- Sergei Koussevitzky
Dr. Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий) (
July 26 ,1874 –June 4 ,1951 ), was aRussia n-born conductor,composer , and double-bassist known for his long tenure asmusic director of theBoston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. (His forename is transliterated into English as either Sergei or Serge and his surname is transliterated as variously Koussevitzky, Koussevitsky, Kussevitzky or, into Polish as Kusewicki.)Biography
Early career
Koussevitzky was born into a poor
Jewish family, growing up inVyshny Volochyok ,Tver Oblast , about 250 km northwest ofMoscow . His parents were professional musicians who taught himviolin ,cello , andpiano . At the age of fourteen he received a scholarship to the Musico-Dramatic Institute in Moscow for the study ofdouble bass andmusic theory . He excelled at the bass, joining theBolshoi Theatre orchestra at the age of twenty and succeeding his teacher as the principal bassist at twenty-seven. In 1901, he made his début as a soloist in Moscow, and won critical acclaim for his firstBerlin recital in 1903. In 1902 he married his first wife, the dancer Nadezhda Galat. The same year he wrote a popularconcerto for the double bass. Koussevitzky divorced his first wife and married Natalie Ushkov, the daughter of an extremely wealthytea merchant, in 1905. At some time before this he had converted fromJudaism toChristianity . [cite journal | author=Colin Eatock | year=2003 | month=Spring | title=Serge Koussevitzky Discovers America | journal=Discourses in Music | volume=vol. 4 | issue=no. 2 | url=http://www.discourses.ca/v4n2a1.html | accessdate=2007-04-02] The couple moved toGermany . InBerlin Sergei studied conducting underArthur Nikisch , using his new-found wealth to pay off his teacher's gambling debts. [cite book | last=Lebrecht | first=Norman | pages=p. 135 | title=The Maestro Myth | location=Secaucus, NJ | publisher=Carol Publishing Group | year=1991 | isbn=1559721081]Conductor and publisher
In 1908 Koussevitzky made his professional début as a conductor, hiring and leading a concert with the
Berlin Philharmonic . The next year he founded his own orchestra in Moscow and branched out into the publishing business, forming his own firm and buying the catalogues of many of the greatest composers of the age. Among the composers published by Koussevitzky wereAlexander Scriabin ,Sergei Prokofiev ,Igor Stravinsky andNikolai Medtner . During the period 1909 to 1920 he established himself as a brilliant conductor in Europe. After the Russian Revolution, he returned to his homeland for a brief time to conduct the State Symphony Orchestra of Petrograd; in 1920, he made his way toParis , where he organized the Concerts Koussevitzky, presenting new works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky, andMaurice Ravel . In 1924 he moved to theUnited States , and would become a citizen in 1941.In America
Koussevitzky was appointed conductor of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1924, beginning a golden era for the ensemble that would continue until 1949. Over the next twenty-five years, he continued building the ensemble's reputation as a leading American orchestra, and developing its summer concert and educational programs atTanglewood . In the early 1940s, he discovered a young tenor named Alfredo Cocozza, who would later be known asMario Lanza , and provided him with a scholarship to attend Tanglewood. With the Boston Symphony he made numerous recordings, most of which were well-regarded by critics. His students and protégés includedLeonard Bernstein , Samuel Adler, andSarah Caldwell . Bernstein guest conducted the Boston Symphony, including the 1951 world premiere ofCharles Ives ' "Symphony No. 2". Bernstein's very last concert, in August 1990, was with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood.Champion of contemporary music
In 1922, Koussevitzky commissioned what has come to be known as one of the greatest and most popular examples of
orchestration in the repertoire, Maurice Ravel's arrangement ofModest Mussorgsky 's 1874 suite for piano, "Pictures at an Exhibition ". It was premiered in Paris in 1923, and quickly became the most famous and celebrated orchestration of the work that had ever been made. ConductorArturo Toscanini , who apparently had no great fondness for 19th century Russian music, considered the Mussorgsky-Ravel version of "Pictures" the greatest example of orchestration that had yet been produced, and performed and recorded the work forRCA Victor in 1953. Koussevitzky held the rights to this version for many years, and after his death, practically every celebrated conductor in existence recorded it.Koussevitzky was a great champion of modern music, commissioning a number of works from prominent composers. For the
Boston Symphony Orchestra 's 50th anniversary he commissioned Ravel's piano concerto,George Gershwin 's "Second Rhapsody ", Prokofiev's "Symphony No. 4", which Prokofiev later revised,Paul Hindemith 's "Concert Music for Strings and Brass", and Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms ", as well as works byAlbert Roussel andHoward Hanson .cite web | url=http://www.maurice-abravanel.com/koussevitzky_english.html | title=Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky | publisher=Wilfried D'hondt | author=Wilfried D'hondt | date=15 Oct 2003 | accessdate=2007-04-02]Legacy
In 1942 he founded the Koussevitzky Music Foundations whose charge is to foster and commission the performance of new work.
Benjamin Britten 'sopera "Peter Grimes ", Douglas Moore'sopera "The Ballad of Baby Doe ",Béla Bartók 's "Concerto for Orchestra",Aaron Copland 's "Symphony No. 3", andOlivier Messiaen 's "Turangalîla-Symphonie " are all direct results of the foundations.Following Koussevitzky's 1951 death, his widow, Olga Koussevitzky, presented double-bassist
Gary Karr with his double bass, previously believed to be fabricated in 1611 by brothers Antonio and Girolamo Amati. The instrument now bears the names of both Karr and Koussevitzky.Recordings
Sergei Koussevitzky recorded with the Boston Symphony exclusively for
RCA Victor , excepting a live recording made with Columbia (Roy Harris, "Symphony 1933") in Carnegie Hall, New York, during a concert on portable equipment. One quite notable early RCA session in Boston's Symphony Hall in 1929 was devoted to an early recording of Ravel's "Boléro ", and his very first sessions with the Boston orchestra of Beethoven's "Pastorale" Symphony and a suite from Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" were recorded in Symphony Hall in 1927. His younger brother Fabian "Sevitzky" conducted the Indianapolis Symphony during this same period, making several recordings of his own for RCA Victor.Some of Koussevitzky's later recordings, including performances of the second suite from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" (1945, Symphony Hall, Boston) and first (1947, Carnegie Hall, New York, a session that included Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony) and fifth symphonies (1945, Symphony Hall, Boston), were reportedly mastered on Victor's revolutionary sound film optical recording process, first employed in this way with the San Francisco Symphony in March, 1942.
His very last recordings, made in November 1950, on magnetic tape using RCA's proprietary RT-2 1/4-inch machines at 30 inches per second, were acclaimed performances of
Sibelius ' "Second Symphony" and Grieg's "The Last Spring". Both have been rereleased by RCA/BMG on CD in Taiwan. Some of Koussevitzky's performances at Tanglewood, including a very spirited Beethoven "Egmont" Overture, were also filmed during the 1940s.According to Music & Arts Programs of America, a number of the Boston Symphony's 78 rpm recordings with Koussevitzky were issued on the bargain RCA Camden label, originally released at US$1.98 for a 12-inch
LP album when similar top-of-the-line Red Seals were selling for US$5.98, in the early 1950s as the "Centennial Symphony Orchestra". One of the later albums featured Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Richard Srauss' "Til Eulenspiegel"; while the orchestra was again listed as the Centennial Symphony -- and the conductor not identified, the narrator, actorRichard Hale , inexplicably, was. Koussevitzky ultimately rerecorded the piece in Tanglewood with Eleanor Roosevelt during the summer of 1950 on magnetic tape; issued on three 45's and a 10-inch LP, it has never been rereleased in spite of the popularity of the Camden disc with Hale. Hale was also the narrator forArthur Fiedler 's 1953 RCA recording of the same music with theBoston Pops . RCA often reissued historic recordings from the RCA Victor catalog on its Camden label with fictitious orchestral names to avoid having them in direct competition with newer recordings by the same artists on RCA Victor's upscale Red Seal label.Notable premieres
In concert
*Scriabin, "", Moscow, March 2, 1911
*Ravel's orchestration ofModest Mussorgsky 's "Pictures at an Exhibition ", Paris, October 19, 1922
*Prokofiev, "First Violin Concerto" withMarcel Darrieux as soloist, Paris, October 18, 1923
*Prokofiev, "Second Symphony", Paris, June 6 1925
*Prokofiev, "Fourth Symphony", Boston, November 14, 1930
*George Gershwin, "Second Rhapsody ", Boston Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Boston, 29 January 1932
*Bartók, "Concerto for Orchestra", Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, New York, December 1, 1944
*Samuel Barber, "",Eleanor Steber as soloist, Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1948
*Copland "Appalachian Spring " (suite) Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1945On record
*Ravel's orchestration of
Mussorgsky 's "Pictures at an Exhibition ", Boston Symphony Orchestra, October 1930
*Sibelius, "Seventh Symphony",BBC Symphony Orchestra ,HMV , London, 1933
*Roy Harris , "Third Symphony", Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1939
*Berlioz, "Harold in Italy " withWilliam Primrose as soloist, 1946
*Copland, "Appalachian Spring" (suite), Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1946
*Haydn, Symphony No 94 In G (The "Surprise" Symphony), Boston Symphony Orchestraee also
References
External links
*IMSLP|id=Koussevitzky, Serge|cname=Sergei Koussevitzky
*allmusic|41:3416
* [http://www.koussevitzky.org/ Serge Koussevitzky] at the Koussevitzky Music Foundations
* [http://www.koussevitzky.net/ Serge Koussevitzky] at the Koussevitzky Recordings Society
* [http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/98_99season/4th_concert/leon.cfm Serge Koussevitzky concert notes] at theAmerican Symphony Orchestra
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Koussevitzky-Serge.htm Serge Koussevitzky biography] at theBach Cantatas Website
* [http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/messiaen/music/turangalila_boston.html / "Turangalîla-Symphonie"] A film about Messiaen's "Turangalîla-Symphonie". commissioned by the Koussevitzky foundation.
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