Leonid Sabaneev’s Musical World. To the 140th Anniversary
The article is a preface to the publication of the work “Claude Debussy” by L.L. Sabaneev (1922) and is a brief overview of the musical-critical, scienti c and composing activities of one of the most original and independent Russian critics of the Silver Age and the Russian Diaspora. Thanks to the emergence of new recordings of Sabaneevʼs musical works, the publication of some works written in Russia, and especially the acquaintance with the archive received from France from the daughter of V.L. Lanskoy, some familiar and long-standing ideas about Sabaneevʼs work have undergone certain adjustments. Thus, the opportunity to hear a recording of two piano trios, one of which became (according to Sabaneev) a sketch for the grandiose oratorio Apocalypse on the text of the Revelation of St. John, had shaken the opinion about Sabaneevʼs unconditional belonging to the composers of the Scriabin circle. The same thing happened with the long-rooted idea about Sabaneev as the author of mainly one topic, again connected with the work of Scriabin and his mystical ideas. Such a point of view is refuted by scienti c works and journalism about the most diverse phenomena of musical life and various personalities created in Russia, and especially articles written in emigration, the range of topics of which is even wider, and some of the previous priorities have changed, sometimes almost opposite.