Polonsky Artur Moritsevich

Main article: History of music in Russia

Biography

Artur Moritsevich Polonsky was born in Kyiv, in 1899, into a musical family. Already at the age of fourteen, the young musician moonlights as a pianist - "musical illustrator of the film," in the Kyiv illusion "Renaissance." The boy loves to improvise and, sometimes getting carried away, forgets about what is happening on the screen - the melodies he performs do not correspond to the plot of the picture.

In 1917, Polonsky entered the Kyiv Conservatory, where he studied simultaneously in two classes - with R.M. Glier and with the famous pianist G.N. Beklemishev.

From 1919 to 1922, A. Polonsky served as a musician in units of the Red Army.

At the end of 1922, demobilized, he settled in Rostov-on-Don, where he soon became the accompanist of the young Isabella Yurieva.

In 1925, Polonsky, on the advice of friends, moved to Moscow. He composes a lot, successfully performs as part of the jazz orchestra of the then fashionable restaurant "Grand Hotel." The dance melodies of the young composer are popular with the metropolitan musicians, but the first record with his two foxtrots "Dessau" and "Odessa" was released only in 1932.

During the Second World War, Arthur Polonsky and his orchestra constantly performed before the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army at the front and in hospitals.

The war ended and A. Polonsky was invited to take a very responsible post as music editor of the All-Union Radio Committee. It is there, one day in the moments of rest, that he sits down at the piano and begins to play the long-forgotten foxtrot melody "Dessau." The musical composition really liked the head of the quartet Boris Tikhonov. At his request, Arthur Polonsky arranges this piece for a small variety ensemble. So on May 1, 1948, the slow foxtrot "Blooming May" was born. Soon this composition was recorded on a record and became extremely popular in the USSR.

Composer Arthur Polonsky created many light, melodic, romantic plays, dance melodies and musical compositions for theatrical productions. He lived a long creative life, until the last day he did not leave the piano. Composer A.M. Polonsky died in 1989, he was 90 years old.