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Russian composer Alexander Krein (1883-1951)

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guest224
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« on: March 13, 2013, 02:24:45 pm »

I saw on a poster in the London Underground yesterday that St. Petersburg's Mikhaylovsky company will be touring in London from 26th March to 7 April and including the relatively unknown Russian composer Alexander Klein's ballet Laurencia in their repertoire.

You can hear some of it here - .  I am not sure what else of his orchestral works have been recorded - amazon shows only (as far as I can see) a CD called "Klein: After Scriabin" with a recording of his Symphony No.1 (op. 35)

Wikipedia:

Alexander Krein (Russian: Александр Абрамович Крейн; 20 October 1883 in Nizhny Novgorod – died April 1951 in Staraya Russa) was a Russian (Soviet) composer of Jewish heritage.

Background

The Krein family was steeped in the klezmer tradition; his father Abram (who moved to Russia from Lithuania in 1870) was a noted violinist . All of the seven Krein brothers received their first musical training from him and became musicians; Alexander and Grigori made names for themselves as composers, David gained a strong reputation as a violinist. Of the three Krein family composers, Alexander, his brother Grigori, and Grigori's son Julian, it is Alexander who composed the most music and thus to whom the most attention has been paid. After decades of posthumous neglect, however, his very name seems to have disappeared from international reference books.

Studies and career

In 1896, at the early age of 14, Alexander Krein entered the Moscow Conservatory where his studies included cello classes with Alexander von Glehn and composition lessons with Sergei Taneyev and Boleslav Yavorsky. His first works were published by P. Jurgenson in 1901. During the years immediately prior to the 1917 Revolution, he was on the faculty of the People's Conservatory in Moscow. In 1917, he was appointed as director of the artistic wing of the Muzo-Narkompros, the music section of a newly formed ministry of arts and aducation. Throughout the 1920s, Krein was widely regarded as the leader of a Jewish national school in Russia (which included his brother Grigori and his nephew Julian). Among those he influenced were minor composers such as Sinovii Feldman. After the formation of the Soviet Union, he held a variety of official and semi-official music administration posts. He died April 1951 in Staraya Ruza.

Style

Krein's pioneering spirit had lead him to incorporate the intonations and styles of both sacred and secular Jewish music into a relatively advanced idiom that was as influended by French impressionism as it was by the music of his friend Alexander Scriabin.[1] Krein's own Jewish heritage was a constant source of inspiration; there are a number of instrumental works whose titles bear quite obvious witness to this, such as the Caprice Hebraique, Op. 24, and the Jewish Sketches for clarinet and string quartet. In 1921, he composed Kaddish for tenor soloist, choir, and orchestra. From the mid-'20s on, he also wrote music for plays given by Moscow's Jewish Drama Theater. There is also a large amount of music that is either purely classical in design or Soviet in nature. In the latter category are works like the revolutionary opera Zagmuk (1930), the Threnody in Memory of Lenin (1925), and the somewhat amusingly titled U.S.S.R., Shock Brigade of the World Proletariat (1925).

Selected works

Prologue for viola and piano, op. 2a (1902–1911/1927)
Five Préludes for piano, op. 3 (1903–1906)
Poème Quator for string quartet, op. 9 (1909)
Jewish Sketches for clarinet and string quartet, op. 12 (1909, reprinted 2008 by Edition Silvertrust)
Elegy for violin, cello and piano, op. 16 (1913)
3 Lieder des Ghetto (3 Songs from the Ghetto) for soprano and piano, op. 23
Sei mir Schwesterlein (1916)
Wo bist du? (1917)
Eine Träne (1915–1916)
Caprice Hebraïque, Op. 24
Kaddisch, Symphonic Cantata for tenor, mixed choir and large orchestra, op. 33 (1921–1922)
Symphony No.1 for large orchestra, op. 35 (1922–1925)
Piano Sonata (1925)
2 Hebräische Lieder (2 Hebrew Songs) for voice and piano, op. 39 (1926)
Trauer-Ode for large orchestra, op. 40 (1925–1926)
Aria for violin and piano, op. 41 (1927)
Ornamente (Орнаменти, Три песни без слов), 3 Songs without Words for voice and piano, op. 42 (1924/1927)
Jewish Melody for cello and piano, op. 43 (1928)
Zagmuk, opera (1929–1930)
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Gauk
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« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2013, 11:11:59 pm »

Oh, now I have heard some of his music, whether on CD or radio I forget. If CD, it is not the "After Scriabin" one. I need to check.

... Checked - a radio broadcast of Symphony No 1, possibly, if not probably, from CD. I also have a CD of music by his nephew Julian Krein (1913-1996), hence the confusion. The symphony, if I recall aright, was rather acceptable.
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Leea25
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« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2013, 03:35:10 pm »

Quite a few pieces have been recorded and released on CD, I believe, including the Symphony Op.35, piano sonata and a few other piano works. The Elegie Op.16 for piano trio is slight, but very beautiful. The sheet music is available from Edition Silvertrust (please correct me if I have that wrong!). I have to confess to rather liking his music.

Lee
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« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2013, 05:36:14 pm »

Quite a few pieces have been recorded and released on CD, I believe, including the Symphony Op.35, piano sonata and a few other piano works. The Elegie Op.16 for piano trio is slight, but very beautiful. The sheet music is available from Edition Silvertrust (please correct me if I have that wrong!). I have to confess to rather liking his music.

Lee
Confess?  Where do you think you are?  The 'other' forum?  ;D
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kyjo
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« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2013, 11:17:23 pm »

I own the After Scriabin disc on the Largo label, and greatly enjoy it. The music (as the title suggests) contains echoes of Scriabin (especially in Piano Sonata), along with melodies and harmonies influenced by Krein's Jewish heritage (a quite appealing mixture indeed). The Symphony no. 1, especially, is a real find-a powerful piece of music indeed! There are also various shorter pieces of his scattered across other discs. I should certainly like to hear more of his music, especially his Symphony no. 2 and other orchestral works.
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Dundonnell
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« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2013, 11:25:40 pm »

Quite a few pieces have been recorded and released on CD, I believe, including the Symphony Op.35, piano sonata and a few other piano works. The Elegie Op.16 for piano trio is slight, but very beautiful. The sheet music is available from Edition Silvertrust (please correct me if I have that wrong!). I have to confess to rather liking his music.

Lee
Confess?  Where do you think you are?  The 'other' forum?  ;D

 :) :) :)
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guest224
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« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2013, 10:28:32 pm »

There are also various shorter pieces of his scattered across other discs. I should certainly like to hear more of his music, especially his Symphony no. 2 and other orchestral works.


Hi Kyjo - are any of these orchestral, or are they all chamber/solo?
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kyjo
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« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2013, 10:44:14 pm »

To my knowledge, the only orchestral work of Krein's that has been recorded is his Symphony no. 1. I would be glad to be proved wrong!
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guest224
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« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2013, 10:52:55 pm »

To my knowledge, the only orchestral work of Krein's that has been recorded is his Symphony no. 1. I would be glad to be proved wrong!

There's a full-length recording of his Lavrencia ballet on the intoclassics.net website, though I am not sure of its provenance....
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kyjo
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« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2013, 12:05:47 am »

Being in Russian, this website is very difficult to navigate for me :( Can anyone help? That would be greatly appreciated :)
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t-p
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« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2013, 04:58:34 pm »

 I only know Krein ballet Laurencia. it was staged in Bolshoi.

I found some music on youtube. It sounds a bit like Scriabin (or under his influence) maybe.



Here is a clarinet quintet.
 


There are other clips there on youtube.

I didn't try Russian site yet. I don't have Russian Alphabet here.  It looks like one has to justclick on the picture and there should be audio.
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guest224
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« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2013, 10:12:57 am »

Being in Russian, this website is very difficult to navigate for me :( Can anyone help? That would be greatly appreciated :)

It's here - http://intoclassics.net/news/2012-01-22-26763  -  and then click on here - http://files.mail.ru/CYU1PX  -  the format however is APE, whatever that is.  Do let us know if you can convert that to MP3!

Mikhailovsky Theatre Orchestra, Valentin Bogdanov
recorded live 20 January 2012


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guest145
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« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2013, 01:21:31 pm »

Actually, this file hoster has changed their method of allocating link addresses. In order to successfully access the Krein file you need to use this address instead: http://files.mail.ru/CYU1PXCYU1PXCYU1PXCYU1PXCYU1PXXX.
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guest145
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« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2013, 01:26:49 pm »

Quote
the format however is APE, whatever that is.  Do let us know if you can convert that to MP3!

APE is a file compression format. You can decompress and convert it to MP3, WAV, or whatever else you might want by downloading and installing on your computer the free software at this site: www.monkeysaudio.com/download.html. Then, follow the instructions to select and decompress the desired file(s).
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guest224
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« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2013, 11:47:23 pm »

Being in Russian, this website is very difficult to navigate for me :( Can anyone help? That would be greatly appreciated :)

It's here - http://intoclassics.net/news/2012-01-22-26763  -  and then click on here - http://files.mail.ru/CYU1PX  -  the format however is APE, whatever that is.  Do let us know if you can convert that to MP3!

Mikhailovsky Theatre Orchestra, Valentin Bogdanov
recorded live 20 January 2012

I'm sorry to sound like a total incompetent, but my laptop seems to be unable to convert this to mp3.  Has anyone been able to make this conversion, and if so would they be able to share it?  Many thanks if so!
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