Alexander Wassiljewitsch Gauk

Alexander Vasilyevich Gauk or Gauck ( Russian Александр Васильевич Гаук ; born August 3 ^{. Jul} / 15. August 1893 ^greg. In Odessa , † thirtieth March 1963 in Moscow ) was a Soviet conductor and composer .

Life

Gauk studied piano with Felix Blumenfeld , composition with Alexander Glasunow and conducting with Nikolai Tscherepnin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory . In 1917 he became director of the Petrograd Theater of Musical Drama and from 1923 to 1931 of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater there . He then took over the leadership of the Leningrad Philharmonic (1930-34), from 1936 to 1941 that of the State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR in Moscow and from 1953 to 1962 that of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra . He also taught at the Leningrad Conservatories, Tbilisi and from 1939 to 1963 in Moscow (since 1948 there as a professor). Among his students were Yevgeny Maravinsky , Ilya Musin and Yevgeny Svetlanov . In 1954 Gauk was appointed People's Artist of the RSFSR .

Gauk was the premiere conductor of numerous compositions a. a. by Dmitri Shostakovich , Sergei Prokofiev , Aram Chatschaturjan and Nikolai Mjaskowski . He also reconstructed the score of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 from individual parts and performed the work again in 1945 for the first time since its failure in its premiere in 1897.

Alexander Gauk's compositions include a symphony, a Sinfonietta for string orchestra, solo concerts for piano or harp and songs.

personal data
SURNAME	Gauk, Alexander Wassiljewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gauk, Alexander; Gauck, Alexander Wassiljewitsch; Gauck, Alexander; Гаук, Александр Васильевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Soviet conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 15, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Odessa
DATE OF DEATH	March 30, 1963
Place of death	Moscow