Ossip Salomonowitsch Gabrilowitsch

Ossip Gabrilowitsch around 1894

Ossip Salomonowitsch Gabrilowitsch ( Russian Осип Соломонович Габрилович ; born January 26 ^{. Jul} / 7. February  1878 ^greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 14. September 1936 in Detroit ) was a Russian-American pianist , conductor and composer .

Life

Born as the son of the St. Petersburg lawyer Salomon Gabrilowitsch and his wife, he studied piano and composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Anton Rubinstein , Anatoli Lyadow , Alexander Glasunow and Nikolai Medtner . After graduating in 1894, he went to Vienna , where he studied with Theodor Leschetizky for another two years . He then worked as a freelance pianist, soon gained a great reputation and was a sought-after artist. In July 1905 he was invited as one of the first pianists by M. Welte & Sons to their Leipzig recording studio, where he wrote ten pieces forWelte-Mignon recorded (see audio sample).

On October 6, 1909, in Redding , Connecticut, he married Mark Twain's daughter Clara Clemens (1874–1962), an alto whom he had met in 1899 in Vienna at Leschetitzky. Gabrilowitsch composed a few works, mainly piano pieces for his own use.

From 1910 to 1914 he was the conductor of the Münchner Konzertverein, now the Munich Philharmonic , and in 1910 he played the Piano Concerto in F minor by Frédéric Chopin and in 1911 the Piano Concerto in E flat major by Franz Liszt in a concert at the Music Academy there, where he also played once conducted. After the outbreak of war he went to the USA and had many successful appearances there as a world-renowned pianist.

In 1918, Gabrilowitsch became the founding conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra . He had stipulated the construction of a new concert hall, which was realized as the Orchestra Hall . Even after the First World War , he made numerous tours through the USA and Europe.

He died at the age of 58 and, like his father-in-law, was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira , New York.

Works (selection)

• Five piano pieces Op. 1; Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1897.
  • No. 1 Petite Sérénade
  • No. 2 Mélodie orientale
  • No. 3 Valse lente
  • No. 4 romance
  • No. 5 minuets
• Trois morceaux pour piano Op. 2; Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin.
  • No. 1 fantasy nocturne
  • No. 2 gavottes
  • No. 3 Feuillet d'Album
• Deux morceaux pour piano Op. 3; Zimmermann, Leipzig.
  • Caprice Burlesque Op. 3, 1 (approx. 1901), dedication: A Monsieur Mark Hambourg
  • Mazurka Mélancolique. Op. 3, 2, dedication: A Monsieur Eduard Schütt
• Thème varié pour piano Op. 4; Zimmermann, Leipzig.
• Mélodie in E minor Op. 8th; Rózsavölgyi & Co., Budapest, 1908.
• Deux morceaux pour piano Op. 9, Rózsavölgyi & Co., Budapest, 1911.
  • No. 1 meditation, dedication: A Madame Annette Essipoff
  • No. 2 Intermezzo appassionato, dedication: A Mademoiselle Elly Ney
• La Czarina, Mazurka Russe (The Czarina, Russian Mazurka)
• Three Songs Op. 11
  • No. 1 good-bye ( Christina Rossetti )
  • No. 2 I love her gentle forehead (Richard Watson Gilder)
  • No. 3 The new day (RW Gilder, ca.1917)
• Deux morceaux pour piano Op. 12; Oliver Ditson, Boston, 1917.
  • No.1 Elegy , Dedication: To Mme Olga Samaroff
  • Mo.2 Etude for the left hand , dedication: To Mr. Leopold Godowsky
• Near to thee… [Song] Poem by JW von Goethe , German version by Clara Clemens (approx. 1924)

literature

• Clara Clemens: My husband Gabrilowitsch . Reprint of the 1938 edition (Harper, New York). New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1979. ISBN 0-306-79563-9 .
• Cooke, James Francis: Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Godowsky, Hofmann, Lhévinne, Paderewski and 24 Other Legendary Performers . New York (Dover) 1999. (Reprint of the original 1917 edition).
• Ossip Gabrilowitsch: Essentials of Touch. In: James Francis Cook: Great pianists on piano playing: study talks with foremost virtuosos . Publisher: Theo. Presser & Co., Philadelphia 1917, p. 122 - online.
• Bruno Walter: "Theme and Variations", S. Fischer Verlag 1947, pages 245, ff (for more places see the book's name register) - interesting events in the friendship between Ossip Gabrilowitsch and Bruno Walter.

Audio sample

• Ossip Gabrilowitsch plays Johannes Brahms for Welte-Mignon on July 4, 1905 : Rhapsody in E flat major, Op. 119, no. 4 * 1602 kB ^{? / i}

Web links

Commons : Ossip Salomonowitsch Gabrilowitsch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Sheet music and audio files by Ossip Salomonowitsch Gabrilowitsch in the International Music Score Library Project