Samuil Feinberg
Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg (Russian: Самуи́л Евге́ньевич Фе́йнберг, also Samuel; 26 May 1890 – 22 October 1962) was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
Also recorded as Samuil Yevgenyevich Feynberg · Samuel Feinberg · Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg
Samuil Feinberg

Российский национальный музей музыки · Public domain
- Born
- 1890 · Odesa.
- Died
- 1962 · Moscow.
- Nationality
- Russian Empire · Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic · Soviet Union
- Occupation
- pianist · composer · music educator · musician
- Fields
- classical music
- Education
- Moscow Conservatory
- Teachers
- Alexander Goldenweiser
- Honours
- Stalin Prize · Order of Lenin · Order of the Red Banner of Labour · Medal For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 · Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
- Languages
- Russian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg (Russian: Самуи́л Евге́ньевич Фе́йнберг, also Samuel; 26 May 1890 – 22 October 1962) was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q1971227 · wikipedia · Samuil Feinberg
In this article
Biography
Biography
Samuil Feinberg studied at Moscow Conservatory. Training under Alexander Goldenweiser is recorded. Evgeny Golubev, Victor Merzhanov and Gennady Cherkasov are recorded as having studied under Samuil Feinberg. The recorded working language is Russian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Employment is recorded with Moscow Conservatory. Distinctions recorded are Stalin Prize, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour and Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".
Born in Odessa, Feinberg lived in Moscow from 1894 and studied with Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory. He also studied composition privately under Nikolai Zhilyayev. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1911, after which he embarked upon a career as a solo pianist, while composing on the side. However, he was soon sent to fight in the First World War for Russia until he became ill and was discharged. In 1922, he joined the faculty at the Moscow Conservatory, relaunching his pianistic career. By 1930, due to the political repressions in Stalin's Russia, Feinberg's concert activities became limited. He made only two foreign trips in the 1930s: Vienna in 1936 and Brussels in 1938; hence he is generally not well known outside Russia. In 1946, he was awarded the Stalin Prize. Feinberg was the first pianist to perform the complete The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach in concert in the USSR. He is most remembered today for his complete recording of it, and many other works from the classical and romantic eras. He also composed three piano concertos, a dozen piano sonatas (private recordings exist of him playing his piano Sonatas 1, 2, 9 and 12), as well as fantasias and other works for the instrument. Pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva said that each of his sonatas was a "poem of life". Feinberg has been called "A musical heir to Scriabin", who heard the young pianist play his fourth sonata and praised it highly. He was a life-long bachelor. He lived with his brother Leonid, who was a poet and painter. He died in 1962, aged 72.
Concertante
Concertante
Op. 20: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major (1931) Op. 36: Piano Concerto No. 2 in D major (1944) Op. 44: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (1947)
Violin sonatas
Violin sonatas
Op. 12: Violin Sonata No. 1 (1912, incomplete) Op. 46: Violin Sonata No. 2 (1955–56)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1962
Samuil Feinberg died at Moscow.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Odesa.
Birth place
Moscow.
Death place
Honours and awards
Order of Lenin Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1937) Stalin Prize (1946) Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Pianists in Conversation. 1990.
- 2.Sitsky, Larry. Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-garde, 1900–1929. Greenwood Publishing Group. 183. 1994. 9780313267093.
- 3.Figowy, Nicolo-Alexander. Samuil Feinberg Piano Sonatas 1-6. Hyperion Records. 2020.
- 4.Cummings, Robert. Samuel Feinberg. AllMusic.
- 5.The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 1970–1979.
- 6.Sirodeau, Christopher. Samuil Feinberg. International Feinberg–Skalkottas Society.
- 7.youTube p=PLXvn7D4WnUOhA01hopU5pPAVCu62mdPS- Samuil Feinberg plays Feinberg – home recordings!
- 8.Bogat, Leni. Samuil Feinberg (1890–1962): Russian Pianist and Composer. Forte-Piano-Pianissimo.Com.
- 9.Feinberg Sonata 4 published in 1918, Scriabin dead in 1915.
- 10.персоналии - Фейнберг Самуил Евгеньевич. www.mosconsv.ru.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1971227: Samuil FeinbergWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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