Dmitri Kabalevsky, 82, Soviet Composer and Pianist

Composer and pianist Dmitri B. Kabalevsky, best known for his operas “Colas Breugnon” and “The Family of Taras,” has died, the Communist Party daily Pravda reported Wednesday. He was 82.

The Pravda obituary, signed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and other government and artistic leaders, hailed the composer’s talents as “vivid and many faceted.”

“His works were marked by temperament and freshness, loyalty to the traditions of Russian classical art and true innovation,” Pravda said.

The obituary did not list the cause or date of death.

Kabalevsky, the son of a government worker, taught himself to play the piano by ear and studied at the Scriabin Music School and at the Moscow Conservatory. He began teaching at the conservatory in 1932.

Kabalevsky and fellow composers Aram Khatchaturian and Tikhon Khrennikov were dubbed “The Three Ks” during their heyday in the 1930s.

Kabalevsky began to be noticed abroad in the mid-1930s for his piano concertos and his symphonies. His first and best-known opera, “Colas Breugnon,” based on the Romain Rolland novel, premiered in 1938.

He toured widely both as a pianist and a conductor, mainly for his own works. His vast body of compositions are harmonic and melodic and mainly conservative, borrowing heavily from folk tradition.

Among his other works were a suite entitled “The Comedians” (1940) and two “Requiems,” in memory of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir I. Lenin and those slain in World War II. He also wrote concertos for piano, violin and cello, symphonies, piano and chamber works, and compositions for children, which Pravda said are “much performed in the Soviet Union and abroad.”