Liudmila Kovnatskaya

Among her non-published manuscripts one can find a monumental work entitled “Ideological control of Musical avant-garde of 1920s: Leningrad Association of Contemporary Music in reports and other materials” (Soros Foundation Funding).

Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Britten, Purcell, Tippett, Arensky, Balakirev, English music, Russian-English connections, Mikhail Druskin, Albert Schweitzer and the Soviet musical epoch – all these subjects were established by Prof. Kovnatskaya due to her intensive and rigorous nature as a researcher, editor and author of books, proceedings, collections and many-volume editions.

A separate field of her research and publishing activity is the ‘offering to the Teacher’, who was a famous musicologist and Professor of Leningrad Conservatoire Mikhail Druskin.

Liudmila Grigorievna Kovnatskaya (5 February 1941 – 9 May 2023) was a Russian musicologist.

Kovnatskaya graduated in 1965 from two departments at the Leningrad State Conservatoire named after N. Rimsky-Korsakov: the department of History of Music and Piano Performing Faculty, and the department of Organ Playing, having studied under Prof. Isai Braudo.

It was at the Conservatoire that she finished a postgraduate course in the department of History of Western Music, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Mikhail Druskin.

In 1970 Liudmila Kovnatskaya presented a candidate dissertation on Benjamin Britten's oeuvre.

Liudmila Kovnatskaya was the author of a monograph about Benjamin Britten (Moscow, 1974), in the book “English Music in the 20th Century: Sources and periods of development” (Moscow, 1986).

Thanks to her research and organization activity in Russia, various festivals and concerts were organized, which were dedicated to English classic music, including Britten.

She was a professor at the St Petersburg State Conservatoire named after N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1987), and the Chief Researcher at the Russian Institute of Fine Arts History in St Petersburg.

She was considered an Honoured Art Worker of Russian Federation.

In 1987 she completed a doctoral dissertation on English music of 20th century, at the Moscow research institute of Arts of Academy of Science, USSR.

From 1987, Kovnatskaya was a member of Russian Composers’ Union, and she was a member of the General Council for Cultural Affairs of St Petersburg from 1987 until 1993.

Among them were “Ars Britannica” (1988–1990), the festival in honour of “The 80th anniversary of B. Britten” (1993), “The World of Ralph Vaughan Williams” (1996), the festival of Britten's music on his 85th anniversary (1998), the jubilee concert in honour of Britten and Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians (2003), the concert “World of Opera: Benjamin Britten”, and others.

Kovnatskaya's research fields include History of Russian Music; she has written, edited and compiled books and articles on D. Shostakovich.

She was also a guest lecturer at the University of Manchester (1991), the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), and the Ural Conservatoire in Yekaterinburg.

In 2001, Kovnatskaya became a materials consultant on Russian music for "Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians" (London: McMillan, 2001).

Letters "(Translated by V. G. Schnittke, editor M. Druskin. Saint Petersburg, 2001 - 464 p.). In 2013 she published the three-volume edition Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory: 1919–1930), which was awarded the title “Book of the Year - 2013” ("Musical Review" newspaper). In 2013, Liudmila Kovnatskaya received the title "Person of the Year - 2013" (newspaper "Musical Review"). In 2016 she received the "RESONANCE" prize for her contribution to the development of musical and theatrical criticism (Diaghilev Festival, Perm, June 2016).

Kovnatskaya died on 9 May 2023, at the age of 82.

32. Druskin M. S. Collected works : in 7 vols.

/ ed.

by L. G. Kovnatskaya.

Vol. 6: Selected articles.

In 2002 she became a member of the Council (Directorium) of the IMS.

In the same year, she became a member of the editorial board of the journal “Tempo” (Cambridge).

In 2002, Liudmila Kovnatskaya received a literary prize and a medal named after Belyaev for the book “Arnold Schoenberg.

In 2009, thanks to Prof. Kovnatskaya, a two-volume collection was published, entitled “Memory to Mikhail Semenovich Druskin”, which united articles, recollections, biographical materials and correspondence.

All who knew M. Druskin as a musician, musicologist and teacher took part in the creation of this 1000 page book.

Furthermore, in addition to this, Liudmila Kovnatskaya led the task of re-publishing works by Druskin and, as a result, realized an extensive project: a 7-volume Collected Works.

At present, the first volume, “Clavir music”, and the fourth volume, “Igor Stravinsky”, are published.

St Petersburg: Kompozitor – St Petersburg, 2018.765 p.