Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov

As ever with Russians, the issues of patronymics and transliterations arise. However, in Tikhon's case (1913 - 2007), there is little argument about the specifics: New Groves includes the patronymic and so does Wikipedia. Last.fm is its usual wayward self, with at least eight possible spelling variants, including one entirely in Cyrillic that nevertheless makes a point of including the patronymic.

Thus, there is little apparent doubt that Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov is the correct spelling of this particular individual, as far as we English speakers are concerned, anyway.

An individual who, by all accounts, was something of a Soviet Union toady, bending over backwards to please the likes of Stalin, to the point of cheerfully joining in with the denunciations of the likes of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. One can't help feeling that in place of music genius, he was perhaps gifted with more than his fair share of sour grapes and greasy-pole climbing skills. He became the General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers in 1948, at Stalin's behest. He retained the post until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. That rather makes him an administrator more than a composer, in my mind at least.

But he did write some music (not much, it's true) and it's generally infused with a particular brand of Soviet Realism that makes it at once attractive and largely meaningless. His second symphony, written during the Second World War, is probably his compositional high point.

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