Leokadiya
Kashperova was born in Lyubim, near Yaroslavl in 1872. She graduated first in
1893 from the St Petersburg Conservatoire at the culmination of her studies in
Anton Rubinstein’s piano class, and a second time, in 1895, after studying
composition with Nicolai Soloviev, conducting her cantata Orvasi. Over the
following years, she composed works which included a symphony, a piano
concerto, choral works, chamber music, piano solos and art-songs. Her works
received public recognition, for example, The Russian Musical Gazette noted in
1912: “Her gifts as a composer are a most welcome phenomenon of St Petersburg’s
musical life”. For some time, she hosted regular musical evenings at her
apartment in St Petersburg on Tuesdays. In 1907 she undertook concert tours, to
Berlin and twice to London. In 1916, Kashperova became a teacher at the Smolny
Institute, there she met Sergei Andropov, who was her student and a Bolshevik
Leader, and in the same year they married. However, when the February
Revolution began, the Smolny Institute was being used as the headquarters for
the revolution, to save themselves from being arrested the couple left
Petrograd to the Rostov-on-Don. From 1918-20 she moved to Moscow (due to the
Bolshevik success), but rarely performed until her final solo recital, an
all-Beethoven programme, was given on 30 November 1920. From then to her death,
she composed in secret and became forgotten in the Soviet public. She was the
piano teacher of composer Igor Stravinsky. By the time she died she was mostly
remembered by Stravinsky who called her “antiquated and a blockhead”.
TRACKLIST
WELTE-MIGNON
2036 BALAKIREV – Gondollied (Boat Song), b
WELTE-MIGNON
2162 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b lst mvt
WELTE-MIGNON
2163 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b 2nd mvt.
WELTE-MIGNON
2164 BALAKIREV – Piano Sonata, b-b 3rd mvt.
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