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

[Christopher]

...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

Very interesting - can you remember which of his works you say on these Melodiya LPs?  Orchestral ones?

[ChrisDevonshireEllis]

I can't recall...but it was very recently. I put in a bid to buy so it might have been one of the Russian/Eastern European specialists stores on ebay or elsewhere, but it went before i got the chance to acquire it and I just missed the chance.  But there is a Meloydia recording out there somewhere. I must have missed it by a matter of minutes. Mikrokosmos often has obscure Russians, but I searched their database and Kalafati came up blank. It might have been them and they've sold it so its no longer listed but I really can't recall.
I guess you and I will just have to keep our eyes peeled. There's something out there somewhere. - Chris 

[semloh]

Just a note summarizing Kalafati's compositions:

Kalafati, Vassily Pavlovich (10th Feb. 1869 - 20th March 1942)
"Kalafati was one of the most important composers in Russia during his lifetime. He composed in a style which resembled that of Rimsky-Korsakov..... " (Wiki)

1894 Four Songs Op.1
1895 Songs for voice & piano, Op.2
1900 God's Little Bird does not Look after Pushkin for chorus and piano Op.3
1900 Piano sonata No.1 in D major Op.4
1900 Piano sonata No.2 in D minor Op.4
1901 Nocturne for piano La Nuit a Goursouf Op.5
1902 Two Novelettes for piano Op.6
1902 Five Preludes for piano Op.7
1906 Fantasy Overture for orchestra Op.8
1907 Three Bagatelles for piano Op.9
1909 Piano quintet Op.11
1912 Symphony in A minor Op.12
1913 Polonaise in F major for orchestra Op.14
1917 It Roars and Groans, the Wide Dneiper Musical picture for chorus and orchestra
1928 Legend Symphonic poem
1936 The Gypsies Suite after Pushkin for soloists, chorus and orchestra
1942 March for wind orchestra

Also (dates unavailable)
The Stars of the Kremlin Symphonic poem
Piano quartet 
String quartet No.1 in G minor
String quartet No.2 in F major
Octet
Choruses
Songs

It Roars it Groans, The Wide Dneiper is presumably based on the popular Ukrainian folksong of that name (Reve ta Stohne Dnipro Shyrokyi)
The Stars of the Kremlin not to be confused with a 1947 cantata by Marian Koval with the same title!.

Scores of most dated works at IMSLP. I can't find any recordings on Melodiya LPs as yet.

I suppose it is the symphony which might be of most interest to UC, as a potential late romantic composition.

[Christopher]

I suppose it is the symphony which might be of most interest to UC, as a potential late romantic composition.

That and the Legends symphonic poem which was awarded a prize at the 1928 International Schubert Competition.....

[FredericoR]

Hi Christopher,

Sorry to reopen a so old topic in my first reply here in the forum. I discovered this forum looking for more information about Kalafati and saw that you have seen some recordings of this composer, can you give me some clues of where could I find some of them (if they actually really do exist).

Also, I saw that one Greek pianist claims that she has recorded some works of him, however, I couldn't actually find them. Do any one knows anything about her?

Link for the place where she makes the claim: http://www.maryvoutsas.com/biography/

Thank you in advance,

[Alan Howe]

Here's a link to the recording - which contains some music for flute and piano by Kalafati:
http://greekchambermusic.bandcamp.com/releases
Perhaps someone could work out which of the tracks is/are by him?

[Christopher]

Hi FedericoR - no need to apologise, personally I always like it when an old discussion is re-opened.

Everything that I know about the Kalafati recordings (which are his orchestrations of three short pieces (one jointly with Glazunov) from Schumann's Carnaval suite) is contained above in this discussion. Other people have also added some info.  Private message me if you can't find the recordings (there are two different ones, at least) and I will see if I know of any on Discogs or elsewhere.

The CD "Magical Places" has an arrangement by Kalafati of Liadov's "Enchanted Lake" for piano duet - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magical-Places-Symphonic-Goldstone-Clemmow/dp/B0088BGM0K/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1441357580&sr=1-1&keywords=magical+places

Let me know if you find other pieces, especially orchestral.  Member ChrisDevonshirEllis here said (as you can see) that he has seen Melodiya records with Kalafati's music.

[Christopher]

Incidentally, the identity of the composer A. Petrov (orchestrator of the fourth movement of Carnaval, "Valse noble") seems to have been solved - see http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3035.msg47583.html#msg47583

[jerry.buszek]

Regarding the Carnaval by Schumann, I have the lp of the Irving, Philharmonia recording and the orchestrations are indicated as below:
1 - Preambule - Orch Arensky
2 - Pierrot - Orch Glazounov
3 - Arlequin - Orch Kalazati (sic)
4 - Valse noble - Orch Klenovsky
5 - Eusebius - Orch Liadov
6 - Florestan - Orch Petrov
7 - Coquette - Orch Rimsky-Korsakov
9 - Papillons - Orch Tcherepnin
10 - A.S.C.H. - S.C.H.A. - Orch Wihtol
11 - Chiarina - Orch Vinkler
(The orchestrators of nos. 12-20 are not known)

[Christopher]

jerry.buszek - see the first posting in this topic. It lists all the orchestrators.

[eschiss1]

If "Vinkler" is only identified by his last name, I assume some other information is used to disambiguate him to Aleksandr Winkler rather than Louis Winkler (who mostly did arrange, edit, etc.- Aleksandr did too, but also had a career as a composer of imhonesto interesting chamber music etc.), among other musicians of that homonymous surname...