
and Moscow Basin. He experimented with coal pyrolysis
Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. It involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible...
, proposed new uses for coal tar
Coal tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal iscarbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas...
and sulphur, and wrote a reference book on heating and ventilation
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
.
Lvov designed the badges of the Order of St. Vladimir
Order of St. Vladimir
The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
and the Order of St. Anna
Order of St. Anna
The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
, translated works by Anacreon
Anacreon
Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
, Palladio
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
, Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
, Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
and the Saga of King Harald
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
into Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, wrote libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, researched Russian chronicles
Lvov Chronicle
The Lvov Chronicle is a Russian chronicle from the sixteenth century that was originally published in the eighteenth century by Nikolay Lvov, for whom it is named....
and published one of the first versions of the bylina
Bylina
Bylina or Bylyna is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to create their songs...
of Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich is one of the most popular bogatyrs after Ilya Murometz from the Kievan Rus era. Many byliny center on Dobrynya completing tasks set him by the prince. Dobrynya is often portrayed as being close to the royal family, undertaking sensitive and diplomatic missions.As a courtier,...
. In 1783 he became one of the first 36 members of the Russian Academy
Russian Academy
The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example of the Académie française...
.
In 1931 Vladislav Khodasevich
Vladislav Khodasevich
Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich was an influential Russian poet and literary critic who presided over the Berlin circle of Russian emigre litterateurs....
called Lvov "an intelligent and subtle connoisseur
Connoisseur
A connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
of everything ... who was not destined to do anything remarkable." Later researchers appreciated Lvov's contribution: Richard Taruskin considered Lvov's collection of folk songs "the greatest and most culturally significant of Russian folk collections", Philip Bohlman
Philip Bohlman
Philip Vilas Bohlman is an American ethnomusicologist. He is the Mary Werkman Distinguished Service Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago and a visiting professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater...
credited discovery of Russian folk art "all from the actions of a single individual, Lvov", William Craft Brumfield
William Craft Brumfield
William Craft Brumfield is a contemporary American historian of Russian architecture, a preservationist and an architectural photographer. Brumfield is currently Professor of Slavic studies at Tulane University....
called Lvov "one of the greatest neoclassical architects produced in the reign of Catherine the Great
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
... neoclassical aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
at its purest".
Early years
Nikolay Lvov, descendant of the Rurikid Lvov princely family, was born in an impoverished country estate 16 kilometers from TorzhokTorzhok
Torzhok is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, famous for its folk craft of goldwork embroidery. Population: Torzhok has twenty-two large and medium-sized industrial enterprises. Two of them are especially significant...
. Sources published before 2001 state date of birth March 4, 1751; in 2001 Galina Dmitrieva published newly found church records showing that Lvov was actually born May 4, 1753.
In line with tradition parents "enrolled" Nikolay into Preobrazhensky Lifeguard regiment in 1759. Ten years later Nikolay arrived in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
and joined the regiment. In 1770–1771 he attended training courses at Izmaylovsky Regiment
Izmaylovsky Regiment
Izmaylovsky Regiment was one of the oldest regiments of the Russian army, a subdivision of the 1st Guards Infantry Division of the Imperial Russian Guard. It was formed in Moscow on 22 September 1730. The first colonel of the regiment was appointed Adjutant general Count Karl Gustav von Löwenwolde...
; these courses were the only instance of formal education in his life. Until 1775 Lvov, along with his military service that became a mere formality, was also employed by the Collegium of Foreign Affairs as a diplomatic courier
Diplomatic courier
A diplomatic courier is an official who transports diplomatic bags as sanctioned under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Couriers are granted diplomatic immunity and are thereby protected by the receiving state from arrest and detention when performing their work...
and extensively travelled to German principalities and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. In July 1775 Lvov resigned both military and civil service in the rank of captain and returned to his parents' estate, but one year later returned to diplomatic service. This time he travelled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
; in Paris Lvov indulged in frequent theatre going and made good acquaintance with poet Ivan Khemnitser
Ivan Khemnitser
Ivan Ivanovitch Chemnitzer or Khemnitzer was a Russian fabulist, born at Yenotayevsk, Astrakhan, the son of a German physician of Chemnitz, who had served in the Russian army under Peter the Great. He participated in the campaigns of the Seven Years' War and afterward devoted himself to mining...
and the Bakunin family.
Back in Saint Petersburg Lvov created a private theatre based in the Bakunin house and played lead parts in plays by Jean-François Regnard
Jean-François Regnard
Jean-François Regnard , "the most distinguished, after Molière, of the comic poets of the seventeenth century", was a dramatist, born in Paris, who is equally famous now for the travel diary he kept of a voyage in 1681....
, Antonio Sacchini
Antonio Sacchini
Antonio Maria Gasparo Sacchini was an Italian opera composer.Sacchini was born in Florence, but was raised in Naples, where he received his musical education at the San Onofrio conservatory. He wrote his first operas in Naples, thereafter moving to Venice, then London and eventually Paris, where...
and, probably, Yakov Knyazhnin
Yakov Knyazhnin
Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin was Russia's foremost tragic author during the reign of Catherine the Great. Knyazhnin's contemporaries hailed him as the true successor to his father-in-law Alexander Sumarokov, but posterity, in the words of Vladimir Nabokov, tended to view his tragedies and comedies...
. He led otherwise a modest lifestyle of a salaried clerk, living at his friends' houses, and could not afford renting his own until May 1779 when his pay was raised to 700 roubles per annum.
Around 1778 or 1779 Lvov developed relationship with Maria Dyakova (her sister Alexandra was engaged to Vasily Kapnist
Vasily Kapnist
Count Vasily Vasilievich Kapnist , , was a Russian poet and playwright who wrote in somewhat rough Russian language....
). Maria's father, an influential statesman, distrusted Lvov at first sight and ruled out any marriage proposals. She and Lvov were secretly married in a church in Saint Petersburg on November 8, 1780; Maria still lived in her parents' house for three more years. By 1783 Lvov's social standing improved to the point where the father reluctantly approved the marriage; only then the secret ceremony of 1780 became public. The affair between Lvov and Maria Dyakova became a subject of romance novel
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
fiction (the most recent paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
was issued in 2008).
In April 1781 Lvov was appointed secretary to the Russian Embassy in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
, but "her majesty's will" retained him at Saint Petersburg court. Instead of Dresden he left for Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
on government business and managed to carve out time for a personal tour of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
). In May 1783 Lvov transferred from Foreign Affairs to the Directorate of Post Offices, where he served under Alexander Bezborodko
Alexander Bezborodko
Prince Alexander Andreyevich Bezborodko was the Grand Chancellor of Russia and chief architect of Catherine the Great's foreign policy after the death of Nikita Panin.-Ukrainian origins:...
until 1797. Most of his achievements in arts and sciences took place alongside with government service and clearly took precedence over it, so Lvov's career was not as rapid as that of Gavrila Derzhavin.
Poetry and politics
Contrary to neoclassicalClassics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
mainstream of his age, Lvov as a poet belonged to emerging sentimentalism
Sentimentalism (literature)
Sentimentalism , as a literary and political discourse, has occurred much in the literary traditions of all regions in the world, and is central to the traditions of Indian literature, Chinese literature, and Vietnamese literature...
and pioneered exploration of "spontaneous, great-hearted sincerity in the Russian peasant" that defined yet unexpored national character. He belonged to a close-knit ring of fellow poets; its key members, Lvov, Derzhavin and Vasily Kapnist
Vasily Kapnist
Count Vasily Vasilievich Kapnist , , was a Russian poet and playwright who wrote in somewhat rough Russian language....
were bonded by their marriages to three Dyakova sisters. Kapnist married Alexandra Dyakova in 1781; Derzhavin married Yekaterina Dyakova in 1795, his second marriage. Lvov, Kapnist and Ivan Khemnitser
Ivan Khemnitser
Ivan Ivanovitch Chemnitzer or Khemnitzer was a Russian fabulist, born at Yenotayevsk, Astrakhan, the son of a German physician of Chemnitz, who had served in the Russian army under Peter the Great. He participated in the campaigns of the Seven Years' War and afterward devoted himself to mining...
shaped poetic self-determination of their elder and better known friend Derzhavin whose literary career started in 1779. The group also included painters (Dmitry Levitzky
Dmitry Levitzky
Dmitry Levitzky was a Russian-Ukrainian portrait painter.-Biography:...
, Vladimir Borovikovsky
Vladimir Borovikovsky
Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky was a Russian painter who dominated Russian portraiture at the turn of the 19th century.-Biography:Vladimir Borovikovsky was born Vоlоdymyr Borovyk in Myrhorod on July 24, 1757. His father, Luka Borovyk was a Ukrainian Cossack and an amateur icon painter...
), musicians (Yevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin was a Russian opera composer of the 18th century.-Biography:...
and probably Dmitry Bortniansky), engravers and publishers; Marina Ritsarev called the Lvov ring "another Russian Academy
Russian Academy
The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example of the Académie française...
, albeit an informal one".
Lvov, "a matchless connoisseur
Connoisseur
A connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...
for his age" provided "artists of the high culture
High culture
High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
with worthy models for emulation." Lvov's own verses contain one of the first literary imitations of a folk song, set to the metre
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
of traditional wedding chants later known as Koltsov's metre
Aleksey Koltsov
Aleksey Vasilievich Koltsov was a Russian poet who has been called a Russian Burns. His poems, frequently placed in the mouth of women, stylize peasant-life songs and idealize agricultural labour....
, a precursor of one of the commonest poetic genres in 19th century Russian poetry and a testimony to an emerging new status of folk art and the very concept of a nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
. He composed one of the first literary stories about Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich
Dobrynya Nikitich is one of the most popular bogatyrs after Ilya Murometz from the Kievan Rus era. Many byliny center on Dobrynya completing tasks set him by the prince. Dobrynya is often portrayed as being close to the royal family, undertaking sensitive and diplomatic missions.As a courtier,...
; unlike his contemporary James Macpherson
James Macpherson
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...
he never attempted to disguise it as a true folk bylina
Bylina
Bylina or Bylyna is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to create their songs...
.
Politically, Lvov was an "active royalist" faithful to Catherine and later Paul I, at the same time he was also loyal to his fraternity; he secured a diplomatic appointment to Khemnitzer, and tried to prevent the 1790 trial of Alexander Radishchev
Alexander Radishchev
Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow...
. Lvov as a mature man parted with his affection to Western culture and became "sort of a slavophile
Slavophile
Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...
avant la lettre." He was the first to discover poetic qualities of Russian winter, previously overlooked or denied, and to turn in into a stylistic device
Stylistic device
In literature and writing, Stylistic Elements are the use of any of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to the literal or written.- Figurative language :...
. For him, winter became a manly nationalistic symbol of what makes Russians different from its Western and Southern neighbors. In the end, Lvov produced "perhaps the most articulate early image of the exuberant Russian soul, and the most explicitly contemptuous of the West" predating nationalist writing by Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
.
Ethnography
Lvov collaborated with composer Yevstigney FominYevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin was a Russian opera composer of the 18th century.-Biography:...
, "by far and away the ablest native-born Russian composer of his period" on a folk singspiel
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
The Coachmen , "the highest at which Russian opera
Russian opera
Russian opera is the art of opera in Russia. Operas by composers of Russian origin, written or staged outside of Russia, also belong to this category, as well as the operas of foreign composers written or intended for the Russian scene. These are not only Russian-language operas...
before Glinka ever aimed" and "astonishingly faithful to those of genuine oral polyphony." The Coachmen was written in 1786 as a one-time event to mark Catherine's visit to Tambov (a new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
managed by Lvov's buddy Derzhavin) and contained the first instance of A Birch Stood in the Field recorded and performed professionally. The song was later used by Mily Balakirev
Mily Balakirev
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ,Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather than new style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and therefore are in the same style as the source...
in the Overture on Russian Themes and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
in the finale of his Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. The symphony's first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Saint Petersburg on February 10 /February 22 1878, with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor.- Form :The symphony is in four...
.
Lvov's ethnographic activities were marked by a distinct form of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
of his age, "idealization and flattery of the folk"; Lvov himself wrote that one of his objectives was to impress "present-day philosophers" in patriotic virtues of the Russians. He created the Russian name for a folk song (народная песня), adopting Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
's concept of Volkslieder. Lvov's preface to his collection of folk poems published in 1790 contains the first professional description of Russian polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
folk singing, a knowledge later forgotten and resurrected in 1870s.
The book, containing one hundred songs, Collection of Russian Folk Songs with Their Tunes (Cобрание народных русских песен с их голосами) was published at the expense of Her Majesty's Cabinet and was reissued in 1806 adding 53 new songs; vulgar or "antisocial" songs were excluded. The book was co-authored by Ivan Prach (or Jan Prač) who transcribed sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
, and is thus known in the English world as Lvov-Prach collection, shortly LPC.
One of the songs from the LPC, Glory to the Sun, has been used by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
in the Second Razumovsky Quartet
String Quartet No. 8 (Beethoven)
The String Quartet No. 8 in E minor by Ludwig van Beethoven, opus 59, no. 2, was the second of three of his "Razumovsky" cycle of string quartets, and is a product of his "middle" style period. He published it in 1808...
, by Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
and by other composers. Verses of yet another song were previously published by Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the reign of classicism in Russian literature....
; its LPC version remained a staple of household music throughout the 19th century and was adopted by Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
, Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
and Fernando Sor
Fernando Sor
Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice and ballet...
although later critics branded it "fake folk". Margarita Mazo, on the contrary, wrote that LPC material is closer to modern understanding of folk music than scientific, surgical transcriptions of the end of the 19th century, and that the creativity of Lvov and Pratsch "influenced the folk tradition itself" through numerous songbooks that circulated all over Russia.
Architecture
A list of Lvov's architectural works compiled by Tatarinov contains 87 buildings and country estates, some unconditionally attested through archive evidence, others attributed with different degree of confidence. The first work on this list, interiors of the house for Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, the bride of Paul I, was commissioned by Catherine II in the summer of 1776. However, absolute majority of Lvov's works were built for private clients: BezborodkoAlexander Bezborodko
Prince Alexander Andreyevich Bezborodko was the Grand Chancellor of Russia and chief architect of Catherine the Great's foreign policy after the death of Nikita Panin.-Ukrainian origins:...
, Derzhavin, Olenin (Utkina Dacha
Utkina Dacha
Utkina Dacha is an XVIII century architectural ensemble in St. Petersburg, near Okkervil and Okhta rivers junction. It is included in Russian cultural heritage register under number 7810250000. During recent years, it was abandoned....
), Kochubey
Viktor Kochubey
Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey was a Russian statesman and a close aide of Alexander I of Russia. Of Ukrainian birth, he was a great-grandson of the celebrated Vasily Kochubey. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government reform of Alexander I. He served in London and Paris...
, the Vorontsov
Vorontsov
Vorontsov, also Woronzow, Woroncow is a celebrated Russian family, which attained the dignity of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire in 1744 and Serene Princes of the Russian Empire in 1852....
and Vyazemsky
Pyotr Vyazemsky
Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky or Petr Andreevich Viazemsky was a leading personality of the Golden Age of Russian poetry.- Biography :...
families in the 1780s.
In 1780, shortly after the meeting of Catherine II
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
and Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
in Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
, Bezborodko introduced Lvov to the empress. Catherine commissioned Lvov the church of Saint Joseph in Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
to commemorate the event, the project earned him honorary membership at the Imperial Academy of Arts
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...
(1786). The neoclassical rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
church was built under his supervision until 1798. It became a cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in 1802, was converted to a museum in 1934 and demolished in 1937. In the same 1780 Lvov proposed redesign of the Neva Gate of Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...
in Saint Petersburg; the project materialized in 1784–1787 and included complete refit of decrepit fortress walls with granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
cladding and construction of granite pier in place of an old wooden one. The Tuscan
Tuscan order
Among canon of classical orders of classical architecture, the Tuscan order's place is due to the influence of the Italian Sebastiano Serlio, who meticulously described the five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of Regole generalii di...
portal
Portal (architecture)
Portal is a general term describing an opening in the walls of a building, gate or fortification, and especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal gates or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of...
of the Neva Gate is ranked among his best, if not the best, architectural works.
In 1783 Lvov designed the new building for his new employer, the Directorate of Post Offices; the block-sized compound, completed in 1789, became his largest project in Saint Petersburg as well as his home: after completion Lvov and his family moved into an apartment on the northern side of the block. The building, rebuilt by Yegor Sokolov in the 19th century and Alberto Cavos
Alberto Cavos
Alberto Cavos was a Russian–Italian architect best known for his theatre designs, the builder of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow .-Early years:Alberto Cavos was born in Saint Petersburg to Venetian opera composer Catterino Cavos Alberto Cavos (Russified...
in 1850s, stands to date. Bezborodko, chief of the Directorate, remained Lvov's patron and provided him private and public commissions (including the extant Bezborodko Dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
in Saint Petersburg) until his death in 1799.
Another high-ranking client, prince Vyazemsky, director of state porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
factories, commissioned a suburban estate (now within the limits of Saint Petersburg) including Lvov's most unusual work, the Trinity Church in Aleksandrovskoe also known as Kulich
Kulich
Kulich is a kind of Easter bread, traditional in the Orthodox Christian faith and eaten in Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria and Serbia....
and Paskha (1785–1787). The main rotunda was probably influenced by the Temple of Vesta
Temple of Vesta
The Temple of Vesta is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy, located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The temple's most recognizable feature is its circular footprint. Since the worship of Vesta began in private homes, the architecture seems to be a reminder of...
; the pyramidal belltower has no analogues, even remote, in Russian architecture and was a forerunner to the revival of Ancient Egyptian architecture
Ancient Egyptian architecture
The Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations which developed a vast array of diverse structures encompassing ancient Egyptian architecture...
associated with Empire style of the Alexander I period.
In the same period Lvov designed the cathedral of Borisoglebsky Monastery in Torzhok
Torzhok
Torzhok is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, famous for its folk craft of goldwork embroidery. Population: Torzhok has twenty-two large and medium-sized industrial enterprises. Two of them are especially significant...
, a purely Neoclassical five-domed edifice that also contained hints of Russo-Byzantine architecture
Neo-Byzantine architecture in the Russian Empire
Neo-Byzantine architecture in the Russian Empire emerged in the 1850s and became an officially endorsed preferred architectural style for church construction during the reign of Alexander II of Russia , replacing the Russo-Byzantine style of Konstantin Thon...
, a style that emerged decades after Lvov's death. Belltower of the same monastery became Lvov's last known design; it was started after his death by Fyodor Ananyin and completed in 1811.
In 1798 Lvov published the first volume of Russky Pallady, an adapted translation of Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
's I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
I quattro libri dell'architettura is an Italian treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio . It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated with woodcuts after the author's own drawings. It has been reprinted and translated many times...
with Lvov's own lengthy comments. It was the second attempt to publish Palladio in Russian, after Prince Dolgorukov
Dolgorukov
Dolgoroukov is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy. Among its...
's 1699 abstract that circulated only in handwritten copies; the first complete and unabridged Palladio was not published until 1938. Work took eight years: Lvov personally engraved in copper over 200 copies of original engravings from the 1616 Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
edition, the earliest he could acquire. Lvov wished "Palladio's taste to prosper in my country; French twists and English refinement already have plenty of imitators" and particularly criticized French adaptations of Palladianism
French Rococo and Neoclassicism
18th-century French art was dominated by the Rococo and neoclassical movements. In France, the death of Louis XIV lead to a period of licentious freedom commonly called the Régence. The heir to Louis XIV, his great grandson Louis XV of France, was only 5 years old; for the next seven years France...
.
Paul I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
, who ascended to the throne in November 1796, dismissed most of his mother's statesmen but retained Bezborodko in charge of foreign affairs. Paul extended the favor to Lvov and granted him state support and new commissions, although nowhere as significant or lucrative as those awarded to Vincenzo Brenna
Vincenzo Brenna
Vincenzo Brenna was an Italian architect and painter who was the house architect of Paul I of Russia. Brenna was hired by Paul and his spouse Maria Fyodorovna as interior decorator in 1781 and by the end of 1780s became the couple's leading architect...
(Khodasevich: "Even under new order Lvov was swimming along like a fish in water"). In an ironic twist of fortune, in April 1797 Paul I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
dispatched Lvov to Moscow to redesign Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an Italian architect naturalized Russian. He developed an easily recognizable style of Late Baroque, both sumptuous and majestic...
's modest Grand Kremlin Palace, a feat once attempted by Vasili Bazhenov
Vasili Bazhenov
Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov was a Russian neoclassical architect, graphic artist, architectural theorist and educator...
. Lvov produced a vast plan consisting of a three-part neoclassical palace core within a redesigned Gothic revival citadel, "an intimate royal villa in a park-like setting." His design was not as radical as Bazhenov's 1767 draft that was cancelled by Catherine at an early stage, but shared the same fate. After one year of preliminary work the project was cancelled; all alterations to existing Kremlin buildings done by Lvov were later absorbed into extant Grand Kremlin Palace
Grand Kremlin Palace
The Grand Kremlin Palace , also translated Great Kremlin Palace, was built from 1837 to 1849 in Moscow, Russia on the site of the estate of the Grand Princes, which had been established in the 14th century on Borovitsky Hill...
designed by Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Andreyevich Thon, also spelled Ton was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow....
.
Technology
In 1785 Lvov acquired a helpful associate Adam MenelawsAdam Menelaws
Adam Menelaws, also spelled Menelas was an architect and landscape designer of Scottish origin, active in the Russian Empire from 1784 to 1831...
, one of 73 Scottish craftsmen recruited by Charles Cameron
Charles Cameron (architect)
Charles Cameron was a Scottish architect who made an illustrious career at the court of Catherine II of Russia. Cameron, practitioner of early neoclassical architecture, was the chief architect of Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk palaces and the adjacent new town of Sophia from his arrival in Russia in...
, and the future house architect of Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
. Interaction and influence between Lvov and Menelaws are disputed. Andreyev, on one extreme, considered Menelaws completely dependent on Lvov's talent; Kuznetsov, on the other, considered Menelaws to be Lvov's mentor in design and construction management and suggested that Lvov's rammed earth
Rammed earth
Rammed earth, also known as taipa , tapial , and pisé , is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods...
technology was actually developed by Menelaws while Lvov provided a respectable front and palace connections.
The first task assigned to Menelaws was something different: searching for coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
deposits in Lvov's native Tver Governorate. Lvov was concerned about Russia's dependence on imported British coals and deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
caused by charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
extraction, and gained support of Bezborodko and Vorontsov to survey for fossil coals. In August 1786 Lvov and Menelaws announced the find of commercial quality coal "not inferior to that from Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
" in Borovichi
Borovichi
Borovichi is the second largest town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Population: -Geography:The town is located in the northern spurs of the Valdai Hills, east of Veliky Novgorod. It stands upon the Msta River. Just upstream Borovichi there are the famous rapids of Msta popular among...
. Menelaws concurrently managed Lvov's construction projects in Torzhok and other places, raising suspicion that coal survey was merely an excuse for appropriating the Scotsman. Prospecting for coal continued for years, commercial coal mining in Borovichi commenced only eleven years later, after Paul I granted Lvov state support in his business.
Lvov arranged shipment of coal by barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s to Saint Petersburg, but his coal did not sell well. Unaware of spontaneous combustion
Spontaneous combustion
Spontaneous combustion is the self-ignition of a mass, for example, a pile of oily rags. Allegedly, humans can also ignite and burn without an obvious cause; this phenomenon is known as spontaneous human combustion....
hazard, the shippers dumped incoming coal in one lump on the bank of the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...
; the whole enterprise ended in a spectacular fire. Lvov's interest in fossil coal did not fade completely until at least 1800 when he sent Menelaws to recruit workers and purchase machinery in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Oven
An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...
s, designed his own heating system and advertised it through a two-volume treatise on heating and ventilation (Русская Пиростатика / Russkaya Pyrostatica, 1793). Walls of Lvov's buildings contained elaborate heat exchanging
Heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact...
ductwork
Duct (HVAC)
Ducts are used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to deliver and remove air. These needed airflows include, for example, supply air, return air, and exhaust air. Ducts also deliver, most commonly as part of the supply air, ventilation air...
that gently warmed up incoming outdoor air, heating and ventilating indoor space simultaneously. These ducts became his trademark and were used to identify Lvov's designs, notably the Trinity church.
In the 1790s Lvov privately experimented with adopting European rammed earth
Rammed earth
Rammed earth, also known as taipa , tapial , and pisé , is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods...
technology to the environment of Northern Russia. Whether he imported the technology himself or relied on Menelaws, the novelty seemed promising and in August 1797 he obtained Paul's consent and state financing to set up a school training local workers in new technology, irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
and road construction. The main school was located in Lvov's own estate, and a branch in Moscow; in six years it trained 815 men.
In the end of 1797 Paul commissioned Lvov to design and build the Priory Palace
Priory Palace
Priory Palace is an original palace in Gatchina , Russia. It was built in 1799 by the architect N. A. Lvov on the shore of the Black Lake ...
in Gatchina
Gatchina
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...
Park - the largest rammed earth project ever built in Russia. It also used another of Lvov's inventions, a composite roofing material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
made by impregnating cardboard sheets with coal tar
Coal tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal iscarbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas...
and mineral powders. Paul's manager count Prozorovsky forced Lvov to build the palace literally in a swamp, and the Priory, built literally of dirt and dust, was rated to stand for 25 years only. Contrary to expectations it survived over two hundred years, the neglect of Soviet period and the German attempts to destroy it in World War II.
The last years
The death of Lvov's benefactor Alexander BezborodkoAlexander Bezborodko
Prince Alexander Andreyevich Bezborodko was the Grand Chancellor of Russia and chief architect of Catherine the Great's foreign policy after the death of Nikita Panin.-Ukrainian origins:...
in April 1799 slowed down Lvov's projects; Lvov himself fell ill in September 1800 and barely recovered by April 1801. In July 1801 Lvov wrote that he "returned from the other world
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
on crutch
Crutch
Crutches are mobility aids used to counter a mobility impairment or an injury that limits walking ability.- Types :There are several different types of crutches:...
es" but managed to get through to the new emperor Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
and presented his album on rammed earth construction. The meeting paid back in October 1892, when Alexander granted Lvov the rank of privy council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
or and appointed him to the Expedition of State Household. Lvov's health deteriorated again and he left Saint Petersburg for the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. On his way south he designed and built the foundations for the Stone of Tmutarakan
Stone of Tmutarakan
The Stone of Tmutarakan is a marble slab engraved with the words "In the year 6576 [ A.M., 1068 A.D] the sixth of the Indiction, Prince Gleb measured across the sea on the ice from Tmutarakan to Kerch 14,000 sazhen" .A sazhen, an old Rus unit of length, was equal...
in Taman
Taman, Russia
Taman is a village in Temryuksky District of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the coast of the Taman Bay. Population: -History:Taman occupies the site of the ancient cities of Hermonassa and Tmutarakan...
and wrote a description of mineral spring
Mineral spring
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value...
s of Mount Beshtau
Beshtau
Beshtau is an isolated five-domed igneous mountain near Pyatigorsk in the Northern Caucasus....
district. Spa
Spa
The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...
treatment did not help, and he died on the way back, in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. He was buried in a rotunda mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
in his native Cherenchitsy that he designed in 1784 and built in 1790s.
Maria died in 1807; their three daughters (Elizaveta, Vera and Praskovya, 14 to 18 years of age in 1807) were raised by Gavrila and Darya Derzhavin. In 1809–1811 Elizaveta Lvova acted as Derzhavin's secretary and recorded his spoken memoirs. Lvov's two sons joined imperial service earlier and were not known for anything notable; the fame of Princes of Lvov passed to a different branch of the family.
Lvov's cousin Fyodor Petrovich Lvov (1766–1836), a composer, headed the Imperial Capella in Saint Petersburg. Fyodor's son Aleksey Fyodorovich Lvov (1799–1870) followed in his father's step and inherited his chair at the Imperial Chapel, but is better knovn as the author of the imperial Russian national anthem God Save The Tsar!
God Save the Tsar!
"God Save the Tsar!" was the national anthem of the late Russian Empire. The song was chosen from a competition held in 1833. The composer was violinist Alexei Lvov, and the lyrics were by the court poet Vasily Zhukovsky...
(Bozhe, tsarya khrani). Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
called Aleksey Lvov "an eminent musician, who is both virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
and composer. His talent as a violinist is remarkable, and his latest work, Ondine, contains beauties of the highest order..." Aleksey Lvov also ventured into ethnography, focusing on the historical liturgical singing, and even attempted to enforce, in vain, his vision of historical truth in church music.
Sources
- German languageGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
edition (1995) ISBN 9783412068943. Also contains -
-
- Derzhavin, G. R. (1804)(in Russian) Pamyati druga (Памяти друга).
- Lappo-Danilevsky, K. Yu. (1994)(in Russian) Comments to selected works by Nikolay Lvov.
- Lvov, F. P. (1833)(in Russian) Nikolay Alexandrovich Lvov.
- Muravyov, M. N. (in Russian) Kratkoe svedenie o zhizni taynogo sovetnika Lvova (Краткое сведение о жизни тайного советника Львова)
- Tatarinov, A. V. (1994)(in Russian) Arkhitekturnye raboty N. A. Lvova (Архитектурные работы Н. А. Львова). Also contains:
- Lappo-Danilevsky, K. Yu. (1998)(in Russian and German) Preface and Comments to the Italian Diary by Nikolay Lvov.
-