Kalafati and other unsung Russians of the late C.19th

[Christopher]

I have come across some small pieces by Vassily Kalafati (1869-1942), and some other unsung Russians (Klenovsky, Winkler, Sokolov,.....), that have been recorded.  I hope they pass the copyright test, as they concern an old Soviet movie, as below. Kalafati fascinates me because he was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, a composer whose style I love, and reportedly Kalafati wrote closely to his style; and because he won the prize at the Schubert 1928 Centennial Contest with his symphonic poem Legenda.

Robert Schumann wrote, in 1834-35, a series of small pieces for piano called "Carnaval - Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes". It consists of a collection of 22 short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent (2 pieces were not numbered)

In 1910, a number of Russian composers collaborated in an orchestration of 20 of the pieces for a ballet production by Sergei Diaghilev, as follows:

1. Préambule (A-flat; Quasi maestoso) - orchestrated by Glazunov
2. Pierrot (E-flat; Moderato) - orchestrated by Glazunov
3. Arlequin (B-flat; Vivo) - orchestrated by Klenovsky, Nikolai Semyonovich (1857-1915)
4. Valse noble (B-flat; Un poco maestoso) - orchestrated by A. Petrov
5. Eusebius (E-flat; Adagio) - orchestrated by Glazunov
6. Florestan (G minor; Passionato) - orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov
7. Coquette (B-flat; Vivo) - orchestrated by Kalafati, Vassily Pavlovich (1869-1942)
8. Réplique (B-flat-G minor; L'istesso tempo) - NOT ORCHESTRATED
--. Sphinxes  - NOT ORCHESTRATED
9. Papillons (B-flat: Prestissimo) - orchestrated by Tcherepnin, Nikolai (1873-1945)
10. A.S.C.H. - S.C.H.A: Lettres Dansantes (E-flat; Presto) - orchestrated by Liadov, Anatoly (1855-1914)
11. Chiarina (C minor; Passionato) - orchestrated by Kalafati
12. Chopin (A-flat; Agitato) - orchestrated by Glazunov
13. Estrella (F minor; Con affetto) - orchestrated by Winkler, Alexandr Adolfovich (1865-1935)
14. Reconnaissance (A-flat; Animato) - orchestrated by Vītols, Jāzeps (1863-1948)
15. Pantalon et Colombine (F minor; Presto) - orchestrated by Arensky, Anton (1861-1906)
16. Valse allemande (A-flat; Molto vivace) - orchestrated by Liadov
--. Intermezzo: Paganini (F minor; Presto) - orchestrated by Liadov
17. Aveu (F minor-A flat; Passionato) - orchestrated by Sokolov, Nikolay Alexandrovich (1859-1922)
18. Promenade (D-flat; Con moto) - orchestrated by Klenovsky
19. Pause (A-flat; Vivo) - orchestrated by Glazunov
20. Marche des "Davidsbündler" contre les Philistins (A-flat; Non allegro) - orchestrated by Glazunov+Kalafati

In the Soviet period, a film was made of this, and someone has extracted the music and put it online here http://intoclassics.net/news/2013-03-07-9683 and here  http://files.mail.ru/BD33A97B9D3B455DA961B7E0BDBAD8B8
I am hazarding a guess that as this refers to a Soviet-era movie, copyright rules won't apply

I also have a question: movement 4 ("Valse noble") was orchestrated by one A. Petrov. Who can this have been, does anyone have any idea?  It can't have been the Soviet-era composer Andrei Petrov, he was only born in 1930!

[strelsa42]

There have been at least 2 recordings of this suite of orchestrations : by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Robert Irving (1959) and by the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Peter Gulke (1986). I am intrigued that you say it was done for the production of the ballet "Carnaval" by Diaghilev in 1910. I have always thought it was a pre-existing set of orchestrations that got pulled into service for the ballet production after a trial run of the ballet, danced to the original piano suite, was a success. The note writers for the cd's don't have much info and in fact make the point that nothing is known about "A. Petrov", not even his first name. I do notice that Arensky died in 1906, some 4 years prior to the ballet production.

[Christopher]

Very interesting - thanks for this.  So they specifically reference the mysterious Petrov?

[strelsa42]

The booklet writer for the koch-schwann recording [Berlin Radio Orchestra] goes through the list of arrangers and gives their dates and a couple of background facts for each one, excepting "A. Petrov" who has no dates and the comment "of whom we know nothing, not even his first name". About Kalafati, the comment is "a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and from 1900 professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, where Stravinsky and Prokofiev were amongst his pupils". The note writer also states that the year of publication of this suite of arrangements is not known, although I note that Belaieff the music publisher died in 1903 and if the arrangements had anything to do with the famous Friday musical gatherings of this circle [Les Vendredis] at his house, the arrangements were probably done prior to 1903. This recording also includes 3 pieces from "Carnaval" as orchestrated by Ravel. We know that these were a specific ballet commission [from Nijinsky for his own troupe, in 1914].

The note writer for the Irving disc despatches things in 6 lines although he does mention that Kalafati was Greek born !

[Mark Thomas]

Might "A. Petrov" be the pseudonym of a composer who didn't want his contribution to the project acknowledged?

[eschiss1]

I think copyright rules do apply to Soviet-era things now. Not sure, though.

Hrm. The only "A. Petrov" composer I see who was in fact alive in 1910 and whose dates I actually see/are definite-to-my-knowledge was Czech - Antonin Petrof, 1839-1915. (Please don't harp on Petrof vs. Petrov- if he actually had been invited to participate- I doubt it, but I may want to look further before giving a definite no to that ; maybe he was in Russia a bit before he died ... etc. ...- then transliterating to and from Cyrillic is likely, I expect, to create some chance of "noise"... (and composer names have shown up in variants on scores for the longest time in any case... don't get me started on that.    (Hrm. Ok, there are a few biographies online of Mr. Petrof that might help here... e.g.
Czech Wikipedia, or German Wikipedia also...) (Ah, never mind, not a composer, or at least not known for composing; a piano maker. MusicSack didn't say.)

[eschiss1]

I would like to know more about Kalafati, yes; the reduced score of one of his symphonies is at IMSLP and looks interesting to me. There were, if I remember, at least two Rimsky teachers who briefly directly taught Stravinsky earlyish-on (I think Stravinsky only studied with Rimsky later, or I may be misremembering entirely in thinking that he did so at all), and Kalafati was one (Rimsky pupil class of 1899, Stravinsky teacher from 1902 March until 1904, acc. to Taruskin...), and ... hrm. Ah. Ok, the other seems to have been Fedir/Theodore Akimenko (1876-1945). (Whose own list of compositions includes two violin sonatas, a number of other violin and piano works, a cello sonata, quite a few piano works including two sonata-fantasias, a string trio, etc. ... - also an opera which seems to be lost. IMSLP mentions some orchestral music including a symphony; don't know if it still exists.)

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

I believe your mysterious A.Petrov is actually Andrey (Petrov) Pertrovich YESAULOV (1800-1850) from Ryazan (east of Moscow) - according to Ho & Feofanov (Biography of Russian/Soviet Composers, Greenwood Press, 1989) he was a close friend of Pushkin and set several of his poems to music. It's possible Pushkin may have also worked on an Opera Libretto for Yesaulov, "A Waltz in F". Yesaulov also conducted. Known for pieces "Tragic Overture" inc "Melancholy Waltz" and romantic, sacred works.
Sometimes it can be hard to track down the true names of some of the Imperial Russian era composers due to their local usage of Russian over Polish, Prussian, Hungarian and Baltic names and so on when they are at court at the time; but contemporary historians index them in their 'original' more ethnic names. Hence the confusion. Hope that helps. - Chris     

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

...as for Kalafati he died during the Siege of Leningrad, having been born in the Crimea. As our friend mentioned, he studied under Rimsky, but also later taught at the Petersburg Conservatory, including students such as Asafev, Gauk, Prokofiev, Slominsky and many others - including several students from Azerbaijan, which accounts for the Oriental flavor (like Rimsky) in his work. He leaves behind a symphony, several chamber pieces including polonaises, bagatelles, nocturnes, sonatas and an opera "The Gypsies" after (who else?) Pushkin. I've seen his work occasionally come up for sale on old Meloydia LP's, but they're hard to find.  - Chris

[eschiss1]

Thanks! ... though sorry to hear about the manner of his death...

[JimL]

I believe your mysterious A.Petrov is actually Andrey (Petrov) Pertrovich YESAULOV (1800-1850) from Ryazan (east of Moscow) - according to Ho & Feofanov (Biography of Russian/Soviet Composers, Greenwood Press, 1989) he was a close friend of Pushkin and set several of his poems to music. It's possible Pushkin may have also worked on an Opera Libretto for Yesaulov, "A Waltz in F". Yesaulov also conducted. Known for pieces "Tragic Overture" inc "Melancholy Waltz" and romantic, sacred works.
Sometimes it can be hard to track down the true names of some of the Imperial Russian era composers due to their local usage of Russian over Polish, Prussian, Hungarian and Baltic names and so on when they are at court at the time; but contemporary historians index them in their 'original' more ethnic names. Hence the confusion. Hope that helps. - Chris

Hardly likely, as the orchestration project that was the subject of the initial post in this thread was dated 1910.

[khorovod]

... Though Arensky and Rimsky Korsakov were dead before 1910, think there must be another mistake here somewhere too.

[eschiss1]

composed/worked on before 1910, published 1910?... publication date need merely be >= composition date, usually within, oh, about a millenium. (Not a joke.)

[strelsa42]

According to notes on the "Symphony Services International" website, presumably prepared either by or on behalf of the publishers of the orchestral score of these arrangements [Schott], they were done for a memorial concert for Anton Rubinstein, which took place in 1902.

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

You have to be careful with your definition of the term "collaboration" in 1910. That doesn't actually mean this group wrote anything new. In fact it may well be entirely possible that some pieces were orchestrated at that time, whereas others were just inserted from previous compositions, and (quite rightly) credited accordingly. In the absence of any better theory, I'd suggest that someone remembered Yesaulov / Petrov's piece, thought it suitable, proposed its inclusion and hey presto! There it is. as a theory it's the most pausible we have as to who he was - other than the possible pseudonym theory that was mentioned.

Perhaps another clue would be to examine any of Petrov's works and see whether this piece bears any hallmarks or similarities to works we already know are by him. If so, that's about the best bet in making a case for it being "Yesaulov". If not then maybe it was anonymously contributed. Take your pick, but as an explanation it's not a bad one, and we have to consider the laws of probability here given the passage of time. Not 100% accurate, but likely.