Ivan Yevstafyevich Khandoshkin (russian: Иван Евстафьевич Хандошкин, uk, Іван Остапович Хандошко) (1747 – 29 or 30 March 1804) was a

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of Ukrainian

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

origin. He has been described as "the finest Russian violinist of the eighteenth century".

Life

Ivan Khandoshkin was born into a Cossack family near

Myrhorod Myrhorod ( uk, Ми́ргород, ) is a city in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Myrhorod Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast s ...

. He was related to the family of

Hetman ( uk, гетьман, translit=het'man) is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders. Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century. It was the title of the second-highest military co ...

Danylo Apostol Danylo Apostol (; ; ) (1654–1734), was a Hetman of Zaporizhian Host from 1727 to 1734. Brief biography Born in a Cossack family of Moldavian origin, Danylo Apostol was a prominent military leader, ''polkovnyk'' (colonel) of the Myrhorod ...

. Ivan's father Ostap was trained as a tailor, but eventually became a professional

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

and percussion player in the court orchestra of

Tsar Peter III Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

. Ivan studied under Tito Porta with other Italian influences being Domenico dall’Oglio and Pietro Peri. He was a musician at the Russian court, of which he later became ''

kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'', from 1765 and he taught violin at the Yekaterinoslav Musical Academy, founded by Potemkin in 1785. After Potemkin's death Khandoshkin was forced to resign by

Giuseppe Sarti Giuseppe Sarti (also Sardi; baptised 1 December 1729 – 28 July 1802) was an Italian opera composer. Biography He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born o ...

who was considered his rival, and returned to

St. 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 ...

in 1789.

Geoffrey Norris Geoffrey Norris (born 1947) is an English musicologist and music critic. His scholarship focuses on Russian composers; in particularly, Norris is a leading scholar on the life and music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, about whom he has written in nume ...

, "Ivan Khandoshkin". ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' online.

Works

Khandoshkin's extant works comprise six violin sonatas and several variation cycles based on folk songs. His music (primarily for the violin) is comparable to music by his contemporaries such as

Giuseppe Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred of pieces for the violin with the majority of ...

's student

Antonio Lolli Antonio Lolli (c. 1725 – 10 August 1802) was an Italian violinist and composer. Life Lolli, who was born about 1725 in Bergamo, Italy, was one of the foremost Italian violinists of the 18th century. Between 1758 and 1774 he was solo vi ...

(whose stunts on the violin preceded Paganini),

Gaetano Pugnani Gaetano Pugnani (27 November 1731 – 15 July 1798, full name: Giulio Gaetano Gerolamo Pugnani) was an Italian composer and violinist. Biography Gaetano Pugnani was born in 1731 in Turin, the city where he spent most of his life, son of Giova ...

Ludwig Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conducting, conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten Sy ...

, and many others. His music was unfamiliar to the average western ear until recently. In 1996

Elena Denisova Elena Denisova (Елена Денисова; born February 14, 1963, in Moscow) is a Russian violinist and festival director. She emigrated to Austria and has been an Austrian citizen since 1992. Life The musical career of Denisova started at th ...

recorded three of his violin sonatas for Talking Music where they were released in the following year. In 2016 she performed them at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...

Anastasia Khitruk Anastasia Khitruk (russian: Анастасия Хитрук; born August 1974, in Moscow) is a Russian-born American violin player. She was a student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. She has made many recordings of which three were for ...

performed several works and recorded them for Naxos in St. Petersburg's St. Catherine's Church in 2005.

Viola concerto

The so-called "Khandoshkin viola concerto in C Major, written in 1801" published for the first time by the State Publishing House, Moscow, in 1947 and released in the former Soviet Union on

Melodya Melodiya ( rus, links=no, Мелодия, t=Melody) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) record label. It was the state-owned major record company of the Soviet Union. History Melodiya was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm ...

, with

Rudolf Barshai Rudolf Borisovich Barshai (russian: Рудольф Борисович Баршай, link=no, September 28, 1924November 2, 2010) was a Soviet and Russian conductor and violist. Life Barshai was born on September 28, 1924, in Stanitsa Labinskay ...

playing viola and conducting the Moscow Chamber Orchestra actually is not by Khandoshkin, but a

musical hoax A musical hoax (also musical forgery and musical mystification) is a piece of music composed by an individual who intentionally misattributes it to someone else. Ascribed to historical figures * Henri Casadesus ** Viola Concerto in B minor by " ...

Mikhail Goldstein Mikhail Emmanuilovich Goldstein (russian: Михаил Эммануилович Гольдштейн, also transcribed as Michael Emmanuilowitsch Goldstein, he, מיכאל גולדשטיין; pen name: Mykhailo Mykhailovsky; 7 September 1989), was ...

.See liner notes by Anne Mischakoff Heiles in Naxos and Mischakoff, Khandoshkin and the Beginning of Russian String Music, UMI Press, 1984.

References

External links

* Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire 1747 births 1804 deaths Classical violinists from the Russian Empire Male classical violinists Russian classical violinists Composers from the Russian Empire {{Russia-composer-stub