Санкт-Петербургский след в истории музыкальной культуры Литвы
ENAt different periods of a culture's development there are corresponding influences that determine the artistic form's evolution and inspire individuals' creativity. At the turn of the 20th century, St. Petersburg and its Conservatory became a magnet for Lithuanian musicians. Many well-known Lithuanian musicians learned the rudiments of the musical profession, gained knowledge and skills, which laid the foundation for their work. Almost all the founders of the Lithuanian musical school studied at St. Petersburg Conservatory: Česlovas Sasnauskas, Juozas Tallat-Kelpša, Stasys Šimkus, Mikas and Kipras Petrauskas, Konstantinas Galkauskas, Jurgis Karnavičius, Mykolas Bukša. Each of them specialized in different fields of music, attended classes of different professors, but one can still sense in their works a shared artistic style originating from their Alma Mater. Rimsky-Korsakov had a particularly strong influence on the creative development of Lithuanian musicians. He encouraged attention to their national roots in their works as well as a desire to develop universal professional competence in his students, basing his teaching on an in-depth study of classical musical heritage and contemporary music, and this perfectly corresponded with the expectations of his students from the outlying nations within the Russian Empire. It is striking that precisely Rimsky-Korsakov's students Nikolay Lysenko, Jāzeps Vītols, Artur Kapp, Meliton Balanchivadze, Aleksandr Spendiarov became founders of their national schools of composition. Galkauskas and Karnavičius, also students of Rimsky-Korsakov, were important in the development of Lithuanian music culture. Maxi milian Steinberg, also his student, who was born in Vilnius and who stayed in St. Petersburg (Petrograd, Leningrad) as a professor of the Conservatory, prepared a whole cohort of famed Lithuanian musicians.As a dedicated follower of Rimsky-Korsakov, he made a significant contribution to spreading his teacher's principles in Lithuania, This was also true of Jāzeps Vītols, whose class in Riga Conservatory was attended by Lithuanian students in the interwar years.
