Deshevov (Russia): Etude Op.1-1 (1913/1920's/1955)

Vladimir Mikhailovich Deshevov(1889-1955) was a Russian composer, born in Leningrad in 1889. He studied at St. Petersburg Conservatory in from 1908 to 1914 with Anatoly Lyadov, Maximilian Steinberg, and Leonid Nikolaev. Today he is notorious for Avand-garde incidental works for stage in 1920's. and opera "Ice and Steel"(1930) which was revived in 2007, was the final one. In the 1930's he has to change his style into the conservative owing to Stalin's dictatorship but continued to compose numerous works for theater and it became his main carrier until his death. On the other hand he wrote many piano works in his early years and they need more attention. After demobilization he took place in the cultural and educational activity in the south Russia until he returned to Petrograd (Leningrad) in 1922. Especially in the period in Sevastopol in 1920-22, he found the first Russian Folk Conservatory in the city. It was the most prolific days for him in from 1920 to 1923. He composed the outstanding pieces for piano. The beginning of Etude Op. 1-1 is influenced by Prokofiev's works in the first years, however the middle section is more conservative Salon etude. This piece that dedicated to his teacher Leonid Nikolaev is his first work with opus, but it has the story for 40 years. Here is the quotation of the comment by Aleksey Vulfson in the score published in St. Petersburg in 2011. // Etude Op.1-1 was composed in Deshevov's conservatory years as the Etude in E flat minor. In the 1920s it was reworked (probably, in connection with the preparation for the publication) by Leonid Nikolaev, who changed texture in some places, added performance variants and made the new coda based on the material of the middle section. ... In 1955 the composer transposed Nikolaev's coda into G flat major ... and correspondingly changed the indication of the Etude's key. // I played the third version in 1955 and then added the recapitulation with coda in E flat major in the second version in the 1920s as a supplement. Владимир Дешевов Етюде №.1 (1913/1920s/1955)