Anatoly Lyadov: Works

Anatoly Lyadov (1855 - 1914) was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor. He was a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and a teacher of Sergei Prokofiev.

Lyadov's technical facility was highly regarded by his contemporaries, but he had relatively few published compositions. Many of his works are variations on or arrangements of pre-existing material (for example his Russian Folksongs, Opus 58). Like many of his contemporaries, Lyadov was drawn to intensely Russian subjects. Much of his music is programmatic; for example his tone poems Baba Yaga, Opus 56; Kikimora, Opus 63; and The Enchanted Lake, Opus 62. These short tone poems, probably his most popular works, exhibit an exceptional flair for orchestral tone color. In his later compositions he experimented with extended tonality, like his younger contemporary Alexander Scriabin.

Anatoly Lyadov composed many piano miniatures. Among these works, his short delightful 1893 piece called A Musical Snuffbox, Opus 32, in A major, is perhaps the most famous.