Ivan Laskovsky | Valse-Scherzo

i found another nice piece from the (early) romantic period.

Laskovsky (1799-1855) was a russian composer and pianist. Balakirev said about him in 1910
Although piano music was formed by Glinka , the late Ivan Fedorovich Laskovsky should be recognized as the first Russian piano composer ... Laskovsky's works provide rich material for the pianist ... We follow Laskovsky directly.

He was born into a noble family. From an early age, he discovered musical talent, already at the age of 8 he fluently played rather complex compositions on the piano. He did not receive a systematic musical education; one of his teachers was J. Field (piano).
In the 1820-1830s his name became widely known to the musical Petersburg. This was facilitated by Laskovsky's concert performances, as well as the appearance in various music collections of his lyric piano miniatures. The plays quickly spread and became popular.

Among Laskovsky's friends were A. S. Pushkin , M. I. Glinka , A. S. Dargomyzhsky , M. Yu. Vielgorsky , V. F. Odoevsky . F. Liszt , A. Vietant , A. Serve, A. Henselt who toured in Russia willingly played in his house .

He was considered one of the best pianists of the highest Petersburg society. He performed mainly at home concerts, salons. He performed mainly his own works - ballads, etudes, variations, mazurkas, waltzes, etc. He gave particular preference to the music of Beethoven. His performing style was distinguished by sincerity and warmth, as well as a sense of proportion, elegance and nobility.

He wrote over 70 piano pieces (22 mazurkas, 13 waltzes, nocturnes, scherzos, minuets, songs without words, etudes, ballads, variations on two Russian songs, etc.), as well as 4 string quartets, trios, tarantella for orchestra and other chamber works. The main works for piano (6 notebooks) were published in 2 volumes after his death on the initiative and under the editorship of M. A. Balakirev. 3rd string quartet was published in 1947; the rest of the chamber works remained in the manuscript.

As a composer, I. Laskovsky developed the lyric-romantic direction of Russian piano music. His works are intonationally close to Slavic folk songs, at the same time the influences of K.M. Weber , F. Schubert , F. Chopin , R. Schumann , F. Mendelssohn are felt in them . Piano pieces have taste, beauty, grace and happy thoughts.