Caesar Pugni: New to the creative biography. The composer’s activity on the concert stage of the summer gardens of St. Petersburg and Moscow

Original article
DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2023-3-96-105

Olga A. Fedorchenko

Russian Institute for the History of the Arts, Saint Petersburg, Russia,
olgafedorcenco@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-6675

Abstract: The subject of this article is the composing and conducting activity of Caesar Pugni in the summer gardens of St. Petersburg and Moscow, which has been completely unknown until now. For the first time, this side of his multifaceted artistic activity is considered: organizing and compiling concert programs and composing. In his concert work, Pugni sought to popularize the works by Russian composers, primarily by M. I. Glinka. Puni was one of the first composers to respond to the events of the Crimean War of 1853–1856. Among his works on the «Crimean» theme, a symphonic poem in three parts «June 6, 1855 under the walls of Sevastopol» stands out. Based on music reviews, the article attempts to reconstruct the composer’s intention. The given new information might help to recreate a complete picture of the work of Caesar Pugni, the greatest ballet composer of the 19th century.

Keywords: Caesar Pugni, Crimean War, Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, summer gardens of Saint Petersburg, popular music

For citation: Fedorchenko O. A. Caesar Pugni: new to the creative biography. Composer’s activities on the concert stage of summer gardens St. Petersburg and Moscow. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2023;(3):96-105. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2023-3-96-105

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