Calafati, Vasily Pavlovich

Kalafati Vasily Pavlovich was born on February 10, 1869 in the Crimean city of Yevpatoriya in the Greek family of teacher and businessman Pavel Calafati and Ms. Chrisikopoulou.

Little Vasily received his first music lessons at the age of eight. He played the piano, as well as the initial training in composition, in Crimea. At the age of 18, Vasily Pavlovich composed his first works for piano, as well as “Duet for Two Violins”, which, unfortunately, have not been preserved.

In 1899 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . From 1906 to 1929 he taught polyphony at the conservatory (from 1913 - professor), among his students - Boris Asafiev , Uzeyir Hajibeyov , Heino Eller , Vladimir Shcherbachev , Maria Yudina , Vladimir Tsybin , Romanos Melikyan , Victor Trambitsky , Dmitry Shostakovich and many others. He studied privately with I.F. Stravinsky , who characterized him as a gifted teacher, but conservative in musical views. According to Stravinsky: “Calafati taught me to resort to hearing as the first and last criterion, for which I am grateful to him. I studied with him for more than two years ” ^[1] .

In Soviet times, the composer continued to conduct active musical, educational and pedagogical activities, died during the siege of Leningrad in the winter of 1942. The composer's son, Anatoly, who followed in the footsteps of his father, kept his archive, which later fell into one of the antique shops at Monastiraki in Athens, from where he was bought by the Music Studio of the Department of Music Education of the University of Ionian and transferred to Corfu .

Calafati's style echoes the works of Rimsky-Korsakov and the composers of the Belyaevsky circle. Among his works, the most famous is the symphonic poem “Legend”, written in memory of Franz Schubert and received a prize at the International Schubert Competition, held in Vienna in 1928 . Calafati also created the piano arrangements of orchestral plays by Anatoly Lyadov , Scriabin 's Second Symphony and other compositions. Under his editorship in St. Petersburg in 1911, the dictionary-companion “Musician's Companion” was published, which became one of the most popular publications of its kind in Russia in its time.

In 1936, Calafati recalls his Greek origin and includes Samiotissa in a work for two male voices, accompanied by a piano.

• Opera “Gypsies” (according to Pushkin , 1941)
• “Roar and Stogne”, musical picture for choir and orchestra (circa 1917)

Orchestral works

• Fantasy Overture
• Polonaise
• Symphony a-moll
• “Kremlin Stars”, a march for a brass band

Chamber compositions

• Octet for Piano and Strings
• Piano Quintet
• Two string quartets
• Two piano sonatas
• Romances, choirs, folk song arrangements

• Musin I.A. Lessons of life. - SPb. : Educational and Publishing Association DEAN + ADIAM, 1995.