Alexander Ilyich Siloti (,
Aleksandr Iljič Siloti) (
9 October 1863 near
Kharkov -
8 December 1945, New York) was a
Russian pianist, conductor and
composer. (
Spelling note: A truer transliteration of his surname into English would be
Ziloti, however, it is usually seen in its
German transliteration
Siloti. Initial s in German is pronounced z.)
Siloti was born on his father's estate near Kharkov,
Ukraine (then part of
Imperial Russia). He studied piano at the
Moscow Conservatory with
Nikolai Zverev from 1871, and under
Nikolai Rubinstein, Sergei Taneyev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Hubert from 1875. He graduated with the Gold Medal in Piano in 1881. He worked with
Franz Liszt in
Weimar (1883-1886), co-founded the Liszt-Verein in
Leipzig, and there made his professional debut on
19 November 1883. Returning in 1887, Siloti taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where his students included
Goldenweiser, Maximov, and his first
cousin Sergei Rachmaninoff. In this period he began work as editor for Tchaikovsky, particularly on the
First and
Second piano concertos.
He quit the Conservatory in May 1891, and from 1892-1900 lived and toured in Europe. He also toured
New York, Boston, Cincinnati and
Chicago in 1898. It was on these tours that he first introduced to the West Rachmaninoff's famous
C-sharp Minor Prelude. He was the conductor for the world premiere of Rachmaninoff's
Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. From 1901-1903, Siloti led the Moscow Philharmonic; from 1903-1917, he organized, financed, and conducted the influential Siloti Concerts in St Petersburg. He presented
Leopold Auer, Pablo Casals, Fyodor Chaliapin, George Enescu, Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, Willem Mengelberg, Felix Mottl, Arthur Nikisch, Arnold Schoenberg and
Felix Weingartner, and local and world premieres by
Debussy, Elgar, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Sibelius, Stravinsky and others.
Diaghilev first heard Stravinsky at a Siloti Concert.
In the generation prior to 1917, Siloti was one of Russia's most important artists, with music by
Arensky, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky dedicated to him. In 1918, Siloti was appointed Intendant of the
Mariinsky Theatre, but late the following year fled
Soviet Russia for
England, finally settling in New York in December 1921. From 1925-1942 he taught at the Juilliard Graduate School, performing occasionally in recital, and in November 1930 gave a legendary all-Liszt concert with
Arturo Toscanini. Siloti's private students included
Marc Blitzstein and
Eugene Istomin.
He wrote over 200 piano arrangements and transcriptions, and orchestral editions of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Possibly his most famous transcription is his
Prelude in B minor, based on a Prelude in E minor by
J.S. Bach. Siloti also made 8 piano rolls and 26 minutes of home-cut discs. In the 21st century, the art of transcription has made a significant return. Such music from great artists of the past, including
Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and
Liszt, has now resumed its formidable importance. Alexander Siloti, one of the great exponents of that art, is also seeing his name rapidly restored to the pantheon. Carl Fischer has published a large anthology of Siloti piano transcriptions, and Rowman and Littlefield has published the first full-scale biography.
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