Dmitri Smirnov
Dmitri Smirnov was a Moscow-trained composer, whose fluent, sumptuous and elegiac music owed much to his admiration for his teacher and mentor, Edison Denisov * Together with his wife Elena Firsova, achieved prominence in the 1970s as one of the leading Russian modernist composers of his generation * His life-long fascination with the work of William Blake led to innumerable pieces including two operas, vocal and choral settings of Blake’s poetry and colourful instrumental pieces based on Blake’s paintings * Was fascinated by the arcane and mysterious, often basing his pieces on hidden codes and alphabets spelling out in notes the names of friends and heroes * In his later years, especially after settling in England in the early 1990s, he demonstrated a more neo-romantic side, heard most powerfully in orchestral works.
Works by Dmitri Smirnov include:
Symphony No.1 "The Seasons" (1980) for orchestra
The Lamentations of Thel (1985/86) Chamber opera in 4 scenes
Jacob's Ladder (1991) for ensemble
Works by Smirnov are represented by Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski for the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth (excluding Canada), the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Israel.