The Russian Symphony Orchestra Society (also known simply as the Russian Symphony Orchestra) was founded in in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
[Leonard Slatkin, ''Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro'' (2012), Amadeus Press, p. 32. . Accesse]
on Google Books
by
Modest Altschuler
Modest (Moisei Isaacovich) Altschuler (February 15, 1873September 12, 1963) was a cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer.Leonard Slatkin, ''Conducting Business: Unveiling the Mystery Behind the Maestro'' (2012), Amadeus Press, p. 32. . Acces ...
, and functioned for fifteen years.
[
]Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian and actor. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for rec ...
described the orchestra as having constituted "a school for concertmaster
The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...
s"; among its members were Frederic Fradkin (concertmaster of the Boston Symphony
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
), Maximilian Pilzer (concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
), Ilya Skolnik (concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music ...
), and Louis Edlin (concertmaster of the National Orchestral Association).[Oscar Levant, ''A Smattering of Ignorance'' (1940), Doubleday, pp. 27–28.] Film music conductors Nikolai Sokoloff (who was himself at one point the Russian Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster["Resents Musician's Flirting", ''New York Times'', 9 September 1911, p. 3.]), Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director.
Early career
Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City, United States, to parents ...
[Shilkret, Nathaniel, ed. Shell, Niel and Barbara Shilkret, ''Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business'', Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2005, p. 14. ] and Nat Finston were also Russian Symphony Orchestra alumni, as was trumpeter Harry Glantz. The orchestra also formed the backbone of the New Music Society of America, founded in December 1905.
They performed the New York premieres of numerous pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Scriabin, including Stravinsky's first symphony (the Symphony in E-flat) and ''The Firebird
''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev' ...
''.
History
The early years
The orchestra's debut public performance was at Cooper Union Hall on January 7, 1904, and, according to Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer.
Early life and education
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...
, featured works by Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
, Henryk Wieniawski, and the American premiere of Rachmaninoff's '' The Rock''. However, the ''New York Times'' of January 3, 1904 lists the program as consisting of the Overture from Glinka's '' Ruslan and Lyudmila'', a baritone aria from Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...
's ''Prince Igor
''Prince Igor'' ( rus, Князь Игорь, Knyáz Ígor ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the Ancient Russian epic '' The Lay of Igor's Host'', which re ...
'', an ''intermezzo'' from Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Ипполи́тов-Ива́нов; 28 January 1935) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era ...
, a Russian dance by Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Francevič Nápravník (Russian: Эдуа́рд Фра́нцевич Напра́вник; 24 August 1839 – 10 November 1916) was a Czech conductor and composer. Nápravník settled in Russia and is best known for his leading role in Rus ...
and the symphonic suite ''Scheherazade
Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the '' One Thousand and One Nights''.
Name
According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' de ...
'' by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; The ''Times'' of January 24 that same year mentions their second concert as including Wieniawski's ''Souvenir de Moscou'' and reviewing a later concert in the series mentions a performance of "'The Cliff' by Rachmaninoff," presumably the same piece as ''The Rock''.
For the 1904–1905 season, the orchestra, now expanded to 85 musicians, performed six concerts at Carnegie Hall, featuring works by a broad range of Russian composers, including a violin concerto by Julius Conus. The ''Times'' summarized the season as "resplendent with novelties,"["The Russian Orchestra", ''New York Times'', 2 April 1905, p. 9.] and praised their "enthusiasm" and the "absorbing interest" of their selected material, but was critical of the technical quality of their performances, particularly in comparison with their initial series of concerts at Cooper Union. That season, they were the first to use a celesta in concert performance in the United States. Among many Russian pieces given their American premieres that season was Rimsky-Korsakov's ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan
The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan ( rus, «Сказка о царе Салтане, о сыне его славном и могучем богаты ...
''; the fourth concert of the season consisted entirely of works that had never before been presented in New York: Vasily Kalinnikov
Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (russian: Васи́лий Серге́евич Кали́нников; 13 January 1866 – 11 January 1901 ) was a Russian composer. His body of work consists of two symphonies, several additional orchestral wor ...
's first symphony, Anton Arensky's suite "Silhouettes", and excerpts from Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's opera ''Khovanshchina
''Khovanshchina'' ( rus, Хованщина, , xɐˈvanʲɕːɪnə, Ru-Khovanshchina_version.ogg, sometimes rendered ''The Khovansky Affair'') is an opera (subtitled a 'national music drama') in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was writt ...
''.
The next year, their six Saturday night concerts at Carnegie Hall were supplemented by three "popular price" concerts there on Sunday afternoons.["A Season of Great Musical Activity… Russian Symphony Orchestra", ''New York Times'', 5 October 1905, p. X1.] The orchestra formed a relationship with Vasily Safonov
Vasily Ilyich Safonov (russian: Васи́лий Ильи́ч Сафо́нов, link=no, ; 6 February 185227 February 1918), also known as Wassily Safonoff, was a Russian pianist, teacher, conductor and composer.
Biography
Vasily Safonov, or ...
. Rachmaninoff was engaged as a guest conductor and piano soloist for concerts of his music performed on April 7–8, 1906, and Safonov's former pupil, pianist Joseph Lhévinne, was brought over to make his American debut; both were in their early thirties at the time, as was composer Vasily Zolotarev Vasily Andreyevich Zolotarev, also romanized as Zolotaryov (russian: Василий Андреевич Золотарёв; February 24, 1872 in Taganrog – May 25, 1964 in Moscow), was a Russian (Soviet) composer and music teacher.
Biography
Vas ...
, whose ''Rhapsodie Hébraïque'' was also performed that season at Safonov's suggestion. ''Rhapsodie hébraïque'', presented on the last two days of 1905, was based on secular Jewish melodies that the ''Times'' characterized as "the musical equivalent of Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
." Pianist Raoul Pugno also participated in the season as a soloist, playing Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto.["The Russian Symphony", ''New York Times'', 12 November 1905, p. X1.] Now expanded to 90 musicians, the orchestra was becoming an increasingly professional affair with, as the ''Times'' put it, "soloists of the first rank."["Russian Symphony Orchestra, ''New York Times'', 5 November 1905, p. X1.]
Another of those soloists was Giuseppe Campanari
Giuseppe Campanari (17 November 1855 – 31 May 1927) James Francis Cooke (1921) ''Great Singers on the Art of Singing'', Theodore Presser Co.Cooke (1921) gives his date of birth as 17 November 1858 but this is unlikely given the d.o.b. of his b ...
, a baritone associated with the Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
. The chaos of the Revolution of 1905 prevented sending scores from Russia for the orchestra to accompany Campanari on arias from Tchaikovsky's ''Iolanta
''Iolanta'', Op. 69, (russian: Иоланта, links=no ) is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. It was the last opera he composed. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play ...
'' and ''Queen of Spades
The queen of spades (Q) is one of 52 playing cards in a standard deck: the queen of the suit of spades (). In Old Maid and several games of the Hearts family, it serves as a single, undesirable card in the deck.
Roles by game
In the Hearts fa ...
'' (''Pique Dame''), and the performances were almost canceled. The only known copy of even the texts of the arias that could readily be found in New York was a German translation. The situation was finally rescued by "a little music store on Canal Street" which had held the relevant scores in stock, unsold for about a decade after they had been purchased from a Russian tenor in need of cash.
Pianist Josef Lhévinne
Josef Lhévinne (13 December 18742 December 1944) was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: ''Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing''. Asked how to say his name, he told ''The ...
likewise had an extremely difficult time escaping the turmoil of revolution in Moscow to come to New York to play with the Russian Symphony and others, facing danger from both the revolutionists and the government. Although his troubles were compounded by an injury to a finger, his January 27, 1906 performance featured Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sa ...
's Fifth Concerto, and drew a very favorably review from the ''Times''.
In late December 1905, Altschuler and others announced the formation of the New Music Society of America, soliciting "serious new work" from American composers, with the Russian Symphony functioning as the group's orchestra. A first Carnegie Hall concert originally scheduled for February 19 apparently never occurred, because the ''New York Times'' refers to a March 10 concert as the group's first; another concert took place April 2, 1906.["Music by Americans: The First Concert of the New Music Society in Carnegie Hall", ''New York Times'', 11 March 1906, p. 9.] The most prominent pieces at that first concert Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...
's '' Indian Suite'' and ''Second Concerto'' (hardly "new": although only in his forties, MacDowell was already in his final illness at the time); the orchestra also performed Henry F. Gilbert's ''Salammbô's Invocation to Tänith'' and Arthur Shepherd
Arthur Shepherd (February 19, 1880 – January 12, 1958) was an American composer and conductor in the 20th century.
Life and career
Shepherd was born in Paris, Idaho, into a Mormon family. His family loved to sing and his father, William N. ...
's ''Overture Joyeuse''. The second concert featured violinist Maud Powell
Minnie "Maud" Powell (August 22, 1867 – January 8, 1920) was an American violinist who gained international acclaim for her skill and virtuosity.
Biography
Powell was born in Peru, Illinois. Her mother was Wilhelmina "Minnie" Bengelstrae ...
as a soloist; works included George Whitefield Chadwick
George Whitefield Chadwick (November 13, 1854 – April 4, 1931) was an American composer. Along with John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell, he was a representative composer of what is called the Se ...
's ''Melpomene'' overture, the premiere of a violin concerto by Henry Holden Huss
Henry Holden Huss (June 21, 1862 in Newark, New Jersey – September 17, 1953 in New York City) was an American composer, pianist and music teacher. Huss grew up in New York City, the son of German immigrant parents. After studying piano and ...
, and premieres of pieces by David Stanley Smith and Frederick Converse
Frederick Shepherd Converse (January 5, 1871 – June 8, 1940), was an American composer of classical music, whose works include four operas and five symphonies.
Life and career
Converse was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Edmund Winc ...
.
That season, the March 17, 1906 concert featured the first American performance of the young Reinhold Glière
Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (born Reinhold Ernest Glier, which was later converted for standardization purposes; russian: Рейнгольд Морицевич Глиэр; 23 June 1956), was a Russian Imperial and Soviet composer of German and ...
's ''Symphony No 1 in E-flat major, Op. 8'' (composed 1900) as well as American premieres of pieces by César Cui a Cossack dance by Alexander Serov
Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Серо́в, Saint Petersburg, – Saint Petersburg, ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in ...
, who had died 35 years earlier in an era when Russian music had little currency in America, and 'a new concerto for violin, by Mlinarski," presumably the ''Concerto in D minor'' (composed c. 1897) by the Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
composer Emil Młynarski
Emil Szymon Młynarski (; 18 July 18705 April 1935) was a Polish conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue.
Life
Młynarski was born in Kibarty (Kybartai), Russian Empire, now in Lithuania. He studied violin with Leopold Auer and compos ...
.["New Russian Works", ''New York Times'', 18 March 1906, p. 11.] However, the unrest in Russia at that time prevented Rachmaninoff from visiting America, scuttling his planned April 7 performance. Instead, violinist and composer Émile Sauret
Émile Sauret (22 May 1852 – 12 February 1920) was a French violinist and composer. Sauret wrote over 100 violin pieces, including a famous cadenza for the first movement of Niccolò Paganini's First Violin Concerto, and the "Gradus ad Par ...
was featured, performing Antonín Dvořák's '' Violin Concerto in A Minor''.["Russian Symphony Orchestra", ''New York Times'', 1 April 1906. p. X3.] The same concert included two pieces by composer Anton Arensky, who had died on February 25.
An established orchestra
By the end of the 1906 season, the Russian Symphony Orchestra was an established part of the New York music scene. In all, the ''New York Times'' counted six New York premieres by the Russian Symphony Orchestra as such in 1906, and three more by the New Music Society. On May 25, the Society announced that Altschuler would be retained as Director for three more years, with Russian Ambassador Baron Roman Rosen
Baron Roman Romanovich Rosen (russian: Роман Романович Розен) (February 24, 1847 – December 31, 1921) was a diplomat in the service of the Russian Empire.
Biography
Rosen was from a Baltic German nobility (with a Swedish titl ...
continuing as honorary president. Looking forward to the 1906-1907 musical season, the ''Times'' counted them among the city's major orchestras, along with the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
, New York Symphony Orchestra, Peoples' Symphony Concerts, and Sam Franko's American Symphony
The ''American Symphony'' is a symphony for orchestra by the American composer Adam Schoenberg. The work was commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony and was completed in early 2011. It was first performed by the Kansas City Symphony under the d ...
.
The 1906-7 season saw an appearance by pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin under the direction of his (and Altschuler's) conservatory teacher Vasily Safonov
Vasily Ilyich Safonov (russian: Васи́лий Ильи́ч Сафо́нов, link=no, ; 6 February 185227 February 1918), also known as Wassily Safonoff, was a Russian pianist, teacher, conductor and composer.
Biography
Vasily Safonov, or ...
. An anonymous ''New York Times'' review praised Scriabin's playing, while finding him immature as a composer. The same reviewer panned Alexander Glazunov's ''Third Symphony'', which had its American premiere on this occasion: " at Russian music the conductor's of the more cosmopolitan orchestras have left for the Russians to put down on their programmes as given 'for the first time' may have been rejected rather than overlooked." Apparently undaunted by that criticism, the orchestra announced two days later that its concert of January 17 would feature American premieres of Rachmaninoff's ''Spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
'' cantata and Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
's '' Karelia'' overture, though apparently Rimsky-Korsakov's ''Antar
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is an independent, national non-government, not-for-profit, community-based organisation founded in 1997 which advocates for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in A ...
'' was substituted for the Rachmininoff.["New Russian Music", ''New York Times'', 18 January 1907, p.7.] ''The Times'' doubled down in its criticism: " ny of the things by the Russian composers that we do not know seem upon presentation hardly worth knowing. ... ''Antar'' ... is no symphony by any recognized definition of the term... This would be nothing against the music if it could win acceptance for itself as music, which it did not last evening." While continuing its skepticism toward recent Russian music, the ''Times'' had high praise for soloist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler's February 7, 1907 performance of Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sa ...
's already well-known D Minor Concerto (No. 4), though suggesting that the orchestra "show da lack of rehearsal with the pianist." The fifth of six concerts that season on February 28, featuring a return by pianist Josef Lhévinne, consisted entirely of Russian pieces performed for the first time in America, although they were not recent works. The orchestral introduction of Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's ''The Fair at Sorochyntsi
''The Fair at Sorochyntsi'' (russian: Сорочинская ярмарка, ''Sorochinskaya yarmarka'', '' Sorochyntsi Fair'') is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The compo ...
'' and Rubinstein's ''Caprice Russe'' were both by composers who had died before the turn of the century. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Ипполи́тов-Ива́нов; 28 January 1935) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era ...
's '' Iveria Suite'' (1896) and Alexander Scriabin's '' First Symphony'' (completed 1900), while also not particularly recent, were at least by then-living composers, and Scriabin was present for the occasion.
That summer, Altschuler traveled to Europe to engage soloists for the 1907–1908 season, which began with a special concert November 10 at their largest venue to date: accompanying violinist Jan Kubelik
Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to:
Acronyms
* Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN
* Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code
* Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group
* Japanese Article Numb ...
at the New York Hippodrome. (A similar performance was given the following year, March 15, 1908.) Four days later they began their regular season at Carnegie Hall with Russian ambassador Baron Rosen in attendance, and with a program consisting largely of American premieres of Russian pieces: Alexander Glazunov's '' Symphony No. 8'', composed roughly two years earlier; arrangements of Russian folk songs by Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov
Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (russian: Анато́лий Константи́нович Ля́дов; ) was a Russian composer, teacher, and conductor (music), conductor.
Biography
Lyadov was born in 1855 in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersbur ...
, and Rimsky-Korsakov; and Mussorgsky's " Great Gate of Kiev". The program also featured the American debut of young Russian violinist Lea Luboshutz (listed at the time as ''Laya Luboshiz''), who received eight curtain calls for her solo on Tchaikovsky's ''Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
''. She was not the only notable female soloist to play with the orchestra that season: on February 13, 1908, cellist May Muklé performed Karl Davydov's ''Cello Concerto No. 2 in A minor''.
Broader recognition and touring
1908 also brought unprecedented recognition from Russia itself. The tsar granted the Order of Saint Stanislaus to orchestra president Frank Seymour Hastings in recognition of his promotion of Russian music in America.["Czar to Honor Musician", ''New York Times'', 5 June 1908, p.7.]
For 1908–1909, the orchestra reduced its Carnegie Hall season from six performances to four,["Russian Symphony's Plans", ''New York Times'', 17 September 1908, p.7.] and began taking on other performance opportunities. At Carnegie Hall, they continued to present notable soloists: the debut of Mischa Elman (19 years old at the time), a return by Josef Lhévinne, and also an appearance by Alexander Petschnikoff. After a November 16, 1908 tryout in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
,["Russian Music With Acting", ''New York Times'', 17 November 1908, p.9.] on February 11, 1909, they collaborated with the Ben Greet
Sir Philip Barling Greet (24 September 1857 – 17 May 1936), known professionally as Ben Greet, was a Shakespearean actor, director, impresario and actor-manager.
Early life
The younger son of Captain William Greet RN and his wife, Sarah Ba ...
Players on a Carnegie Hall performance of Shakespeare's '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' incorporating Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
's incidental music, a performance that was repeated at Lake George on August 30 and at Carnegie Hall on New Year's Day 1910. These performances constituted the first time Mendelssohn's music was performed in conjunction with the play in the United States. The two groups collaborated further, including a 1910 production of Shakespeare's '' The Tempest'' and a series of performances in the 1910–1911 season which repeated these pieces and added '' As You Like It'', '' The Merry Wives of Windsor'', '' Macbeth'', and ''Sakuntala''.
Besides a broader variety of New York performances, the orchestra toured extensively. Although they had already toured in December 1907, when the ''New York Times'' mentions them traveling to "Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Madison, Wis. and other cities," bringing along pianists Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson (20 July 1871 – 9 February 1951) was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher.
Biography
Hutcheson was born in Melbourne, and toured there as a child prodigy at the age of five. He later travelled to Leipzig and entered ...
and Ernest Schelling, their 1908 touring plans extended as far as the West Coast.[ Their tours could involve large numbers of performances. For example, a newspaper from ]Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
shows the orchestra performing four separate concerts (at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.) on a single Wednesday in September 1911. The programs were each entirely different, and the music ranged from Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
through Richard Wagner, Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
and Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
to Sibelius and Scriabin.
The 1910s
The orchestra began the 1910s with a premiere of a different sort. After a January 1 Carnegie Hall reprise of their ''Midsummer Night'' collaboration with Ben Greet, on January 20 their second performance of the new decade introduced dancer Maud Allan
Maud Allan (born as either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant;Birthname given as Ulah Maud Alma DurrantMcConnell, Virginia A. ''Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco'', University of Nebraska Pr ...
to the New York audience. Although American-born, Allan had begun her dancing career in England and Europe, and this was her first American appearance. Like Isadora Duncan
Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance, who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in ...
and Loie Fuller
Loie Fuller (born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.
Career
Bor ...
, Allan choreographed for herself, using existing classical pieces. On this occasion she danced a piece on Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
themes, using music from Anton Rubinstein, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Grieg. The performance alternated Allan's dances with straight orchestral performances. A concert a week later featured Rachmaninoff as a guest conductor for the American premiere of his '' Isle of the Dead'' and as a soloist on his '' Piano Concerto No. 2''. Further performances with Allan followed, with the dancer performing her signature ''Visions of Salomé'', among other pieces.["Maud Allan as Salome", ''New York Times'', 30 January 1910, p.11.] On April 4, the orchestra played a benefit for Russian immigrants at the Waldorf-Astoria
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schult ...
, featuring several musical soloists as well as ballet dancers Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...
and Mikhail Mordkin
__NOTOC__
Mikhail Mordkin (russian: Михаил Михайлович Мордкин; December 9, 1880, Moscow, Russian Empire - July 15, 1944, New York) graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet School in 1899, and in the same year was appointed ballet ...
.
The 1910–1911 season featured five Carnegie Hall concerts interspersed with numerous out-of-town shows and followed by a 20-week national tour. Their New York season began November 17 with a concert that included a very different interpretation of Rachmaninoff's ''Symphony No. 2'', which they had premiered in 1901 and which had meanwhile become a "celebrated" and much-played work. After discussions with the composer, Altschuler had sped up the tempi and his reading of the piece had "radically changed". The concert also featured two American premieres of pieces by Anatoly Lyadov
Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (russian: Анато́лий Константи́нович Ля́дов; ) was a Russian composer, teacher, and conductor (music), conductor.
Biography
Lyadov was born in 1855 in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersbur ...
—''Kikimora'' and ''Volshebnoye ozero (The Enchanted Lake)'', both written in 1909—Tchaikovsky's ''1812 Overture'', and several songs sung by German baritone Alexander Heinemann. The December 1 concert featured the U.S. debut of Canadian-born violinist Kathleen Parlow; the ''New York Times'' reviewer described her performance of Tchaikovsky's ''Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
'' as a "remarkable achievement" and praised her "unexpected authority",["The Russian Symphony", ''New York Times'', 27 November 1910, p.X7.]["Russian Symphony Concert", ''New York Times'', 2 December 1910, p.9. This article, the one that refers to her "remarkable achievement", erroneously refers to ''Katherine'' Parlow.] and would have equally high praise for her "consummate technical accuracy…beauty of tone…spirit… ndire" when she returned to play Henryk Wieniawski's '' Violin Concerto No. 2'' the following February 2.["Miss Parlow Applauded", ''The New York Times'', 3 February 1911, p. 9. With reference to the Kajanus, the cited source simply says ''Finnish Rhapsody''. Kajanus wrote two ''Finnish Rhapsodies'', No. 1 in D minor, Op. 5 (1881) and No. 2 in F major (1886); there is no indication of which was performed on this occasion. Also, the ''Times'' refers again to the Rachmaninoff piece as ''The Cliff'' rather than ''The Rock''.] The concert was also the American premier of Stravinsky's ''Feu d'artifice
''Feu d'artifice'', Op. 4 (''Fireworks'', russian: Фейерверк, ) is a composition by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1908 and described by the composer as a "short orchestral fantasy." It usually takes less than four minutes to perform.
C ...
'' (''Fireworks''). who had grown up largely in San Francisco and had become a professional musician in Europe. Starting four days later, they provided accompaniment for two-week run of Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize i ...
's tragedy '' Mary Magdalene'' at The New Theatre. This was the world premiere of that play, and the first U.S. performance of any Maeterlinck play.
A January 19, 1911 concert featured German-Polish pianist and composer Xaver Scharwenka
Theophil Franz Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 – 8 December 1924) was a German pianist, composer and teacher of Polish descent. He was the brother of Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917), who was also a composer and teacher of music.
Life ...
as the soloist on his own ''Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor'', as well as the American premiere of the Introduction and Wedding Procession from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera ''The Golden Cockerel
''The Golden Cockerel'' ( rus, Золотой петушок, Zolotoy petushok ) is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, his last opera he completed before his death in 1908. ...
''; the concert also featured Rimsky-Korsakov's '' Christmas Eve Suite'' and the American premiere of a waltz that Tchaikovsky had written for ''The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...
'' but omitted from the final version, and closed with Tchaikovsky's ''Marche Slave
The ''Marche slave'' () in B-flat minor, Op. 31, is an orchestral tone poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky published in 1876. It was written to celebrate Russia's intervention in the Serbian-Ottoman War.
Titling
It has been published variou ...
''. The February 2 concert featured the American premiere of Robert Kajanus
Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 – 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1882, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Finland's first professional orchestra. As a conductor, he was also a notable champion and in ...
' ''Finnish Rhapsody'', a return of Rachmaninoff's ''The Rock'' (which they had played in their second concert ever), and the return of violinist Kathleen Parlow performing the abovementioned Wieniawski concerto. The final concert of the season, February 16, featured several solo vocalists (including Nina Dimitrieff) and a 65-voice women's chorus, the St. Cecelia Club, for Altschuler's own arrangement of a series of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's opera ''Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is ...
'', as well as the American premiere of Rachmaninoff's Fantasie for two pianos, featuring Marie Cracrost and Raymond L. Havens, and Alexander Glazunov's ''From the Middle Ages''.
After a transcontinental tour, they came back to New York that summer to offer a series of eight concerts at Madison Square Garden in late June and early July, aimed at a broader public than could usually attend orchestra concerts. Through arrangements with working people's organizations such as the Wage Earners' Theatre Leagues, a family of four to attend as cheaply as a total of 50 cents, the equivalent of about $16 in 2023. Each concert was on a different theme: Russian, French, Italian, Slavic and Scandinavian, German and Wagner, Symphony, Pop, and International.
Late that summer, concertmaster Nikolai Sokoloff quit the orchestra along with about half a dozen other members. The orchestra's management claimed that this stemmed from Sokoloff's anger over what he perceived as another musician's flirting with Sokoloff's wife; Sokoloff insisted that the split was "purely and simply a matter of business." Karl Klein, son of Bruno Oscar Klein, was appointed to replace him.["News and Reviews in the Music World", ''New York Times'', 5 November 1911, p. X10.]
Notes
External links
Russian Symphony Orchestra of New York: A Chronological Listing
stokowski.org. An incomplete but interesting chronology, with short biographies of several prominent members of the orchestra.
{{authority control
Symphony orchestras
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Disbanded American orchestras
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