Dranishnikov, Vladimir Aleksandrovich

Born May 29 (June 10), 1893, in St. Petersburg; died Feb. 6, 1939, in Kiev. Soviet conductor; Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1933).

Dranishnikov graduated in 1916 from the Petrograd Conservatory, where he studied piano with A. N. Esipova and composition and conducting with N. N. Cherepnin. In 1914, he became concertmaster and in 1918 conductor. In 1925-36 he was chief conductor of the Mariinskii Theater (now the S. M. Kirov Theater of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad). After 1936 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the T. G. Shevchenko Ukrainian Theater of Opera and Ballet in Kiev.

Dranishnikov’s performances were distinguished by his awareness of cultural traditions and his emotional power. Under his direction the orchestra achieved a special vividness. For the first time in the Soviet Union he conducted the operas Salome by R. Strauss (1924), The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev (1926), Wozzeck by Berg (1927), and Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky (in the composer’s original version, 1928) and the ballet The Flame of Paris by Asaf ev (1932)—all of them at Kirov Theater. In Kiev he directed the operas Quiet Flows the Don (1936) and Virgin Land Upturned (1937) by Dzerzhinskii, Taras Bul’ba by Lysenko (1937), and Shchors by Liatoshinskii (1938). Dranishnikov has composed a number of musical works and has written articles on music.