June 15 marks the 65th anniversary of the Belarusian composer Vyacheslav Kuznetsov, professor, Honoured Artist of the Republic of Belarus, prize-winner of the Special Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus and the State Prize of Belarus.
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov's pieces are rich in style and genre diversity. Among them are chamber, choral, symphonic, experimental music, music for children.
Since 2020, the composer's manuscript musical scores are available online. They are available in the electronic resource “Manuscripts of the Modern Belarusians Authors from the Collections of the National Library of Belarus”. Among the presented works are volcanic orchestral piece "Eyjafjallajökull", a piece for 4 flutes “Authentus”, seven little elegies for piano and other works. The author gave the usage rights for them to the National Library of Belarus.
The music of V. Kuznetsov is widely known through theatrical stages in Belarus and abroad: the premiere of the composer's works took place in Spain ("The Glass Shadow", 1993), Switzerland ("Invitation to the Execution", 1997), Japan ("Ritual", 2001; "Whisper" and Scream", 2007), Poland (" Waiting for Frederick", 2003), Germany ("Initiations", 2010) and other countries.
Opera and ballet have a special place in his works. The composer views them as the most expressive forms of musical art. V. Kuznetsov’s creative baggage includes four operas ("The Notes of a Madman", "Invitation to an Execution", "Humbert Humbert", and "Head of Professor Dowell"), seven ballets ("Twelve Chairs", "Polonaise", "Tsar Solomon", "Macbeth", "Cleopatra", "Prince Vytautas", "Anastasia"). Among his works are symphonies, concerts, chamber and choral music. The staff of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus was awarded the Presidential Prize “For Spiritual Revival” for staging the ballet “Prince Vytautas” in 2015.
There are Vyacheslav Kuznetsov's printed music editions, books, CDs, publications and reviews of famous Belarusian musicologists, a dissertation based on his works in the collections of the National Library of Belarus.
The electronic resource “Manuscripts of the Modern Belarusians Authors from the Collections of the National Library of Belarus” is aimed to popularize the Belarusian musical culture domestically and abroad. The collection of submitted works is constantly updated. It is expected that by the end of 2020 it will gather more than 600 works by 98 Belarusian authors who have concluded copyright agreements with the National Library of Belarus. The resource will be useful to historians, musicologists, teachers and students of musical institutions, students of music schools and everyone who is interested in the current Belarusian music.
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Author: Mr V. Pshybytko, Head of the Digitization and Preservation of the Library Documents Centre.
