Aleksandr Ziloti
Ukrainian pianist, conductor and teacher (b, 27 September/9 October 1863 near Kharkov; d. 8 December 1945 in New York), born Aleksandr Ilyich Ziloti (Александр Ильич Зилоти); also known outside Russia as Alexander Siloti.
Biography
Aleksandr was the son of Ilya Ziloti and his wife Yuliya Arkadyevna (b. Rakhmaninova, 1835–1925). Through his maternal line, Aleksandr was a first cousin to the composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Ziloti graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1882, having studied for seven years under Nikolay Rubinstein, Sergey Taneyev, Nikolay Hubert, and also attended Tchaikovsky's classes in harmony. From 1883 to 1886 he worked with Franz Liszt at Weimar, before returning to Moscow as professor of piano at the Conservatory (1888–1891), where his students included his cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff. He left the conservatory in 1891 and spent the next eight years touring in Russia, western Europe and North America.
Tchaikovsky and Ziloti
In 1887, Ziloti married Vera Tretyakova (1866–1940), daughter of the Russian businessman and art collector Pavel Tretyakov (1832–1898) and a cousin of Tchaikovsky's sister-in-law Praskovya. Ziloti was a strong advocate of Tchaikovsky's music, which he often performed in Europe and America. The composer entrusted Ziloti with the proofreading of his works, and making piano arrangements of his compositions (such as the ballet The Sleeping Beauty). After Tchaikovsky's death, Ziloti published his own versions of the First and Second Piano Concertos, the Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, and an orchestral suite from the ballet The Sleeping Beauty.
Ziloti returned to Russia in 1901 as director of the Moscow Philharmonic Society (1901–02), and between 1903 and 1917 he organised his own influential series of symphonic and chamber concerts in Saint Petersburg. He fled Russia after the revolution, settling first in England and later becoming a United States citizen in 1921. From 1925 to 1942 he taught at the Julliard Graduate School, while still performing occasional recitals.
Dedications
In 1893, Tchaikovsky dedicated his Scherzo-fantaisie — No. 10 of the Eighteen Pieces, Op. 72 for piano — "à Mr. Aléxandre Ziloti".
Correspondence with Tchaikovsky
67 letters from Tchaikovsky to Aleksandr Ziloti have survived, dating from 1886 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website:
- Letter 3055 – 22 September/4 October 1886, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3099 – 14/26 November 1886, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3395 – 4/16 November 1887, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 3443 – 27 December 1887/8 January 1888, from Berlin
- Letter 3463 – 9/21 January 1888, from Hamburg
- Letter 3465 – 10/22 January 1888, from Hamburg
- Letter 3660 – 7/19 September 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3673 – 20 September/2 October 1888, from Moscow
- Letter 3687 – 5/17 October 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3716 – 30 October/11 November 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3751 – 27 December/8 January 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3753 – 4/16 January 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3755 – 5/17 January 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3776 – 28 January/9 February 1889, from Berlin
- Letter 3789 – 7/19 February 1889, from Dresden
- Letter 3820 – 9/21 March 1889, from Paris
- Letter 3857 – 13/25 May 1889, from Moscow
- Letter 3874 – 12/24 June 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3878 – 16/28 June 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3881 – 18/30 June 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3907 – 23 July/4 August 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3911 – 28 July/9 August 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3915 – 5/17 August 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3923 – 17/29 August 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4001 – between 11/23 and 14/26 January 1890, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 4021 – 1/13 February 1890, from Florence
- Letter 4076 – 22 March/3 April 1890, from Florence
- Letter 4106 – 5/17 May 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4142 – 12/24 June 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4148 – 15/27 June 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4176 – 17/29 July 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4193 – 5/17 August 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4230 – 5/17 or 6/18 October 1890, from Tiflis
- Letter 4294 – 6/18 January–7/19 January 1891 (?), from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4297 – 11/23 January 1891, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4306 – 17/29 January 1891, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4321 – 5/17 February 1891, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 4331 – 14/26 February 1891, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4336 – 22 February/6 March 1891, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4400 – 11/23 June 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4405 – 14/26 June 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4433 – 7/19 July 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4443 – 22 July/3 August 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4451 – 7/19 August 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4472 – 8/20 September 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4483 – 25 September/7 October 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4498 – 6/18 October 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4556 – 15/27 November 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4605 – 26 January/7 February 1892, from Saint Petersburg (addressed jointly to Ziloti and his wife Vera)
- Letter 4642 – 13/25 March 1892, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4656 – 6/18 April 1892, from Moscow
- Letter 4705 – early/mid-June 1892, from Paris
- Letter 4712 – 22 June/4 July 1892, from Vichy
- Letter 4715 – 28 June/10 July 1892, from Vichy
- Letter 4789 – 23 October/4 November 1892, from Klin
- Letter 4867 – 16/28 February 1893, from Moscow
- Letter 4874 – 28 February/12 March 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4925 – 3/15 May 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4932 – 15/27 May 1893, from Berlin
- Letter 4939 – 22 May/3 June 1893, from London
- Letter 4973 – 19/31 July 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4985 – 23 July/4 August 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4989 – 26 July/7 August 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4994 – 1/13 August 1893, from Klin
- Letter 5004 – 8/20 August 1893, from Klin
- Letter 5019a – 20 August/1 September 1893, from Klin
- Letter 5043 – 25 September/7 October 1893, from Klin
70 letters from Ziloti to the composer have survived, of which 69 are in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, Nos. 1252–1320), and one in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow.
Bibliography
- Хроника (1889)
- Из неизданной переписки П. Чайковского (1908)
- П. И. Чайковский в воспоминаниях (1913)
- Знакомство с Чайковским (1954)
- Переписка А. И. Зилоти с П. И. Чайковским (1963)
- Начало одной творческой дружбы (1978)
- Знакомство с Чайковским (1992)
- Ich bin wahnsinnig Müde. Zwei bisher unbekannte Briefe P. I. Čajkovskijs (1993)
- Bisher unbekannte Briefe und musikalische Arbeiten Čajkovskijs (1994)
- Drei bisher unbekannte Briefe Čajkovskijs von 1887, 1891 und 1893, sowie sechs weitere Briefe vom 20. August 1893 (1995)
- Знакомство с Чайковским (1998)
- Переложение балета «Спящая красавица» для фортепиано в 4 руки. Чайковский, Зилоти, Рахаманинов (2014)
