Author Biography
Aleksandr Serov (1820-1871) was a composer and music critic. He studied at St. Petersburg Imperial School of Jurisprudence (1835-1840) and worked as a lawyer in the government bureaucracy, in St. Petersburg as well as in Pskov (from 1845) and in Simferopol’ (Crimea, from 1848). However, his interest in music was to prevail: while maintaining relationships with Mikhail Glinka (1842) and Aleksandr Dargomizhskii, he taught himself cello and took lessons from Karl Schuberth; later, he took advantage of a counterpoint course taught by J. Hunke. Having settled in St. Petersburg in 1851, he embraced critical activity as a correspondent for the “Neue Berliner Musikzeitung” (from 1856), and for the “Journal de St.-Pétersbourg”, “Muzykal’nii i teatral’nii vestnik” and “Sovremennik”. In 1856, he became a censor at the Ministry of the Posts, which gave him the opportunity to travel abroad and personally meet Liszt, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Wagner. With his wife Valentina Bergman, he founded the short-lived magazine “Muzyka i teatr” (1867-1868). His troubled relationships with the music environment notwithstanding, he joined the scientific committee of the Imperial Russian Musical Society and replaced Anton Rubinshtein as its president. In the late 1860s, he held teaching positions in music history at Moscow and St. Petersburg Universities. As a composer, he enjoyed great success with the operas Judith (1863), Rogneda (1865), and The Power of the Fiend (1867-1871).