Issay Dobrowen

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Issay Dobrowen

Issay Alexandrowich Dobrowen (Исай Александрович Добровейн * February 15 . Jul / 27. February  1891 greg. In Nizhny Novgorod ; † 9. December 1953 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian conductor, pianist, opera director and composer of Russian Jewish origin.

Life

Born as Izchok Sorachowitsch Barabeitschik (Ицхок Зорахович Барабейчик), he was adopted by the family of his mother's stepfather and given their name Dobrowel, which he changed to Dobrowejn during his student days. After his emigration in 1922 he became known under the name Issay Dobrowen .

Dobroven performed publicly as a pianist in Nizhny Novgorod at the age of four. There the pianist David Shor noticed him in 1901 and secured him a place at the Moscow Conservatory . Here he became a composition student of Sergei Taneyev and attended Konstantin Igumnov's piano class . He was soon considered one of the Conservatory's best piano students and received a gold medal in the subject in 1911.

Then he went to Vienna to study with Leopold Godowsky and after just under a year moved to Paris. There he belonged to the circle of Russian exiles around the poet Maxim Gorky , but returned to Moscow after half a year. Here he appeared under conductors such as Sergei Kussewizki and Nikolai Malko , played in a trio with Gregor Piatigorsky and Mischa Mischakoff and occasionally accompanied the famous Fyodor Chalyapin . As a pianist and composer of drama music he worked at the Stanislavski Theater ( art theater ). In 1920 he played Beethoven's Appassionata for Lenin .

In 1918 Dobrowen first appeared as a conductor. In the following year he directed a performance of Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi Theater with Chaliapin in the title role and was given a permanent position as a conductor. After his contract was not renewed in 1922, he emigrated with his family to Dresden . Here he worked with Fritz Busch on the performance of Boris Godunow at the Semperoper , with which he laid the foundation of his career in Western Europe. He was a guest conductor of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic , the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig and the Staatskapelle Dresden, and in 1924 he was engaged at the Volksoper Berlin .

In the 1927-28 season he was chief conductor at the Sofia Opera, then was engaged in Oslo and from 1930 in San Francisco. He kept his residence in Dresden, but had been a Norwegian citizen since 1928. In 1934 he moved to Norway, from where he fled to Sweden before the German invasion in 1940. Here he worked at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm until 1945 .

After 1945 Dobrowen played a number of recordings with the London Philharmonia Orchestra founded by Walter Legge . He recorded more than 20 hours of music - now mostly available on CD - for HMV. In Paris he made a complete recording of Boris Godunov . In addition, he continued to lead opera performances at the Covent Garden Opera and La Scala in Milan .

Dobrowen composed twenty works, including a piano concerto, a violin sonata, stage and film scores, choral and solo songs, and small pieces for violin and piano. The piano concerto in particular, which he himself performed internationally, has recently attracted more attention. He followed the compositional style of Rachmaninoff , Alexander Skriabin and Nicolai Medtner .

Works

  • Piano works
    • Elegy WoO
    • 8 Preludes, Op.1
    • Ballad No.1 Op.2
    • 4 Mazurkas Op.4
    • Fairy tale sonata Op.5
    • Youth Sonata Op.5b
    • 2 Waltzes Op.6
    • Scherzo Op. 7a
    • 4 Etudes Op.8
    • Ballad No.2 Op.9
    • Piano Sonata No.2 Op.10
    • Small Mazurka Op.11
    • 7 pieces Op. 13
      • Scherzo (C major)
      • Prelude (E major)
      • Nocturne (c♯ minor)
      • Etude (e ♭ minor)
      • Pastoral (E ♭ major)
      • Etude (c♯ minor)
      • Mazurka Capriccio (B flat minor)
    • Impromptu Op.14
  • Chamber music
    • 7 romances for voice and piano Op. 7th
    • Hebrew Melodies Op. 12 for violin and piano
    • Violin Sonata Op. 15th
    • Fairy tales for violin and piano Op.16

media

  • Issay Dobrowen: Piano Concerto, Sonata-Skaza, Youth Sonata, Deuxième Sonata. Jørn Fossheim piano, Alexander Dmitrijew conductor of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Orchestra (Академический симфонический оркестр Санкт-Петербургской филармонии). CD, Simax Classics 2004, PSC 1246.

literature

  • Dobrowen, Isay A. In: Alain Pâris: Classical Music in the 20th Century. 2nd Edition. dtv, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-32501-1 , p. 205.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dobrowen, Issay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dobrowen, Issay Alexandrowich; Dobroven, Issai Alexandrovich; Barabeitschik, Izchok Sorachowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian composer, conductor and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Nizhny Novgorod
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1953
Place of death Oslo