Michal JELSKI

[Richard Moss]

Just came across this on YOUTUBE.  A (short?) violin concerto (or part thereof) by Michal Jelski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouUga5XM-gc

Apart from him getting a very brief mention (IIRC!!!) in a previous post about Bobinski et al PCs, I've never heard of him (and couldn't find anything else either with quick paddle and nothing else on UC either).

If anyone can add any light (or extension) to this lovely but short taster - either the man or his music - it would be much appreciated.

Best wishes and stay safe

Richard

[eschiss1]

Wikipedia in Polish.

[Alan Howe]

The YouTube video has this:

Michał Jelski (Alexander‏ Karlavič Elski?) (1831-1904) - Violin concerto no 2, Lev Gorelik (Belarusian violinist), Symphony Orchestra of the Belarusian Radio and Television, Anatoly Lapunov (conductor)

Michał Jelski (b. Dudzicze, near Minsk, 8 Oct 1831; d. Rusinowicze, near Vilnius, Jan 1904) was a violinist, composer and writer on music. He studied with W. Bańkiewicz in Vilnius and in the 1850s he played in Kiev and Minsk. Then he has decided to improve his performance skills and musical education abroad. From 1860 studied the violin with Lipiński in Dresden, composition with well-known German composer and conductor Franz Lachner in Munich, and violin with the famous Belgian virtuoso Henri Vieuxtemps in Paris, with which it is bound by sincere friendship. From 1861 to 1879 he has given concerts in Kraków, Wrocław, Paris, Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Berlin. The repertoire consisted of the most famous works of the violin music at the time, of Bach, Viotti, Paganini, Vieuxtemps, Ernst, Lipiński, de Bériot, Spohr.
In 1884 he appeared in the Warsaw Music Society, and then he made a new tour of Germany. In 1902 a big concert in Dudzicze said half-century of his concerts activity.
He was the author of over 100 musical works, among them - two violin concertos, fantasies on original themes, fantasy themes of Polish folk music, the Sonata-Fantasia, Fantasia "Spring" concert, mazurkas, polonaises a large number of variations and miniatures. His music is showing a vivid imagination, virtuosity, and sublime melodic richness. Composer paid also a great attention to the Belarusian folklore, collected and recorded examples of instrumental folklore of the Minsk oblast.(Compilation of approximate translations, made with Google Translator, of short texts from Polish and Belarusian)

[eschiss1]

Alexander was his brother. Michał and Alexander Karlovich Jelski - sons of Karl.

[Richard Moss]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Following the text Alan noted, I was prompted to look (for the first time!) at the comments below the piece of music on the YOUTUBE link and there I found a few extra snippets under the 'Comments' heading.  Apparently the recording was made available by the soloist's daughter, Maria Gorelik, who notes she had some other recordings when she has the chance to upload them.

As one of the commentators noted - more of a rhapsody than a concerto but very lovely all the same.

I wonder if there was any further repertoire recorded on Melodya - they seemed to have recorded (at least on LPs) anything and everything 'classical' composed by anyone who ever lived within the old USSR borders.

Cheers

Richard

[eschiss1]

Slow movement of Jelski's 2nd concerto?

[Richard Moss]

Eric,

Tks v much for digging this out.  Translating the uploader's notes (via Google auto-translate using BeloRussian - see below) says it is part of Concert (concerto?) 2.  From the sound of it (to my untutored ears) it feels more like the finale (or 2nd/3rd movements combined?) but a bit short at under 4 minutes if the latter.

The Google translation gives the following:

Victor Pavlov  28 subscribers

Michal Jelski was born on October 8, 1831 in the village of Dudichi, Pukhovichi district, Minsk region - a Belarusian violinist, composer, music writer. Author of about 100 works, including 2 concerts, Sonatas-fantasy, fantasy "Spring", Brilliant fantasy on original themes, violin and piano polynesia, mazurkas, miniatures (the first works - "Violin miniatures" - were published in 1852 in Kiev ).

Hopefully more of this work or his others will come to light in due course

Many thanks

Richard

[Gareth Vaughan]

If you listen to the YouTube link provided by Richard at the start of this thread, you will hear, I think, that Eric's link gives you the 2nd and 3rd movts, whereas Richard's offers the whole work. It is, indeed, quite a short concerto.
I wonder what has happened to Jelski's 1st violin concerto, by the way.

[eschiss1]

Ah. Thanks.
Does anyone have a copy of the large but incomplete (even then ) Melodiya Discography book?

[Christopher]

Several of the Jelski family's works are included on the rare (unique?) 13-CD Anthology of Belarusian Music that I have mentioned elsewhere on here which I picked up in Minsk in 2012. The 49-page booklet that came with the anthology is saved here - https://www.mediafire.com/file/bweyhvpzu7k0c4r/Belarus_anthology_booklet.pdf/file - see pages 25-26 for information on Karal (1780-1855), Alyaksandr (1834-1916) and Mikhail (1831-1904) - the surname is rendered as Yelsky (and Belarusian spellings for the first names are sometimes used). The family were of minor nobility from around Minsk, hence Belarusians can and do also "claim" them (and why not).  The list of works recorded in the anthology is on page 32.

[Richard Moss]

Christopher - many thanks for the booklet details
Best wishes
Richard

[Christopher]

I see that the daughter of the violinist in that concerto has also posted up the same composer's Dance of Spirits - Concert Mazurka for violin and orchestra - also with her father (Lev Gorelik) on the violin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV6opHHesZw

[Richard Moss]

Christopher,

Thanks for spotting this link too.  To my untutored ears, this is not nearly so melodic as his Vln conc but still nice to have it available.  Let's hope more of Mr Yelski's works come to light in the future.  As the moderators et al  here have pointed out, much unsung music is that for a good reason.  However, it is still nice for these composers to have their 'day in the sun' of re-discovery.

Cheers

Richard

[Christopher]

There's also this - his Dance of Death - quite a jolly piece despite the name!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlBWG1-gnAc

And Dance of the Spirits concert mazurka - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0DH0r2aFqU

[Christopher]

A contact of mine in Belarus has sent me a Belarus Radio recording of Michał Jelski's Dance of Death, orchestrated (violin+orchestra).  I don't know if the orchestration was done by the composer or someone else. I have put it in the Downloads section.