The guy who taught me basic music theory was a nut for Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987). In particular, he was crazy for Kabalevsky’s piano sonatas. It was a rare instance in which he introduced me to something I hadn’t heard (I would have been 19 at the time), as opposed to the other way around. That’s the thing about musicians. They’re so busy performing that they have no time to laze around and listen to records!
In any case, of course I knew Kabalevsky from his “Colas Breugnon Overture” (from his opera after the novel of Romain Rolland) and the ubiquitous Galop from “The Comedians,” which I believe I first heard on Bob McAllister’s “Wonderama,” if you remember that show.
Am I the only one who detects Kabalevsky in the theme to “F Troop?”
“The Comedians: Galop”
“Colas Breugnon Overture”
“F Troop”
Interesting choice, to allude to a Soviet composer in a sitcom about the Wild West. Happy birthday, Dmitri Kabalevsky!
Vladimir Horowitz plays Kabalevsky’s Piano Sonata No. 3
It’s quite a day for the Soviets. This date also marks the anniversaries of the first performances of Aram Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 2, in Moscow, in 1943, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4, also in Moscow, in 1961 (the work was originally scheduled to be performed in 1936, but was prudently withdrawn by the composer after he was denounced in Pravda for his “formalist” opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”), and – one hundred years ago today – Sergei Prokofiev’s opera “The Love for Three Oranges,” in Chicago, of all places, with the composer in attendance.
Finally, according to the Julian calendar, Reinhold Glière was born on this date in 1875!
TOP PHOTO: Kabalevsky with Shostakovich (left) and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at the Kremlin, 1966
BOTTOM PHOTO: Union of Soviet Composers plenum in Moscow, 1946
Standing (left to right): Yuri Shaporin, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Ivan Dzerhinsky, Maran Koval, Vano Muradelli
Sitting (also left to right): Aram Khachaturian, Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Dmitri Shostakovich, Reinhold Glière, Sergei Prokofiev