The Belyayev Project

Profil Hänssler & Naxos

Release Date-Spring 2013

About Mitrofan Belyayev
Mitrofan Belyayev was born in 1836, in St-Petersburg. In addition to being an owner of a large wood dealership enterprise, he was a music publisher and played viola for many years in an amateur string quartet. Belyayev was dedicated to his contemporary St-Petersburg composers as a patron, and dedicated to promoting and spreading Russian music outside of Russia. The common spelling of Belyayev, “Belaieff’, may be more familiar: In 1885 Belyayev created the publishing house “M.P. Belaieff” in Leipzig. The purpose of this publishing house was to secure international copyrights to Russian composers. Belyayev published the works at his own expense.

Belyayev 's inspiration to have his own publishing house

In 1882 Belyayev met the then 17-year old Alexander Glazunov and became his patron. He supported Glazunov by publishing all his new works through the Belaieff edition. Meeting Glazunov is said to be the catalyst, from which Belyayev decided to create his own publishing house.

Who were the St-Petersburg musicians supported by Belyayev?

Belyayev is also the founder of Belyayev circle, a society of musicians who met in St-Petersburg between 1885-1908. Members of this circle include Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov, Glazunov among others. He also hosted “quartet Fridays” at his home in St-Petersburg. This event was frequently visited by Rimsky-Korsakov. Later many other composers sought support from Belayaev. In order to select which composers to assist with money, Belyayev set up an advisory council made up of Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. They were given rights to select the composers who they considered to deserve patronage and public attention through Belyayev's support.

The Belyayev Project

I was fascinated by this figure, M. Belyayev and the Belaieff edition which can still be found in music stores and libraries across the world to this day. Composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov are now very familiar to the general public, but the profile of the man who helped these composers to gain their fame internationally is not a commonly known fact. Rimsky-Korsakov’s piano trio, I discovered through the recording by the David Oistrakh trio. Purely from curiosity I searched the catalogue of the Belaieff edition and in so doing, came across a number of beautiful works by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov and Blumenfeld. Most of these works are not commonly performed, particularly the short piano pieces.I hope this recording brings attention to these fascinating compositions, as well as attention to Mitrofan Belyayev, the man.