The St. Petersburg Theme and the “Unknown Mily Balakirev” of Tatiana Zaitseva

“The Musical St. Petersburg: the Past and the Present” – this is the broad boundless theme which has been arduously developed by the well-known St. Petersburg-based scholar Tatiana Zaitseva. Most impressive are Zaitseva’s monographic works which testify of the broad spectrum of her scholarly interests: “Tvorcheskie uroki M. A. Balakireva. Pianizm, dirizhirovanie, pedagogika” [“The Artistic Lessons of Mily Balakirev. Pianism, Conducting, Pedagogy”] (St. Petersburg: Kompozitor – St. Petersburg, 2012), “Sokrovishcha Rossii: Dukhovnaya muzyka M. A. Balakireva” [“The Treasures of Russia: The Sacred Music of Mily Balakirev”] (Moscow: Muzyka, 2013), “M. A. Balakirev. Polnoye sobranie dukhovnykh sochineniy” [Mily Balakirev: A Complete Compilation of Sacred Works”] (Moscow: Muzyka, 2015), “Vladimir Nilsen: Mysli vslukh” [“Vladimir Nilsen: Thoughts Out-Loud”] (St. Petersburg: Kompozitor, 2016). The author has prepared a third compilation of articles and materials from the series initiated by her “Balakirevu posvyashchayetsya” [“Dedicated to Balakirev”] (St. Petersburg: Kompozitor, 2014), where she appears both as an editor-compiler and an author of articles. Moreover, she has written numerous articles in various publications about outstanding St. Petersburg-based musicians which promise the creation of new monographs. Zaitseva’s books attract attention not only by their scholarly thoroughness and freshness of perspective of what seem to be textbook figures of Russian music, which are revealed by new, unusual sides. Her fundamental scholarly discoveries are expounded in an engrossing manner, which make them accessible not only to scholars, but also to students and music fans.  Keywords: The Musical St. Petersburg, Mily Balakirev, Russian musicology.