Table of contents:
- Who instilled in Tsarevich Alexander a love of musical art
- What kind of music did the Tsarevich love and what instruments did he prefer?
- Who was a member of the group of Alexander Alexandrovich's septet, where classes were held and concerts were held
- How Alexander III founded a court orchestra, the only one of its kind in all of Europe
- How Alexander Alexandrovich's Contemporaries Assessed Musical Abilities and Performing Arts
Video: How Alexander III founded a musical group and what hits he pleased his subjects
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Historians assess the reign of Alexander III ambiguously: some call him a peacemaker and a people's monarch, others - a retrograde and a counter-reformer. However, none of them argues about the contribution that the emperor made to the cultural development of the country. It was thanks to the love of Alexander III for wind instruments that numerous orchestras appeared in Russia, and his craving for music gave rise to a unique court group that performed works on wind and string instruments.
Who instilled in Tsarevich Alexander a love of musical art
Born on March 10, 1846, Tsarevich Alexander began to take an interest in music as a very young child. So, before reaching the age of three, he, together with his older brother, asked his teachers to buy them a real trumpet, which “must play”. The requests continued until one of the teachers, taking pity on the children, bought them two pipes with his own money. Children's toys made of zinc could make sounds when lightly inflated, but these sounds cut the ear so much that they brought everyone at home to white heat. Therefore, six months later, when the court received new toys from Germany, everything related to wind music was promptly removed from the parcel.
The future emperor's craving for such instruments was a hereditary passion: his grandfather Nicholas I always had a weakness for the French horn, flute, cornet-a-piston. Having all these instruments, which he called in a simple way "trumpets", Nicholas I played great music on them. In addition, having an excellent musical memory and good ear, he himself composed music - mainly military marches, the play of which the monarch demonstrated later at home concerts in the Winter or Anichkov Palace.
What kind of music did the Tsarevich love and what instruments did he prefer?
It is noteworthy that at the age of 12, they tried to teach Alexander to play the piano. For four years the Tsarevich "tortured" the instrument, until his parents, realizing the futility of their studies, came to the decision to stop them. Oddly enough, but the teenager, who during this time managed to learn only primitive scales, took this decision rather painfully. Not wanting to give up on musical education, he remembered his childhood hobby and began to take lessons in playing the trumpet.
To the surprise of those close to him, the new instrument awakened in Alexander a real craving for music - from now on he practiced the trumpet not only with a teacher, but also in his free time, sometimes playing up to 10 hours in a row. The favorite musical instruments for the Tsarevich were the helicon and a kind of trumpet - the cornet-a-piston. The works performed by him on the cornet were appreciated at one time even by the professional cornetist Jules Levy: he characterized the young man as an excellent amateur musician and emphasized that the cornet is precisely his instrument. Alexander also liked to play on the helicon, however, having matured with age, his shoulders no longer fit into a ring-shaped curved pipe. Later, to perform bass parts, the Tsarevich had to order an instrument for his size.
As for Alexander's musical preferences, they decided on his age - at first he learned and performed more works by foreign composers, and as he grew up, he replenished the repertoire with Orthodox and Russian folk music.
The Tsarevich liked Tchaikovsky's music very much. It was he who insisted that Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" be staged in St. Petersburg, at the Imperial Theater. For Alexander III, Tchaikovsky composed the Coronation March and the Coronation Cantata. Tchaikovsky was granted a life pension of 3,000 rubles by the sovereign.
Who was a member of the group of Alexander Alexandrovich's septet, where classes were held and concerts were held
In his youth, Alexander and his brother Nikolai enthusiastically played a quartet, inviting General Polovtsev, cornetist Vasily Wurm or teacher Turner to participate. At the age of 23, the future emperor learned that the Prince of Oldenburg was collecting an octet of musicians in his palace and set out to listen to their performance. Taking the cornet just in case, the crown prince entered the hall and, not seeing the audience, joined the players, playing with them all evening.
Alexander remembered his participation in the octet so much that he soon set out to create a septet for playing wind instruments. The permanent members of this septet, in addition to the heir himself, were General Polovtsev and Prince of Oldenburg - with the Alghorns, Counts Adam and Alexander Olsufievs - with cornets, Alexander Bers - with a helicon. They were later joined by Baron Meyendorff, who played the altorn. Periodically, musicians Turner, Schrader and Berger played as invited guests in the group.
Rehearsals, like concerts, were usually held in the spring in Tsarskoye Selo Garden - right in the fresh air. In the summer of 1872, the Tsarevich organized a large brass band with rehearsals in the Admiralty building: the musicians gathered there on Thursdays at 8 pm until 1881. Once a month, the orchestra gave a concert for Tsarevna Maria Feodorovna and her guests, who gathered for listening in the Anichkov Palace.
How Alexander III founded a court orchestra, the only one of its kind in all of Europe
After Alexander became emperor, he did not have time to personally play in the orchestra. However, he was actively involved in musical life, supporting composers and musicians and promoting their concert performances. Moreover, having ascended the throne, Alexander III in 1882 approved the regulation on the "Court Musician Choir". The created orchestra, which later increased from 53 to 150 members, became the first court brass orchestra in Europe, and then a symphony orchestra, with an approved staff of musicians.
The emperor himself, although he retired from performing participation in the collective, often played music on the French horn during his leisure hours, indulging in memories of the past.
How Alexander Alexandrovich's Contemporaries Assessed Musical Abilities and Performing Arts
The Tsar's contemporaries, foreigners and Russians who are well versed in music, always highly appreciated the musical talents of Alexander III. So, according to the memoirs of Alexander Alexandrovich Bers, the sovereign loved and appreciated music and always had correct ideas about it.
Another connoisseur of musical art, Count Sergei Sheremetyev, wrote about the emperor in a similar tone: "Alexander III understood and loved music with an open mind, without any prejudices or pretensions." The American Levi, who had known the emperor from his youth, praised his playing the cornet and always praised Alexander's musical abilities.
By the way, the most beautiful daughter of Nicholas the First got married later than everyone else, and never had any happiness.
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