Editing Rodion Shchedrin (section)

==Biography==
Shchedrin was born in Moscow into a musical family — his father was a composer and teacher of [[music theory]]. He studied at the Moscow Choral School and [[Moscow Conservatory]] (graduating in 1955) under [[Yuri Shaporin]] (composition) and [[Yakov Flier]] (piano). He was married to ballerina [[Maya Plisetskaya]] from 1958 until her death in 2015.

Shchedrin's early music is [[tonality|tonal]] and colourfully orchestrated and often includes snatches of folk music, while some later pieces use [[aleatoric music|aleatoric]] and [[serialism|serial]] techniques.

Among his works are the ballets ''The Little Humpbacked Horse'' (1955), ''[[Carmen Suite (ballet)|Carmen Suite]]'' (1973), ''Anna Karenina'' (1971, based on the [[Anna Karenina|novel]] by [[Leo Tolstoy]]), and ''Lady with a Lapdog'' (1985); the operas ''Not Only Love'' (1961), and ''[[Dead Souls (opera)|Dead Souls]]'' (1976, after [[Nikolai Gogol]]'s novel); piano concertos, symphonies, chamber, and piano music and other works. He composed a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues after he heard those of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]. Also notable is his ''Polyphonic Notebook''.
[[File:Vladimir Putin 29 April 2008-8.jpg|left|thumb|Awarding of the [[Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"]], II degree (April 29, 2008)]]
He has written five [[Concerto for Orchestra|concertos for orchestra]]. The first, its subtitle variously translated as ''Naughty Limericks'' or ''Mischievous Folk Ditties'' — neither of which completely get the gist of the Russian original which refers to a [[chastushka]], an irreverent, satirical kind of folk song — is by far the best known, and was the work which first established his international reputation.<ref name="NaughtyLimericks">{{cite web
| title=Concerto for Orchestra No. 1, "Naughty Limericks"
| url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/2480|access-date=15 December 2019
| first=Richard|last=Freed|author-link=Richard Freed|publisher=[[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|The Kennedy Center]]|date=18 March 2004}}</ref> The second of the concertos for orchestra was subtitled ''Zvony'' (The Chimes), and was premiered by the [[New York Philharmonic]] conducted by [[Leonard Bernstein]] as one of the many commissions in honor of the orchestra's 125th anniversary. The third is based on old music of Russian provincial circuses. The fourth, ''Khorovody'' (round dances), was written in 1989, and the fifth, ''Four Russian Songs'', was composed in 1998.

Shchedrin is also a virtuoso pianist and organist, playing solo piano in the premieres of the first three of his six piano concertos. On 5 May 1974, Shchedrin performed as soloist in all three of his then-completed piano concertos, and the concert, with the [[State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation|USSR Symphony Orchestra]] conducted by [[Yevgeny Svetlanov]], was recorded and released on LP, then CD. He was made a member of the [[Berlin Academy of Arts]] in 1989 and received the [[Russian State Prize]] from Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]] in 1992. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shchedrin has taken advantage of the new opportunities for international travel and musical collaboration, and now largely divides his time between Munich and Moscow.
[[File:Открытие Новой сцены Мариинского театра 10.jpg|thumb|With [[Maya Plisetskaya]] and [[Vladimir Putin]] at the opening of the new stage of the Mariinsky Theatre (May 2, 2013)]]
From 11 to 14 June 2008, Shchedrin Days took place in Armenia with the participation of Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya as honorary guest. Invited by [[Walter Fink]], he was the 19th composer to be featured in the annual [[Rheingau Musik Festival#Portraits of living composers|Komponistenporträt]] of the [[Rheingau Musik Festival]] in 2009. He and his wife attended the concerts which included his Russian liturgy ''[[The Sealed Angel (Shchedrin)|The Sealed Angel]]'' for choir and flute, performed in [[Eberbach Abbey]]. His chamber music included ''Ancient Melodies of Russian Folk Songs'' (2007) with the cellist [[Raphael Wallfisch]] and himself at the piano, and ''Meine Zeit, mein Raubtier'' with tenor Kenneth Tarver and pianist Roland Pontinen who performed it also at the [[Verbier Festival]].

The premiere of a German version of his opera ''[[Lolita (opera)|Lolita]]'' was performed as the opening night of the [[Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden]] in a production of the [[Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden]] in 2011.<ref>Volker Milchs: [http://www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de/region/kultur/theater/10681957.htm Oper ''Lolita'' – Deutschlandpremiere bei den 115. Maifestspielen in Wiesbaden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809193527/http://www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de/region/kultur/theater/10681957.htm |date=9 August 2011 }}, ''[[Wiesbadener Tagblatt]]'', 1 May 2011 {{in lang|de}}</ref>