Yuly Eduardovich Konyus

1869-1942

Known to the non-Russian world as Jules Conus, Yuly was born in Moscow to a musical family. His father was a piano teacher and Yuly entered the Moscow Conservatory to study alongside his brothers Georgy and Lev.

A talented violinist, he studied composition under Sergey Taneyev before moving to Paris to continue to refine his technique while joining the orchestra of Edward Colonne.

He returned to Moscow in 1893 and started teaching violin at the Moscow Conservatory.

He began a long correspondence with Tchaikovsky and advised him on the violin parts for the sixth symphony (his brother Lev helped the great man with the piano arrangement).

He struck up a friendship with Rachmaninov in the early 1900s and played chamber pieces with him.

The outbreak of the Russian Revolution saw Yuly abandoning Russia to live in Paris. In the end the rise of Fascism in the late 1930s persuaded him that Stalinism was the lesser of two evils. He returned to Moscow in 1939.

This may not have been his finest idea. He died in 1942, but where and under what circumstances are not known. Nor is it known where he was buried.

He was not a prolific composer but his violin concerto was regarded as exceptional, albeit it has in recent decades fallen from favour.