Yuri Sakhnovsky

Who was Yuri Sakhnovsky?

Yuri Sergeevich Sakhnovsky was a Russian composer, conductor and music critic.

Sakhnovsky came from a well-off family and was known as a "bon vivant handsome, brilliant and wealthy".

Sakhnovsky studied chant with Stepan Vasilevich Smolensky, to whom Sergei Rachmaninoff dedicated his Vespers, though Sakhnovsky later turned to a more "lush" style of choral writing. While a student Sakhnovsky took in his eight-year younger fellow student Rachmaninoff during the difficult winter when it seemed he was suffering from malaria.

In later life Sakhnovsky was active more as a critic than a composer. Particularly notorious were his attacks on Alexander Scriabin's music as "decadent" from 1911-1914.

His song "The Blacksmith" was recorded by Maxim Mikhailov and his song "The Clock" was recorded by Vladimir Rosing.