Veniamin Efimovich Basner (1.01.1925. Yaroslavl - 3.09.1996, St.-Petersburg) a People's Artist of Russia, a State prize-winner, is a prominent composer whose art has become part of the history of the national culture, one of its brightest pages. From the age of six Veniamin Basner had been playing violin, and favored it throughout his life. In 1949 he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatoire in violin. But he made his first experiments in compsition at the age of fifteen. In 1955 Veniamin Basner became a prize-winner of the International Composers' Competition in Warsaw for his Second String Quartet, beginning his most intense period of creative activity. While still a student he met Dmitry Shostakovich whose advice furthered his rapid formation as a professional composer. Soon his relations with the great musician developed into a true personal friendship. The range of Basner's artistic interests is extremely wide and diverse - in their genres as well as emotional substance. Thirteen works for musical theater, three symphonies, two concertoes, symphony suites, five quartets, vocal symphony cycles - this list of his compositions in academic genres which have been successfully performed in Russia as well as abroad is far from complete. The contribution he made to the genre of cinema music and songs is much significant too. More than a hundred movies and three hundred songs have become widely known to many millions of people in different countries of the world. Listening to Basner's music one always feels in touch with his warm-heartedness and sincerity. Emotional integrity is always matched with noble euphony in his music. Being a person with a heightened response to everything around him, Veniamin Basner avoided any fussiness in his art. He was always searching for the eternal themes which revealed the greatness of the soul, the elevated emotional feelings and virtues immutable even in the most complicated dramatic situations. That's why the events of the Second World War that prompted people to feat, sacrifice, compassion so often form the basis of his works. Veniamin Basner was capable of raising the personal to the level of the human, and this was brilliantly exposed in the compositions that were evoked by the pain of personal losses (the Fourth Quartet, Sonata for Violin). They are perceived as a confession of a lonely soul as well as a voice of national grief. Sometimes he achieved this unity by integrating the melodies of his well-known songs into works of a larger scale (the Second Symphony, the Fifth Quartet). Veniamin Basner can by right be called a Master - in the highest concept of this word - because of the irreproachability of his style and the richness of his imagination. He seems to be capable of everything from tragedy and sincere melody for single voice. And an inspired lyricism powerfully permeates all his art - this is, probably, the most important and impressive quality of Veniamin Basner's music. Alexander Uteshev Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.