Felix Blumenfeld

Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (Russian: Фе́ликс Миха́йлович Блуменфе́льд; 19 April 1863 [O.S. 7 April] – 21 January 1931) was a Russian and Soviet composer and conductor of the Imperial Opera St-Petersburg, pianist, and teacher.

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He was born in Elisavetgrad, which was in 2016 renamed to Kropyvnytskyi (in present-day Ukraine), Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire, the son of Mikhail Frantsevich Blumenfeld, of Austrian Jewish origin, and Maria Szymanowska. Blumenfeld studied with Gustav Neuhaus, married to his older sister. Then he studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and piano under Fedor Stein between 1881 and 1885. He then taught piano there himself from 1885 until 1918, whilst also serving as conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre until 1911.

Felix Blumenfeld (1863-1931) studied composition and piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he also taught the piano for about 30 years from his graduation in 1885, before moving on to the Kiev and the Moscow conservatories. His teaching methods influenced many famous Soviet piano teachers (including his nephew, the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus); one of his pupils was Vladimir Horowitz. Blumenfeld was also conductor at the Marinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He lived and worked in close contact with Anton Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Rachmaninoff. His performing style was influenced by Rubinstein´s: heroically brilliant and lyrically melodious.
As a composer Blumenfeld was very much under the spell of Chopin. A study for the left hand (Op.36) is perhaps the only piece that has really outlived him. Other works of interest are two sets of Variations (Op. 8 and 34) and 24 Preludes (Op. 17).

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