Serge Koussevitzky
Encyclopedia : S : SE : SER : Serge Koussevitzky
Dr. Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий) (July 26, 1874 – June 4, 1951), or Serge, was a Russian-born conductor best known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.
Life and career
Koussevitzky was born into a Jewish family, growing up in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Oblast, about 250 km northwest of Moscow. His parents were professional musicians who taught him violin, cello, and piano. At the age of fourteen he received a scholarship to the Musico-Dramatic Institute in Moscow for the study of double bass and music theory. He excelled at the bass, joining the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra at the age of twenty and succeeding his teacher as the principal bassist at twenty-seven. In 1901, he made his debut as a soloist in Moscow, and won critical acclaim for his first Berlin recital in 1903. He wrote a popular concerto for the double bass in 1902. Koussevitzky married his first wife Natalie Ushkov, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, in 1905 and moved to Germany.In 1908 Koussevitzky made his professional debut as a conductor, hiring and leading a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. 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. 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 to Paris, where he organized the Concerts Koussevitzky, presenting new works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Ravel. In 1924 he moved to the United States, and would become a citizen in 1941.
He 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 at Tanglewood. With the Boston Symphony he made numerous recordings, many of which are available on compact disc. Most of his recordings have been well-regarded by critics. His students and protégés included Leonard Bernstein and Sarah Caldwell.
Koussevitzky was a great champion of modern music, commissioning a number of works from prominent composers. For Boston Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary he commissioned Ravel's piano concerto, Gershwin's 2nd Symphony, Prokofiev's 4th Symphony (which was later revised by the composer) and Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, as well as works by Roussel and Hanson. In 1942 he founded the Koussevitzky Foundation to commission and perform new works — among the results were Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, and Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie. Among Koussevitzky's recording premieres was that of Sibelius's ''Seventh Symphony.
Koussevitzky's widow gave his Amati double bass to Gary Karr, a well-known contemporary double bass soloist.
See also
External links
- [Koussevitzky Foundations website]
- [Listing of works commissioned by the Foundations]
- [Biography]
- [Biography]
- [Site dedicated to Koussevitzky]
References
|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;"
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.