Count Aleksandr Dmitriyevich Sheremetev ( – 18 May 1931) was a
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n composer, conductor and entrepreneur. He founded his own private symphony orchestra in 1882, and from 1898 organized public concerts in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
involving the orchestra and a choir he had inherited from his father, Dmitri Sheremetev. He also founded the Musical Historical Society in 1910, which gave free lecture recitals involving his orchestra and choir.
Sheremetev conducted the Russian premiere of
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's
Parsifal in a series of three concerts in 1906; his conducting on that occasion was described by the press as "primitive". This was followed by Sheremetev conducting the opera's first Russian staging on 21 December 1913 (according to the Russian Old Style calendar; 3 January 1914 according to the standard Western calendar), performed at the
Hermitage Theatre before the Imperial Family, the diplomatic corps, representative members of the State Duma and senior government officials. After two further performances there, the production transferred to the Theatre of Musical Drama.
On 10 June 1883 Sheremetev married Marie Heyden (born 1863 in
Reval), daughter of
Governor-General of Finland count
Frederick Heyden (1821–1900) and Elisabeth
Zubov (1833–1894).
Genealogy handbook of Baltic nobility
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In 1917, Count Aleksandr and his wife fled to their estates in Finland and escaped the Red Terror. They lost all their possessions in Russia, sold their Finnish estates and moved to Belgium and then to Paris. After a while the money ran out and they lived in poverty, helped somewhat by a charity. They both died in Paris in 1930 and were buried in the Russian cemetery there.
Their son, Georgy, fought for the Whites, fled Russia and worked as secretary for Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich of Russia in France in the 1920s.
References
* ''Wagner & Russia'', Rosamund Bartlett. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
* ''former People'', Douglas Smith. Pan Books, 2013.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheremetev, Aleksandr Dmitryevich
Aleksandr Dmitryevich
Russian composers
Russian male composers
Russian conductors (music)
Russian male conductors (music)
1859 births
1931 deaths