Description

LEOKADIYA ALEKSANDROVNA KASHPEROVA (LYUBIM, 16 MAY 1872 – MOSCOW, 3 DECEMBER 1940)

Leokadiya Kashperova was born in Lyubim, near Yaroslavl in 1872. She graduated first in 1893 from the St Petersburg Conservatoire at the culmination of her studies in Anton Rubinstein’s piano class, and a second time, in 1895, after studying composition with Nicolai Soloviev, conducting her cantata Orvasi. Over the following years, she composed works which included a symphony, a piano concerto, choral works, chamber music, piano solos and art-songs. Her works received public recognition, for example, The Russian Musical Gazette noted in 1912: “Her gifts as a composer are a most welcome phenomenon of St Petersburg’s musical life”. For some time, she hosted regular musical evenings at her apartment in St Petersburg on Tuesdays. In 1907 she undertook concert tours, to Berlin and twice to London. In 1916, Kashperova became a teacher at the Smolny Institute, there she met Sergei Andropov, who was her student and a Bolshevik Leader, and in the same year they married. However, when the February Revolution began, the Smolny Institute was being used as the headquarters for the revolution, to save themselves from being arrested the couple left Petrograd to the Rostov-on-Don. From 1918-20 she moved to Moscow (due to the Bolshevik success), but rarely performed until her final solo recital, an all-Beethoven programme, was given on 30 November 1920. From then to her death, she composed in secret and became forgotten in the Soviet public. She was the piano teacher of composer Igor Stravinsky. By the time she died she was mostly remembered by Stravinsky who called her “antiquated and a blockhead”.

TRACKLIST

WELTE-MIGNON 2036 BALAKIREV – Gondollied (Boat Song), b

WELTE-MIGNON 2162 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b lst mvt

WELTE-MIGNON 2163 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b 2nd mvt.

WELTE-MIGNON 2164 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b 3rd mvt.