Description

LUBKA KOLESSA (LJUBOV OLEKSANDRIVNA KOLESSA; LEMBERG, GALICIA, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, NOW LVIV, UKRAINE, MAY 19, 1902 – TORONTO, CANADA, AUGUST 15, 1997)

 

 

 

 

Lubka Kolessa came from a musical family in which there were several composers and a cellist. Her uncle Filaret Kolessa was a well-known ethno-musicologist who devoted himself to researching Ukrainian folk music, her cousin Mykola Kolessa was an important Ukrainian composer and conductor, her sister Chrystia (Vienna 1916 – Ottawa 1978) was an important cellist. Lubka Kolessa received her first lessons from her grandmother, who had studied piano with a Chopin student. In 1904 the family moved to Vienna because her father, the university professor Oleksandr Kolessa, had been elected as a member of the Austrian Reichsrat. In Vienna she studied at the Music Academy in Vienna with Louis Thern and Emil von Sauer. What was spectacular in 1918 was when the just 16-year-old was awarded the Austrian State Prize and the Bösendorfer Prize. In 1920 she received her diploma. On March 14, 1924, she made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. The young pianist now played as a soloist with the best orchestras and conductors in Europe and soon acquired the reputation of an outstanding soloist. She gave concerts in Berlin almost every year. In 1928 she undertook a triumphant tour to her homeland, then Soviet Ukraine, to which she felt strong ties. In late 1928 she was the last classical pianist in Freiburg im Breisgau to record six pieces on piano rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano, including Nestor Nyžankovskij’s Variations on a Ukrainian Folksong. In 1929 and 1930 she attended master classes with Eugen d’Albert, who greatly influenced her style. Kolessa went to England in 1937. On May 21, 1937, she performed a concert on British television in Ukrainian national costume. In 1938 she undertook a very successful tour of South America. Until 1939 she also gave concerts on the European continent and in the same year recorded a series of discs for His Master’s Voice in Germany. On March 13, 1939, two days before the German troops marched in, she married the British diplomat Tracy Philipps in Prague. At the peak of her career as a concert pianist, she moved from England to Ottawa , Canada in 1940 . From 1942 she taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music inToronto , from 1955 to 1966 at the École de Musique Vincent-d’Indy in Montreal, from 1960 to 1971 at Montreal’s McGill University and in 1959 and 1960 in New York at the Ukrainian Music Institute and also the Conservatoire de Musique et d’Art Dramatique de la Province of Quebec. She gave numerous concerts in North and South America and was considered one of the best and most sought-after pianists on the continent. In 1954 she played again in Europe, among other things she appeared again with the Berlin Philharmonic, then largely ended her concert activities and devoted herself primarily to her teaching activities. Her students included Composers like Clermont Pépin and John Hawkins, conductors like Mario Bernardi and pianists like Howard Brown. In 2003, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2002, a scholarship was established in her memory at McGill University, the Lubka Kolessa Piano Scholarship Fund.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Beethoven / Hummel – Lubka Kolessa, Sächsischen Staatskapelle, Karl Böhm – Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 In C-Moll, Op. 37 / Rondo Es-Dur

Electrola – D.B. 5506 – D.B. 5510

5 x Shellac, 12″, 78 RPM, Album

Germany

Classical

Romantic

Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 In C-Moll, Op. 37

Composed By – Beethoven

Orchestra – Sächsische Staatskapelle

A 1. Satz: Allegro Con Brio (1. Teil)

B 1. Satz: Allegro Con Brio (2. Teil)

C 1. Satz: Allegro Con Brio (3. Teil)

D 1. Satz: Allegro Con Brio (Schluß)

E 2. Satz: Largo (1. Teil)

F 2. Satz: Largo (2. Teil)

G 2. Satz: Largo (Schluß)

H 2. Satz: Rondo (Allegro) (1. Teil)

I 2. Satz: Rondo (Allegro) (Schluß)

J Rondo In Es-Dur

Composed By – Hummel

Label – Electrola Gesellschaft mbH

Conductor – Karl Böhm

Piano – Lubka Kolessa

 

Capriccio in B-dur (Scarlatti)

HMV D.A. 4454 ORA 3389

 

Variationen über ein thema von Gluck. Nr. 1-7 (Mozart)

HMV D.B. 4621 2RA 3392

 

Grande Valse Op. 42 (Chopin)

Ultraphon A274 10343