Music from the Silver
Age – NIKOLAY and ALEXANDER CHEREPNIN
by Gregor Tassie
Forgotten in their
homeland, the Cherepnin family proudly
assumed the mantle of guardians of the
rich, melodious stream in Russian nationalist
music, preserving the bond with folk
music and carrying on that unique tradition
into the 20th century. Father
and son characterized a long-lost epoch
of Imperial majesty and great art.
Nikolay Nikolayevich
Cherepnin was born in May 1873 the
son of a village doctor at Izborsk near
Pskov. The aristocratic family were
poor yet could claim an affluent connection;
a distant relative Friedrich Kinde wrote
the libretto for Weber’s Der Freischütz.
On his mother’s side of the family was
the French artist Albert Benois whose
brother Alexander collaborated with
Diaghilev’s Saisons Russes. One other
relation was Cavos who conducted Glinka’s
The Life of a Tsar in 1842 and
another were the Ustinovs whose offspring
Peter became a famous actor. Nikolay’s
mother died within a year of his birth
and the family moved to St Petersburg
where his father’s love of art gave
him entrée to the salons of Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Alexander Serov and Modest
Mussorgsky. The little Nikolay’s musical
education began with his aunt Olympia
teaching him piano and was further advanced
at the No. 6 Gymnasium where a choir
and orchestra was run by the Mariinsky’s
Bohemian conductors Voyacek and Zike.
It was Zike who strongly
influenced Cherepnin’s leaning towards
Wagner and Liszt and whose ‘precise,
disciplined ‘kapellmeister’ style unlocked
the beauties of Tannhäuser,
Lohengrin and St Elizabeth’.
The 1889 visit of Karl Muck’s company
performing the Ring cycle had
a great and lasting effect. Nikolay
Yelachich, a cousin of Igor Stravinsky,
was a fellow student and it was at the
Stravinskys’ flat that Cherepnin became
acquainted with the music of Rimsky-Korsakov.
Music was his earliest love but his
father intended him for a career in
law and in 1891, Nikolay Cherepnin entered
the law faculty at the University. Nevertheless,
music retained its power and he entered
the Conservatoire two years later studying
piano with Professor Fan-Arkh with whom
Anna Esipova and Lev Shteinberg studied.
Cherepnin quickly grasped
that his rightful passion was composition
not the piano and, ‘after much hesitation
and worry, I decided to audition before
Rimsky-Korsakov taking my compositions
to him. ... Nikolay Andreyevich listened
with great attention, discussing musical
ideas and agreed to accept me into his
class.’ This was a decisive moment as
the great Russian composer continued
to follow the aspiring composer with
curiosity: ‘He is both capable and diligent;
works quickly and well. He grasps the
subject and I think that he has a true
compositional talent. ... I predict
a composer’s gift – there is very significant
progress.’ A further influence upon
Cherepnin were the concerts under the
direction of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazounov.
There he heard the young Rachmaninov’s
Aleko. Together with friends
such as Spendiarov and Davydov, Cherepnin
often performed at the Academy of Arts.
It was there that he made his debut
conducting Tchaikovsky’s Serenade
for Strings with the orchestra of
the Mariinsky. This was quickly followed
by his direction of excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s
Queen of Spades and Weber’s Der
Freischütz.
It was at the Academy
that Cherepnin became acquainted with
the distinguished Benois family and
with his future wife, Mariya, daughter
of Albert Benois. The family dacha in
Oranienbaum was next-door to Cesar Cui’s
country-home. It was through Cui’s contacts
that he met Balakirev. ‘Cesar Antonovich
often sang arias from William Ratcliffe
to us and we played together with
Lidiya Cui excerpts from Angelo and
dances from The Caucasian Prisoner.’
Balakirev welcomed the young composer’s
first major piece Princess of Tears
at its first hearing at the Kursaal
in Oranienbaum in 1896. Following this
early triumph the foremost publisher
Belyaev invited Cherepnin to send him
his compositions.
In 1898, Nikolay Cherepnin
completed his conservatoire studies,
offering his cantata Sardanapal
(based on a text by Byron) as his graduation
piece. Sergey Tanayev was the judge.
He praised Cherepnin conferring on him
the honour of ‘free artist’. Cherepnin
returned the honour by conducting Taneyev’s
Apollon and Delphia from the
opera Orestiya. Through his mentor
Rimsky-Korsakov and the Belayev publishing
house there now opened up before the
young musician a wealth of good fortune,
enjoying friendships with Lyadov, Glazounov,
Vitols, Stassov, Scriabin and the Blumenfelds.
He often performed at the famed Friday
musical soirées. Already in his
armoury were two symphonies, a string
quartet, a sextet, two choruses and
numerous romances. His well orchestrated
pieces bear the distinct influences
of Rimsky, Lyadov and Wagner yet announce
a discrete individuality all within
the framework of the fairy-tale expression
and colour of the nationalist school.
Cherepnin’s First Symphony
was performed under Rimsky-Korsakov’s
direction in February 1899: ‘a wonderful
talent and it promises much. The Scherzo
and Andante are a trite ineffectual
... but the 1st and 4th
movements are simply exquisite. Put
side by side with the latest Lyadov
and Glazounov, these are magnificent.’
In his romances Cherepnin was drawn
to the poets of the Silver Age: Balmont,
Fofanov, Alexey Tolstoy, Tyutchev; their
lyricism and beautiful imagery of nature
and mood. The most significant early
work was the orchestral prelude Princess
of Tears op. 4 based on the lyric
drama by Rostand. This follows the ancient
tale of the troubadour ‘Geoffrey and
the maiden Melissande’ (DG 447084-2).
Here he uses a lyrical wealth of colour
and ecstatic melody in a picturesque
and harmonic style of musical impressionism.
The following decade
represented the acme of Cherepnin’s
career as composer, pianist, conductor
and teacher laying down his identifiable
and unambiguous standing. While embracing
the nationalist school, Cherepnin also
bore fresh influences derived from the
artistic values of the symbolists and
impressionists. New pieces in Zuliki
and Almanzor, Macbeth and
Dramatic Fantasy espoused a programmatic
approach. However it was the romances
that earned the composer a special place
in Russian music. Their colourful impressionism
and vivid pictorial qualities made an
idyllic complement to the lyricism and
character of the verse. The musical
poems, the Leaves are Falling,
Snowflakes, The Light has
Extinquished, and his most wonderful
Last Love all evince a fascination
and relationship with the voice that
epitomises the Silver Age of Russian
song.
Cherepnin’s conducting
career followed upon study with Anton
Arensky who enlisted his protégé
as head of the orchestral class at the
Capella in 1898. Following direction
of several seasons of the Russian Music
Society, Cherepnin studied with Sergey
Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov wrote: ‘You
have undoubted gifts as a conductor.
You lack only theatrical experience.’
His eminence developed to a point where
Nikolay Cherepnin was conducting premieres
of works by Lyadov, Gliere and Spendiarov.
Following the premiere of Vassilenko’s
Epic Poem, he was invited to
undertake symphonic concerts in Moscow
in 1904. Trouble arrived in the following
year with the premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Kaschey Bessmertny at the Kommisarzhevsky
Theatre. This was abandoned following
demonstrations against the composer’s
sacking from the Conservatoire. Nevertheless
Cherepnin was not afraid to defend his
mentor by staging other works which
were banned by the Tsarist police.
The events of 1905
are reflected in Cherepnin’s one-movement
Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Lisztian
in style and bearing an influence which
would become more prevalent in Scriabin’s
works. The piano writing was ‘devilishly
difficult ‘ and the work was awarded
the Glinka Prize for 1909 (CDM). In
1905 Cherepnin began teaching at the
Conservatoire, initially in interpretation
and then, within a year, he began teaching
opera and orchestral conducting. Cherepnin’s
teaching was interrupted by the 1917
Revolution. However in that time he
brought up a new generation of distinguished
musicians including Asafyev, Gauk, Dranishnikov,
Malko, Prokofiev, Shaporin and Yudina.
Now under Alexander Glazounov, the Conservatoire
possessed its own students’ orchestra
which would frequently be conducted
by Cherepnin and his apprentices. Cherepnin’s
guidance of the Conservatoire orchestra
and his introduction of discipline and
ensemble uniformity led to a new advanced
school of orchestral performance in
Russia (the professional orchestras
being dominated by Czechs, Italians
and German musicians). A mark of the
standards attained by the students orchestra
was Artur Nikisch’s agreement to work
with them. Gauk recalled Cherepnin’s
achievement: ‘he was the first to awake
one’s facility to originally evaluate
music. In his class, one could hear
the new French school of Debussy, Ravel,
Dukas; to study the scores of the then
unfashionable Richard Strauss. In his
system, he constantly searched for the
novel, unknown works. He was a progressive.’Asafyev
wrote that in him there, ‘breathed freshness
and calm ... that everyone tried to
get into his classes’.
Shaporin said that
Cherepnin ‘was always for innovation
in composition, in particular fighting
for Prokofiev to be heard ...’ Cherepnin
said of Prokofiev, his new protégé:
‘believe me - he will conquer a new
world.’ The championing of Prokofiev
by Cherepnin found its reciprocation
in the young musician dedicating to
his teacher the First Piano Concerto
as well as the Sinfonietta and
Scherzo. Prokofiev wrote: ‘He
seemed to me such an innovator that
one’s head was spinning. ... Once Cherepnin
whispered to me – listen to how wonderful
the bassoon sounds! Gradually I turned
to Haydn and Mozart and my interest
in the oboe, played at staccato, and
the flute playing at two octaves higher
than the bassoon ... It was thus that
I developed my ideas for the Classical
Symphony.’
In 1906 Cherepnin,
by then widely respected as a conductor
of opera, was invited by Felix Blumenfeld
to become a second conductor at the
Mariinsky Theatre. Cherepnin’s first
work there was Rubinstein’s Nero
given without a single rehearsal. Emotional
due to the lack of preparation, Mariya
Cherepnin was almost in tears backstage
and was only consoled by Rimsky-Korsakov.
Nevertheless this debut was a triumph.
Premieres awaited amongst which were
Rimsky’s Legend of Kitezh in
1907 and at the Paris Opéra Comique
in 1908 The Snowmaiden. Other
works he restored to the theatre were
Cui’s The Caucasian Prisoner
and Bizet’s Carmen. The greatest
event however was that of Rimsky’s The
Golden Cockerel in 1909 (given not
at the Mariinsky but at the Conservatoire).
The highlight of this
period was Cherepnin’s ballet Le
pavillon d’Armide - a contribution
for the World of Art group with Alexander
Benois and Mikhail Fokine. Some years
before, Benois had been influenced by
Gautier's work. He conceived a mystical
work drawing on the age of Louis XIV;
a romantic, magnificent and enigmatic
ballet that would mesh the style of
French court dance with 19th
century ballet. ‘I dreamed of creating
something astounding - the rebirth of
my beloved traditional ballet.’ Having
written the libretto, Benois asked Cherepnin
to compose the music. ‘In our circle,
Cherepnin was the most promising of
young composers and the only important
musician in the World of Art.’ Benois
found in Cherepnin’s first sketches
a Hoffmanesque fantasy describing it
as ‘fresh and charming.’ The score was
completed in 1903 and was first heard
in excerpts performed at the Hall of
Nobility under its composer. It quickly
attained popularity being given the
Glinka Prize for 1906. Ossovsky wrote
that it showed: ‘the creation of a new
form of symphonic ballet; a fruitful
evolutionary progression from those
of Delibes, Tchaikovsky and Glazounov.
One can express one’s surprise at the
novel and unusual technical perfection
of the composer.’ It was hoped that
it ballet could be staged at the Mariinsky.
However despite the theatre having purchased
the ballet nothing happened due to the
management’s lack of sympathy for the
ideals of the World of Art. It was four
years before the fate of the ballet
was resolved when Fokine took scenes
from the work and renamed it for a production
entitled The Restored Tapestry
achieving great success. It was then
that the Mariinsky resolved to invite
Fokine to stage the ballet complete
yet without Benois which the balletmaster
refused to comply with. Still reluctant
to have Diaghilev at the Mariinsky,
a scandal was let loose when Ksheshinskaya
and Gerdt refused to perform. Following
some changes it was Anna Pavlova who
assumed the leading part of Armida and
Nijinsky as the Slave.
Nevertheless, the premiere
was part of a double-bill along with
a staging of the three-act Swan Lake
(it was hoped by the Mariinsky directors
that the audience would drift away allowing
the premiere to be a failure). Benois
himself wrote afterwards: ‘it was a
magnificent success ... the theatre
was packed .... After each scene, the
audience applauded and encored ....at
the end the theatre simply was in uproar.’
Diaghilev who managed to get into the
theatre embraced Benois shouting, ‘we
have to take this abroad.’ (LYS)
It was Diaghilev’s
enthusiasm for the ballet that led to
Cherepnin being appointed resident composer
and conductor for the Saisons Russes.
On 19 May 1909 Cherepnin’s ballet was
premiered at the Théâtre
du Chatelet with Nijinsky, Caralli and
Karsavina. Pavlova was contracted to
another company nevertheless the production
was sensational. Benois wrote: ‘I was
personally convinced that something
new - a fresh era in French and Western
art would begin – and it really happened.’
Following the Paris
triumph, Cherepnin’s ballet was staged
in Monaco in 1911, in London (during
George V's coronation) and in Rome,
all to acclaim. Cherepnin was rewarded
with a special award for the premiere
on French soil in 1909 together with
Benois and Fokine. Regardless of the
conquest, Benois wished a new ballet
to encompass the world of French ballet,
however Fokine and Diaghilev preferred
a Russian theme to follow upon Le
pavillon d’ Armide. From this arose
the idea of The Firebird. Cherepnin
was overlooked and the first choice
fell upon Lyadov who in his turn declined.
Diaghilev then offered the ballet to
Stravinsky. Meanwhile, unabashed, Cherepnin
began writing a ballet based on the
ancient folk legend: ‘I was enchanted
by the score of Stravinsky’s Firebird,
it is the last word in orchestration.’
Returning to Russia
after witnessing the premiere of The
Firebird in Paris, Cherepnin wrote
The Enchanted Kingdom as a symphonic
poem premiered in March 1910. It follows
the impressionism of Lyadov’s The
Enchanted Lake and contains the
most delicious charming musical melody.
The score is perfectly orchestrated
with all the colour of the Mighty Handful
yet long-breathed in melody not failing
to retain the listener’s attention (DG
447084-2).
The second ballet written
for Diaghilev was Narcisse et Echo
based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Once again Fokine took charge of the
choreography with Nijinsky and Karsavina
as principals. The world premiere took
place in Monte Carlo in April 1911 with
the composer conducting (CHAN 9670).
Once again the ballet embraced all the
qualities of the Ballets Russes with
vibrant colours, exoticism and richness
of musical imagery. Once more Cherepnin
rose to the challenge producing one
of his finest creations. He discarded
the pattern of original separate numbers
instead writing the piece as a unified
symphonic synthesis of briskly transforming
episodes portraying the Greek legend
. Before its audiences there was unleashed
a spectacular fresco of colours and
melody embodied by the movement on stage.
Benois described the sensation as being
mostly due to the composer: ‘we are
indebted to Cherepnin who has so identified
with his subject in discovering a special
musical colour.’ Asafyev christened
the ballet an ‘affectionate harmonious
elegy to love.’
The Diaghilev ballets
apart, Cherepnin worked on a multitude
of pieces in a variety of different
genres: vocal ballads and romances,
based on Balmont, several based on children’s
poetry which earned him his third Glinka
Prize, another was awarded for Narcisse
et Echo. The world of childhood
was enshrined in The Russian ABC
in Pictures and illustrated by Benois
in 1911. Here Cherepnin created a wide
palette of musical imagery of which
the finest episodes were his Forest,
Egypt and Baba Yaga tales.
The characterizations evoked the most
brilliant Russian orchestral compositions
conjuring parallels with Stravinsky’s
Petrushka and Lyadov’s Baba
Yaga. Asafyev found a ‘range of
wonderful, entertaining illustrations
in sound with harmonic and rhythmic
patterns combining into a magical world
of imagery alive in children’s imagination.’
Cherepnin was drawn
to the stage hoping to write music for
Meyerhold’s theatre and in particular
for Byron’s Marino Faliero and
Shelley’s Beatrice Cenci. However
these ambitions were not to be rewarded.
Diaghilev did however commission a third
ballet, on this occasion based on Edgar
Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red
Death. Ill fortune seemed to beset
the new project as Fokine disliked the
subject matter and Benois had fallen
out with the impresario. Cherepnin’s
new work was rejected and he resolved
to approach the Mariinsky and the Moscow
Free Ballet. The Mariinsky found it
unacceptable and with the outbreak of
war the Moscow company was dissolved.
The ballet was only staged in 1956 in
Brussels under the title of Fate
(OCD). Good fortune smiled
again in 1916 from the ballet was performed
in St Petersburg as part of Siloti’s
concert series. Nevertheless it was
not as well received. Asafyev wrote:
‘he didn’t manage to convincingly evoke
the dark imagery of Poe’s novella.’
Certainly its programming with Prokofiev’s
Scythian Suite made for an unfavourable
comparison. The most penetrating criticism
was from Timofeyev: ‘Cherepnin is more
suited to musical chronicler than that
of a musical-psychologist.’ As events
revealed, Cherepnin could not adapt
to the new bold age - hostage to a world
rapidly out of tune with the present.
Cherepnin the innovator was now being
overtaken by his own students.
As the world gave itself
up to the embrace of the Great War,
Cherepnin remained true to folk-lore
and produced another two ballets Mariya
Morevna and The Tale of Tsarevna
Ulyba. Despite the Mariinsky planning
the latter for production in 1917, this
was cancelled as the October Revolution
and the ensuing Civil War brought normal
artistic life to a halt. The winter
of 1917-18 was one of the worst for
a century and with chronic food shortages;
dogmeat was now being sold on Nevsky
Prospekt. For the animal-lover in Cherepnin
enough was enough and he resolved to
leave by whatever means possible. Cherepnin
accepted the position of chief conductor
of the Tbilisi Opera and Director of
the Conservatoire. He took his family
south in July 1918.
Tbilisi occupied a
unique position between 1918 and 1921
as capital of the independent republic
of Georgia. Here there existed a wealth
of artistic freedom in which many émigré
Russians revelled. In Tbilisi there
were Heinrich Neuhaus, Saradzhev, Zakhari
Paliashvili and Samuil Samosud. Georgia
enjoyed a wealthy musical tradition.
Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Spendiarov, Ippolitov-Ivanov
had all lived and worked there. During
his sojourn in Georgia, Nikolay began
playing with his son Alexander in chamber
recitals, among which were vocal recitals
with the young Nina Koshetz. Entire
cycles of pieces for voice, violin and
piano were undertaken during a remarkable
period of interregnum. It was there,
in 1921, that Cherepnin received an
invitation from Anna Pavlova to come
to Paris to conduct her ballet company.
In July 1921 he and his family departed
on the Italian boat ‘Mongibello’ for
Istanbul en route for Paris.
Cherepnin’s final work
at the Tbilisi Opera was after the occupation
of the city by the Red Army. Finding
his musicians reluctant to play the
‘correct’ notes, he stormed out upset
at the remark that ‘everyone is leaving
for Batumi – only the ‘comrades’ staying
behind.’ Leave for Batumi was however
precisely what the Cherepnins did, booking
on a small steamer with their last money.
Georgia had one last insult to impart:
the confiscation of his letters from
Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev together
with the treasured programme of his
first Ballets Russes production. Waiting
for the boat’s departure, Alexander
picked up a stray dog on the beach which
accompanied them all the way through
to the French capital. Met by no-one
at Lyonnaise station in Paris, the family
found a little hotel nearby and began
to find their feet, making ends meet
by selling their most recent music to
a local publishing house. An object
of concern for the Cherepnins was that
if the French welcomed the Russians
as temporary guests, a quite different
reception met the now large Russian
émigré community. Yet
Cherepnin had no intention of making
a permanent home there. He firmly believed
that the Bolsheviks would not be granted
recognition and that Lenin’s government
would fall; a year or two more and Cherepnin
foresaw a return to St Petersburg.
Anna Pavlova commissioned
from Nikolay a new ballet Dionysus
for Covent Garden and he conducted it
with excerpts from Le pavillon d’Armide
in September 1922. Before the turn of
the year, Cherepnin went to Madrid to
direct Prince Igor and Boris
and heard his own Princess of
Tears performed there. The compositions
continued to pour forth. There were
spirituals and Japanese poems after
Balmont. A major task was orchestrating
Mussorgsky’s Sorochinsky Fair
for the Monte Carlo Opera in 1923. Under
Cherepnin’s conducting, the main part
was performed by John McCormack. With
a more stable income, the family moved
to a flat near the Luxembourg Gardens
where there was solitude and peace to
find new ideas for work. This quiet
was frequently broken by his former
pupil Prokofiev. Another request from
Pavlova saw the ballet The Enchanted
Bird again premiered at Covent Garden
under the composer’s direction. The
work based on folk-lore comprised several
excerpts from the forsaken Enchanted
Kingdom suite.
In Paris, Nikolay Cherepnin
was enlisted to head the Russian Conservatoire
where, for no fee, he taught for twenty
years and upheld the standards of the
Russian system. Cherepnin’s directorship
attracted many brilliant teachers: Conius,
Leschitskaya, Cherkasskaya and Galamyan.
Rachmaninov and Koussevitsky rendered
much needed help in funding the institution.
The Belayev publishing house in Leipzig
continued to issue his new works. In
1924 Albert Coates directed Cherepnin’s
Suite in memory of Rimsky-Korsakov
in London yet it received negative
response from the press and was withdrawn.
Fewer and fewer commissions arrived
and the publishers became less generous.
Against this came the good news that
his ballet Le pavillon d’Armide
was at long last staged at the former
Mariinsky in Leningrad in 1925. In the
following season, Vitols invited him
to conduct in Latvia. However the continuing
exile led to a gradual eclipse in Cherepnin’s
imagination. If in the pre-war years
his name was exalted with Fokine and
Diaghilev, now he was a memory from
the past against a new era lit up by
the heirs to Rimsky-Korsakov. His friendship
with Ravel, Ansermet and Monteux dissolved
with only Gabriel Pierné sustaining
ties with him. As the years passed,
only the strong émigré
community wanted to know the old musician.
Among musicians this included Vyshnegradsky
and the visiting Szymanowski. In 1928,
the Glazounov arrived and despite an
absence of mutual ground a friendship
slowly developed. In 1928 Benois proposed
Cherepnin write a ballet for the Grand
Opera - Nocturne. Later Gabriel
Pierné directed a concert of
the Colonne Orchestra wholly of his
works including a new piece based on
Pushkin’s The Fisherman and the Fish.
At the end of the twenties, Cherepnin
wrote two operas. One was based on Ostrovsky’s
comedy The Matchmaker. This had
its first performance in from amateur
forces in 1930 and gained the approval
of Glazounov and Shalyapin who wept
upon hearing it (OCD). Cherepnin wrote
another opera Vanka the Keeper
based on a fantastic tale by Sologub.
During its writing the composer toured
the USA for the premiere of his orchestration
of Sorochinsky Fair at the Metropolitan
under Tullio Serafin. This visit was
repeated in 1932 when Koussevitsky invited
him to conduct at the Boston Symphony
including the Russian ABC in Pictures,
The Red Mask suite and Tati-Tati
based on themes by Borodin. Other tours
included that for the production of
his ballets at Belgrade State Theatre
in 1933 and conducting for local radio.
With the accelerating burden of weakening
health and partial deafness this marked
his last conducting assignment abroad.
The final meeting between Cherepnin
and Fokine took place in 1937 in the
latter’s project to stage a ballet based
on the Golden Cockerel. With
the outbreak of war, Cherepnin’s income
sharply decreased and the small Georgian
community assisted the old man materially.
Among the last pieces composed by him
was a setting of Georgian Funeral
Laments. The premiere of this work
marked his last concert in the Pleyel
Salle in 1944. In his last years, the
composer enjoyed walking to the fruit
market and to Russian shop where he
could still buy Russian rye-bread and
sausage. He would spend his afternoon
hours dozing off following lessons.
He loved nothing more than to sip some
cheap French wine at a neighbouring
café and read a Russian newspaper.
On 26 July 1945 Cherepnin died of a
sudden heart attack and was buried at
the Saint-Genève graveyard near
Paris with a headstone bearing the image
of small Pskov church bells.
Alexander Cherepnin’s
childhood was spent in a household where
such personalities as Rimsky-Korsakov,
Shalyapin, Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev
would regularly visit. By the time he
presented himself at the Petrograd Conservatoire
Alexander had already written several
operas, symphonies, sonatas and quartets.
He was au fait with Prokofiev and burned
with an ambition to make his own mark
on the musical stage. His formal education
was interrupted by the Revolution and
his father became his greatest mentor.
Nikolai helped launch his son’s career
as soon as they were free of Bolshevik
Petrograd. The young Alexander found
a new freedom when they arrived in the
Caucasus in July 1918. Here he was first
among equals at the State Conservatoire
and revealed a great enthusiasm to be
part of everything around him, attending
three or four concerts, he wrote musical
criticism and opinion in several different
newspapers. His diaries reveal a surprising
world of artistic freedom in the Georgia
of this period. Thousands of young students
and music lovers thirsted for new ideas
and thoughts unfolding around them.
Alexander’s own compositions
were performed by himself allowing him
to gain the necessary confidence in
his own gifts. This and musical relationships
with singers such as Nina Koshetz and
artists from the theatre helped develop
his creative maturity. This presented
him with the appropriate degree of talent
enabling him to further his career in
Paris. The capital was the world centre
for the arts drawing Europe’s finest
young talent:
Bartók, Szymanowski, Martinů, Stravinsky,
Honegger, Prokofiev. There the French
school of Saint-Saëns, D’Indy, Pierné
and Ravel prevailed amongst the new
wave of Les Six who offered a fresh,
unwritten page in world music. There
too were gathered Cocteau, Hemingway,
Picasso and Chagall. This was the brave
new world that Alexander was destined
to inhabit.
Alexander
associated with a group of young European
composers: Alexander Tansman, Bohuslav
Martinů and Marcel Mihalovic and
to a degree, Arthur Honegger.
Whilst holding to different outlooks
they shared an outgoing disposition
all hailing from Eastern Europe. Upon
his arrival in Paris, Alexander was
asked to write a ballet for Pavlova’s
touring company – the one-act ballet
Azhanta Frescos. This was premiered
at Covent Garden in September 1922.
Azhanta Frescos won such praise
that it was launched later in the USA.
The London visit marked a solo recital
of Cherepnin’s Bagatelles (NEWPORT).
The young émigré’s
career flourished with his Concerto
da camera for flute, violin and
chamber ensemble winning a competition
arranged by Schotts Publishers in 1925
(OCD) . Now Cherepnin was realising
his unfettered career and fresh tests
were opening up in the dynamic, yet
tough world of music. A fresh epoch
summoned musicians to the lists. Cherepnin
absorbed influences yet held to his
own course evolving a theory of music
based on a nine-tonal system. He made
a decisive break from the past yet did
not forsake the heritage of Mussorgsky
and Prokofiev as his ‘primitive’ roots.
A veritable flood of new works issued
forth all finding an audience and publishing
houses. As an indicator of the brand
new crowd in which he was moving, in
1926 Alexander married the American
socialite Louise Weeks. The next years
would witness the Cherepnins settling
in the USA in New Jersey. It was here
in this rustic setting that the First
Symphony was composed in which he laid
out his distinctive ideas. It was this
work which established Alexander Cherepnin
as a significant composer and of the
most important symphonic works of the
era. (BISCD) There issued forth a host
of pieces in different genres. There
was an orchestral piece Magna Mater
(BISCD), a new opera Ol-Ol, based
on Russian folk-lore, two string quartets,
several chamber pieces and another opera
based on Hoffmansthal’s Die Hochzeit
der Zobeida.
America did not wholly
capture Cherepnin’s enthusiasm finding
there so many aspects of culture and
a way of life not to his liking. For
the sophisticated Cherepnin, fresh terrain
summoned and he made the crossing from
San Francisco to Japan, China, India,
Singapore and Palestine. This journey
of discovery led to new sound-worlds
and an imagery which captured his imagination
finding its natural outlet in his music.
The supreme influence upon Cherepnin
was from China. There existed a small
Russian colony in Peking and Shanghai
boasting Professor Zakharov – an old
acquaintance from St Petersburg. Cherepnin
was chiefly fascinated by Chinese folk-lore
performed on traditional classical instruments.
In China Cherepnin met his second wife
– Ming - and she became his most loyal
supporter.
Returning to America,
Cherepnin found a teaching appointment
at DePaul’s in Chicago. Commissions
continued to arrive together with concert
engagements from Paul Sacher in Switzerland.
Many of his concerts and lectures were
under the auspices of the ISCM. His
internationalism allowed his talks to
be given in four different languages
and these would be presented one week
in Chicago, then in Nice, Salzburg or
Paris. In later years he found a home
on the banks of the Thames at Marlow.
Whilst in Switzerland he would stay
with Margrit Weber, for whom he wrote
the Sixth Piano Concerto (OCD and DG).
Radio broadcasting became a frequent
event for Cherepnin. In the late sixties
he received a BBC commission to write
a piece based on Tolstoy’s Tale of
Ivan the Fool. The role of Ivan
was given to Cherepnin’s cousin Sir
Peter Ustinov. The new piece used electronic
music composed by Cherepnin’s son Sergey.
It was a fine and fitting programme
which went out on Christmas Eve on Radio
Three.
In the improving relations
between East and West, it became possible
for correspondence to be restored with
friends in Russia. His roots were as
ever close to him. Charles Munch was
asked on a visit to Leningrad to bring
a sample of Russian earth back to him.
Munch picked soil from the Cherepnins’
former flat on Glinka Street and from
the Nikolsky Church where his family
had worshipped. Following Stravinsky’s
visit in 1962, it became an ambition
to return home and this he managed to
bring to fulfilment in 1967 under the
auspices of the Union of Composers.
Despite embracing many cultures through
fifty years and attaining an audience
world-wide, Cherepnin always remained
true to his roots. Alexander Cherepnin,
nevertheless represented Exiled Russia
and was hence forever subject to diverse
cultures: French, Georgian, American
and Chinese. He always claimed to have
sought his own way of development, deriving
colour from contrasting traditions yet
always finding something common with
his Slavic roots.
In 1928, Cherepnin
visited the Baltic and there wandered
through the countryside, meeting Russian
peasants in the villages. At Pechora
on the border, Cherepnin could gaze
across the Great Lake of Pskov and perceive
in the far distance the white-domed
churches and homes in Pskov. Here it
was only 300 kilometres from St Petersburg!
Back in Chicago Cherepnin acquired a
Russian typewriter but with the new
slavonic script. He returned it to the
shop asking them to restore the old
pre-1917 letters! How proud he was just
to be able to type out the words in
ancient Slavonic: Nest, Star, Peace,
Jesus, Man, Russia. ‘I never thought
how full of dear joy these letters would
prove to be to me.’
Among Cherepnin’s finest
stage works was the ballet Trepak,
based on folk-lore. The work is utterly
nostalgic and suffused with melancholia
for distant Russia. A foremost undertaking
was his completion of Mussorgsky’s The
Wedding, although Ippolitov-Ivanov
had already finished the opera some
ten years before. Cherepnin’s Wedding
was heard first in Shanghai and broadcast
on Radio Berne years later. Cherepnin
frequently conducted rare works by Tchaikovsky
and other Russian composers whose repertoire
was lesser-known to Western audiences.
Recording was important in his mission,
accompanying Boris Christoff in songs
by Mussorgsky (EMI CD). It was the symphonic
idiom which he believed to be his metier;
each opus being a further development
of his vision.
In 1947 the Second
Symphony looked back to his earlier
inspirations. Another orchestral canvas
emerged in the shape of the Divertimento
of 1957 (OCD). The Third Symphony
was conducted by Rafael Kubelik at the
Chicago Symphony in 1952. Charles Munch
premiered the Fourth with the Boston
Symphony and this received a Glinka
Prize and remains his most prevalent
piece. His Fourth is also the most Russian
- bearing the traditions of Lyadov,
Glazounov and Rachmaninov and marrying
the styles of Moscow and Petersburg
schools. (BISCD)
There are three operas,
fifteen ballets, six piano concertos
and a huge number of chamber and piano
pieces. The evolution of the nine-tone
mode was the single greatest advance
made by Cherepnin, It is a system used
in his First Symphony although it was
first apparent in works dating as far
back as 1918. This and the theory of
counterpoint together with his musical
enlightenment in the Far East placed
Alexander Cherepnin among the leading
musicians of the 20th century.
Whilst his music has not proved as fashionable
and memorable as that of his compatriots,
his heritage is of great consequence.
Following his death
in 1977, the family’s musical journey
was extended through two sons, Ivan
and Sergey. Born in occupied Paris,
Ivan learnt violin and cello, studied
with Boulanger and became attracted
to electronic music. Sergey followed
a similar path writing music for cinema
and film studios mostly in Europe. Few
families can boast such a dynasty and
one which has encompassed such a long
time-span across a wide diversity of
musical cultures. Despite this variety
the music always remained true to its
roots and achieved this fidelity against
the backdrop of the most trying period
in human history. The achievement of
these musicians stands as eloquent testimony
to great art as an instrument of peace
and humanity.
Gregor Tassie
KEY
Block capital initials in brackets in
the text refer to recordings some of
which may no longer be available:-
BISCD ... BIS CD
CDM ... Chant du Monde
CHAN ... Chandos
DG ... Deutsche Grammophon
EMI ... EMI Classics
LYS ... Lys
NEWPORT ... Newport
OCD ... Olympia
