Solovyev-Sedoy V.P., (1907-1979), composer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
SOLOVYEV-SEDOY (real last name Solovyev) Vasily Pavlovich (1907, St. Petersburg - 1979, Leningrad), composer, People's Artist of the USSR (1967), Hero of Socialist Labour (1975). Graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory studying composition under P.B. Ryazanov (1936). In 1925 he began working as pianist-improvisator at Leningrad Radio, as well as playing for amateur groups and sports clubs. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1944) he organised and directed the Yastrebok Battlefield Variety Theatre. In 1948-64 he was president of the Leningrad Department of the Composers' Union. In 1957-74 he was a secretary of the Composers' Union of the USSR. He was a master of popular songs, writing over 400 of them. He gained great prominence for his melodic gift and touchy lyrics. Solovyev-Sedoy's songs became known to millions, and Podmoskovnye Vechera (Moscow Nights) (1956, written to verses by M.L. Matusovsky) became an international emblem of Russia. Solovyev-Sedoy's main themes are war and soldiers. Working together with A.I. Fatyanov, he wrote On a Sunny Lawn (1943), Nightingales (1944), It's a Long Time We Haven't Been Home (1945), Where Are You Now, Friends Fellow Soldiers? (1947), Where Are You, My Garden? (1948). He wrote Seamen's Nights (1945) with S.B. Fogelson, Raid Night (1941) with A.D. Churkin; and Hear Me, Dear (1945) with M.V. Isakovsky. He composed a ballet called Taras Bulba (1940, 1955; the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre); several operettas; musical comedies, including The Most Precious (1951), Eighteen Years (1967), and At the Home Mooring (1970); music for 36 feature film including Sky Slow Runner (1945), The First Glove (1946), Maxim Perepelitsa (1955), She Loves You (1956), Don Tale (1964); and scored approximately 40 documentary films, drama plays, and radio dramas. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1943, 1947) and the Lenin Prize (1959). He was born at 139 Nevsky Prospect, where he lived until 1929, then he changed addresses several times. In 1950-79 he lived at 131 Fontanka River Embankment (memorial plaque installed) and in Komarovo Village (17 Bolshoy Avenue). He was buried at Literatorskie Mostky. The Variety Symphony Orchestra of the Petersburg Television Company was called after Solovyev-Sedoy.

References: Кремлев Ю. А. Василий Павлович Соловьев-Седой: Очерк жизни и творчества. Л., 1960; Хентова С. М. Соловьев-Седой в Петрограде - Ленинграде. Л., 1984.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Churkin Alexander Dmitrievich
Fatyanov Alexey Ivanovich
Fogelson Solomon Borisovich
Isakovsky Mikhail Vasilievich
Kirov (real name Kostrikov) Sergey Mironovich
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Matusovsky Mikhail Lvovich
Solovyev-Sedoy (real name Solovyev) Vasily Pavlovich
Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich
Bolshoy Ave/Komarovo, village, house 17
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 131
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 139
Хентова С. М. Соловьев-Седой в Петрограде - Ленинграде. Л., 1984
Кремлев Ю. А. Василий Павлович Соловьев-Седой: Очерк жизни и творчества. Л., 1960 Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Composers, The Union of
Mariinsky Theatre
Literatorskie (Literary) Mostki, the museum-necropolis