Kalafati (Russian of Greek descent) has been mentioned in passing in other threads, though there hasn't been a thread set up just for him, so I thought I would start one as I have seen that someone has recently posted on youtube his Nocturne (op.) which at 11 mins is a not-insubstantial piece. It would be nice if this sparks interest in his orchestral works. The piece is subtitled "La nuit à Goursouff" - Gurzuf (or Hurzuf) is a resort and town near Yalta in Crimea, part of Ukraine. Kalafati was born nearby in Yevpatoria.
As noted before, when wikipedia and other entries say things like "Kalafati was one of the most important composers in Russia during his lifetime", curiosity is piqued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpdbJcq1OxE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpdbJcq1OxE)
The wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Kalafati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Kalafati) - details a couple of other recordings in the footnotes.
Do complete parts exist somewhere for his symphony, btw?
that was published by Belaieff and the parts can be rented from CF Peters or the Free Library in PA
Quote from: dhibbard on Friday 06 December 2019, 14:08
that was published by Belaieff and the parts can be rented from CF Peters or the Free Library in PA
?
Is that online or hard copy only?
Any idea about his symphonic poem "Legenda" for which he won a prize at the 1928 International Schubert Competition
The Fleisher Collection of music in the Free Library of Philadelphia is a substantial repository of orchestral scores and parts, and should be the first port of call for orchestral sets of works by any "unsung" composer. They rent (very cheaply) their materials in hard copy only for performance. The catalog URL is: https://know.freelibrary.org/ (https://know.freelibrary.org/) They do not have the Legenda but do hold 2 other orchestral works: the Overture-Fantaisie (pub. 1906) and the Polonaise, Op. 14. They also have the Piano Quintet, Op. 11.
YEs.. the Free Library was where Bortkiewicz sent several works before he fled from Ukraine. They discovered them in 2010.
Presumably the Conservatories in Moscow and St. Petersburg have a lot of scores. How to access them is another question.
Another piano piece I found on youtube:
Prelude in B♭ minor, Op. 7 No. 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJpO8IJmU0w (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJpO8IJmU0w)
Here's the reduction for piano 4-hands of Kalafati's Symphony in A minor, Op.12 of 1912:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony%2C_Op.12_(Kalafati%2C_Vasily) (https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony%2C_Op.12_(Kalafati%2C_Vasily))
It seems a string quartet called L'Anima play his music sometimes:
http://www.megaron.gr/default.asp?la=2&pid=5&evID=3303 (http://www.megaron.gr/default.asp?la=2&pid=5&evID=3303)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeBTuMaZsiw&app=desktop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeBTuMaZsiw&app=desktop) - these are both advertisements about a concert in Athens in November 2016. If anyone has Greek language capabilities, perhaps they could do a search to see if a recording was made of the performance...
Also - this Russian site https://www.greekmos.ru/vasiliy_kalafati/ (https://www.greekmos.ru/vasiliy_kalafati/) - states that "As part of the Greek music festival, held May 7, 2005 in the Athens Palace of Music, the Quintet of Calafati was performed."
The final piece in this symphonic concert entitled "Leningraders: 900 Days in the Name of Life" ("ЛЕНИНГРАДЦЫ. 900 ДНЕЙ ВО ИМЯ ЖИЗНИ") is a march by Kalafati called "Stars of the Kremlin". It's about 5 minutes long.
The concert in 2014 marked 70 years since the end of the Siege of Leningrad. The music chosen was written by composers living, and in some cases dying, under the Siege.
Some of the other pieces (highlighted) in the concert possibly hint at unsungs of interest to this website:
Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky - overture-poster for the opera "Leningraders"
Dmitry Shostakovich - "Oath to the Addict" - Yuri Laptev
Valery Zhelobinsky - "A man bent over the water" - Zlata Bulycheva
Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky - folk scene from the opera "Leningraders"
Alexander Kamensky (1900-1952) - Heroic Partisan March - Ekaterina Mechetina
Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky - concert for violin and orchestra. Part I - Mikhail Gantvarg
Yuri Kochurov - Heroic Aria - Zlata Bulycheva
Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky - intermission and scene in the bomb shelter from the opera "Leningraders" - Lyudmila Dudinova
Yulia Weisberg (1880-1942) - lullaby from the opera Geese-Swans - Evdokia Malevskaya
Boris Asafiev (1884-1949) - choral miniature "Holy God"
Boris Goltz (1913-1942) - "A Star Shines High in the Sky" - Zlata Bulycheva
Boris Asafiev - "Maybe I Will Die" - Lyudmila Dudinova
Nikolay Myaskovsky (1881-1950) - cantata "Kirov is with us" - Yuri Laptev
Vasily Kalafati (1869-1942) - solemn march "Kremlin Stars"
https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/61446/ (https://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/61446/)
Audacity makes my laptop stop working. Would anyone be willing to record that concert as an mp3 and then I will divide it up into the various pieces and post the ones which might be of interest...
More on Kalafati and two other 19th century Russian composers of Greek descent can be found here. The other two are Alferaki and Zolotarev (whose real surname was Kuyumzhi.)
https://users.ionio.gr/~GreekMus/pubgr/OperaGreekWorld19.pdf (https://users.ionio.gr/~GreekMus/pubgr/OperaGreekWorld19.pdf)
from page 26
"The contribution of the Hellenic diaspora to the formation of the Russian opera in the 19th and the early 20th century", by Stanimira Dermendzhieva
part of a 300-page publication called "OPERA AND THE GREEK WORLD DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY"
QuoteWould anyone be willing to record that concert as an mp3 and then I will divide it up into the various pieces and post the ones which might be of interest...
. I'll do what I can, but it won't be for a little while.
Thanks Mark!
regarding parts etc... if you locate the complete orchestral score, it can be scanned as a pdf and then uploaded with the Photoscore software into Sibelius software. Sibelius can print off the parts if you locate an orchestra to play the parts. Once it is loaded up in Sibelius, it can be played with the software Note Performer. (see Martin's rendition of Zolotarev's on YouTube).
So.. perhaps all these unplayed music scores in the various libraries of the world can eventually be converted to a virtual performance.
Unless Sibelius is remarkably sophisticated at score ---> parts conversion, it's not only easy to guess but already easy to see what goes wrong (that "f" that occurs once in the whole string section of the -score- that needs however separately to occur in each string part only gets placed in the first violin part, to give one of many bad examples :) )
Yes. Sibelius is pretty sophisticated but human intervention is always required when it comes to producing parts from a score in order to avoid just the sort of error Eric describes. And tidying up the placing of "hairpins", rehearsal numbers, etc.
So here's an intriguing thing:
I did some digging and found this - https://www.artandlife.gr/athens/events/filarmonia_orxistra_athinon_rosia_kai_ellada_moysikoi_kai_pneymatikoi_desmoi (https://www.artandlife.gr/athens/events/filarmonia_orxistra_athinon_rosia_kai_ellada_moysikoi_kai_pneymatikoi_desmoi) - google translate reveals that "January 8, 2017 - Athens Philharmonic Orchestra "Russia and Greece: Music and Spiritual Ties"
Tchaikovsky, Kalinikov, Arensky and Vassilis Kalafatis of Greek origin are the composers honored by the Philharmonic in its fourth consecutive appearance, the first of the new year.
The theme of the fourth concert is dedicated to the close cultural relations between Greece and Russia. Initially presents three important works of great Russian composers who are relatively unknown to the Greek public:
• The Melancholic Serenade for violin and orchestra PI Tchaikovsky,
• The Symphony of "Cedar and the Phoenix" by V. Kalinnikov
• A. Arensky's "Variations on a Tchaikovsky Theme"
The program will close with the Symphony in La minor, Op. 12, by Vassili Kalafati,"
The Tchaikovsky, Kalinnikov and Arensky performances are all on youtube (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc3XS3sIPDA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc3XS3sIPDA) , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5v4ITvtk9I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5v4ITvtk9I) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwgapK4kn4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwgapK4kn4) respectively) - but I cannot for the life of me find a recording on youtube of the Kalafati. But it surely MUST have been recorded given that the rest of the concert was.
Other research has revealed that the same orchestra played Kalafati's Polonaise in 2017, and that The State Athens Orchestra performed his Legenda in 2006.
Hhmmm.
On this youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5v4ITvtk9I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5v4ITvtk9I) - which is a performance of Kalinnikov's "The Cedar and the Palm" at the 17 January 2017 concert mentioned above where the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra also played Kalafati's symphony, I wrote a comment asking whether a recording of the latter was also available.
The Athens Philharmonic has replied, saying Thank you! The record of Kalafatis will be available in the summer of 2020. More info then! - so let's wait and see....
That's very good news, Christopher. Well done on sniffing it out!
Yes, well done indeed.
yes well done !!
QuoteYes. Sibelius is pretty sophisticated but human intervention is always required when it comes to producing parts from a score in order to avoid just the sort of error Eric describes. And tidying up the placing of "hairpins", rehearsal numbers, etc.
Yes it takes a human to review measure by measure of the original score to be sure it matches exactly.. that is what is time intensive about it.. once that is completed, the score will play the music as intended.
The Symphony, and other works by Kalafati, will be available from Naxos at the end of this month. See here (https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/NX%204132) for details.
Here's an appreciative review at MusicWeb:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Aug/Kalafati-symphony-8574132.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Aug/Kalafati-symphony-8574132.htm)
A little perenthesis about Photoscore versus Sibelius:
I am trying since years that this works properly, but it's a complete desaster as far as just a bit more complicated scores are concerned. They even say that handwritten scores can be read - fiddlesticks! One spends less time to re-enter a score anew directly with Sibelius!
Sadly there are no magic shortcuts here. Note by note and a bit of copy/pasting if you're lucky is the only way. :-\
And so back to Kalafati...
Quote from: Alan Howe on Sunday 16 August 2020, 12:36
Here's an appreciative review at MusicWeb:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Aug/Kalafati-symphony-8574132.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Aug/Kalafati-symphony-8574132.htm)
I just received this new CD from Naxos and finished listening to the symphony for the first time. It's really delightful to listen to it. I enjoy it much more than other "russian" symphonies like the one by Kopylov.
I haven't yet listened to my copy, but I do hope that is indeed a better example of the Russian symphony than Kopylov's, which has always struck me as a particularly characterless and pallid affair.
I wanted to enjoy the Kopylov but was let down,I´m afraid. My copy of the Kalafati is somewhere on the way to me in Spain. I hope it arrives soon.
Mine is taking frustratingly long to arrive >:(
I've got mine today - and I am really enjoying it :-)
My copy arrived too - a pleasure yet to come...
...but not a huge revelation. Nevertheless this is a most attractive, well-written symphony, with some memorable melodic material. Occasionally I thought the working-out of the material in the opening movement a little dutiful, but the climaxes, when reached, are certainly powerful. There is a sprightly Scherzo, placed second, followed by a deeply-felt Adagio featuring a melancholy cor anglais solo and a gorgeous string-led purple passage around five minutes in leading to some powerful writing. There seems to be an all-pervasive Russian sense of sadness about this movement that is really quite touching. The finale begins with fugal writing evidently attempting to dispel the melancholy of the previous movement and continues with some lively writing, referencing the opening of the work and eventually ending in triumphant affirmation.
The performance is evidently well prepared and the orchestra/conductor clearly believe in the worth of this very unsung symphony. Recommended!
I agree with you, Alan, on the Adagio, especially in amazement of the clarinets, cor anglais and emotional yet not too sentimental strings. It certainly moves from sadness, which reminds me of Glazunov and a bit of George Templeton Strong, to what I imagine to be a bewilderment of beauty through "starry strings" around that 5 minute mark (reminds me of Felix Blumenfeld's final movement from his symphony), then back to bleak sadness. Not sure how else to describe it besides that.
The album is available for download from Amazon, for those who are too impatient to wait like me.
https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-Minor-Department-University-Athens/dp/B08BDMKZLK (https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-Minor-Department-University-Athens/dp/B08BDMKZLK)
Alan sums up my reaction, too. I am glad we have this music available; it certainly merits the positive reviews it has received.
This is one of the least succesful recent Naxos releases IMO. All the works sounded predictable, with no distinctive material, rather like Stanford in places or Glazunov but down-watered. That symphony is too long for its material too. I save the Polonaise for its spark and vivacity. The other works didn't work for me.
I liked the Symphony rather more, for the reasons given, but there is certainly more deserving unrecorded music out there. Wilhelm Berger comes to mind...
A week ago or so, I also posted a not all too positive "review" of Kalafati's Symphony, in which I also used the term "à la Glazunov". I withdraw this posting after having read Alan's and Justin's - knowing that often I am too severe...
I think you may be right, Adriano. I liked it, but I'm not sure how good it really is...
Honestly, Alan, with all my respect towards the composer's skills, I find this Symphony pretty boring and not very original. This made me, so far, not wanting to carry on listening to the remaining pieces...
Off-thread, I know: I have been always interested in music from Greece; I like the Symphonies by Manolis Kalomiris (the two first ones were available on LP) and his opera "Mother's Ring". For a short time I was in contact with Manos Hadjidakis. He had asked Marco Polo to send him my address. In December 1992 I received a letter congratulating me for the CD of Honegger's "Les Misérables" and for "the real meaning of your work on film score revival". And on New Year 1993 he sent me a beautiful wish card. Later on followed a gift parcel with the LP of his opera-ballet "Les Oiseaux", which is an excellent piece.
I also like the music of Dimitri Mitropoulos; since years I am in desperate search of the recording of his opera "Soeur Béatrice"...
I suspect that Kalafati was just too early to be much of a musical personality in his own right.
My copy finally escaped the Spanish postal system yesterday. I have played it all through once, and the third movement of the symphony - which I think is the most striking -a second time. Not sure that I would have awarded second place in that competition to the Legends piece. It meandered for ages.
I also played the disc some days ago without being too excited. The date of composition of the symphony is given as 1899–1912, however it seems that 1899, rev. 1912 is more adequate, in any case it was Kalafati's graduation piece from conservatory in 1899 and 1912 is the year in which it was revised (or at least the revision was completed). Indeed, it does sound like a graduation piece in places, in particular the first movement. I was surprised that it actually does not even sound too Russian in parts, once again in particular the first movement. However, in the later movements there are some elements of national romanticism indeed which might recall Glazunov in a watered-down manner. The MusicWeb review also compares it to Kalinnikov and besides the fact that the two composers were of about the same age, that's something I do not really understand – all in all, I can hardly hear Kalinnikov's subtle lyricism, melodic gift and orchestral colourfulness in this work, it's much more straightforward and less inspired. One exception might be the slow movement indeed, which I also consider to be still the finest one. However, all in all I was not too impressed, and I would agree the symphony is too long. Anyway, I am glad the piece was recorded as I am always happy to add one more late-Romantic Russian symphony to my collection if only to round up the picture. However it's nothing essential in my view.
When I began playing the Legend I initially thought it might be more interesting, the years in between are audible as the harmonic language is more advanced, for instance, moreover there are some details of orchestration which are new (like a piano in the orchestra). However, my first impression later cooled down since the piece is much too long and meanders for ages indeed. I wouldn't give much on the fact that it was awarded second place in the Schubert competition, the first place was awarded to Mikhail Chernov who is completely unknown today and I don't know of any other Russian composer to have participated (for sure there were 42 participants from Russia but so far I have not heard about any well-known name who contributed).
The Polonaise is much smaller in scale, a typical official and occasional piece, it's a nice listen, maybe also because it does not promise more than it fulfills.
My copy finally arrived yesterday. My first thought on the Legend piece is that it sounds like film music (for a fantasy-type movie - Danny Elfman sprang to mind) - this isn't a criticism, not least as Kalafati pre-dates most film music. It's certainly an unusual piece in terms of "what is it"? Not a symphony, not an overture or tone-poem, etc... I agree re the above comment on the polonaise - a typical "official" piece with bombast. I haven't listened all the way through the symphony yet.
Today, there is another review on Musicweb. You will understand its profundity when you read the section about the Polonaise.
Quote from: terry martyn on Thursday 17 September 2020, 09:02
Today, there is another review on Musicweb. You will understand its profundity when you read the section about the Polonaise.
Perhaps you could share the link....
If I knew how to do links, I would gladly do so, but I have always been technologically challenged! I just googled musicweb international and the review came up.
Trying to be charitable, perhaps some of what the reviewer wrote about the history behind the Legends piece became misplaced in composition, and ended up in his Polonaise section.
Try www.musicweb-international.com?
Even better, here's the direct link (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Sep/Kalafati-symphony-8574132.htm) to the review, which certainly reflects my take on these three works.
Quote from: terry martyn on Thursday 17 September 2020, 10:09
If I knew how to do links, I would gladly do so, but I have always been technologically challenged!
- Highlight the link
- Right click
- Select COPY
- Come into this site
- In the dialogue box that you are posting a comment in, right click
- Select PASTE
- That's it
I'm afraid my take on the Kalafati CD is that I'm glad to have it, but that's about all...