Anna Yesipova (born Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova; ; ) was a Russian pianist.

Life

Yesipova was one of

Teodor Leszetycki Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky; ; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915) was a Polish pianist, professor, and composer active in Austria-Hungary. He was born in Landshut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land ...

's most brilliant pupils. She made her debut in Saint Petersburg in 1874 attracting rave reviews and the artistic admiration of both

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

and

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, particularly for her effortless virtuosity and singing tone. She then began concert tours which brought her in 1876 to the United States, where her playing was greatly admired. Yesipova was probably the first pianist to program the complete set of

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

's Preludes, Op. 28 in a recital, for a concert in 1876. Previously the practice was to perform excerpts only. In 1877, she heard the playing of Fanny Bloomfield and advised her to train under Leszetycki, whom Yesipova went on to marry in 1880, becoming his second wife, and (after they had two children, a daughter, Theresa, who became a well-known singer and teacher, and a son Robert) divorced in 1892. In the Summer of 1880 she gave a number of concerts in London (Covent Garden) and Lisbon, where she had a very warm reception. In 1885, Yesipova was appointed

Royal Prussia Royal Prussia (; or , ) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch. ''A New System of Geography'', London 1762p. 588/ref> (Polish: ; German: ) became a province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, which was annexed follow ...

n Court Pianist. From 1893 to 1908, she was professor of

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

forte at the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

. Among her students were

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

, Leff Pouishnoff,

Sergei Tarnowsky Sergei Vladimirovich Tarnowsky (also spelled Sergei Tarnovsky; ; 3 November 188322 March 1976) was a Russian, Soviet and American pianist and teacher. Biography Tarnowsky was born in Kharkiv (then the capital of the Kharkov Governorate). Visiting ...

Maria Yudina Maria Veniaminovna Yudina ( ; 189919 November 1970) was a Soviet pianist. Early life and education Maria Yudina was born to a Jewish family in Nevel, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire. She was the fourth child of Veniamin Yudin, a renowne ...

Leonid Kreutzer Leonid Kreutzer (13 March 1884 in St. Petersburg – 30 October 1953 in Tokyo) was a classical pianist. Life and career Kreutzer was born in St. Petersburg into a Jewish family. He studied composition under Alexander Glazunov and piano under Anna ...

Isabelle Vengerova Isabelle Vengerova (; 7 February 1956) was a Russian, later American, pianist and music teacher. She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in Minsk (now in Belarus) in the family o ...

Anastasia Virsaladze Anastasia Virsaladze née Abdushelishvili, Georgian: ანასტასია ვირსალაძე, (November 11, 1883 – September 5, 1968) was a Georgian concert pianist and music teacher. In 1921, she began to teach at the Tbilisi Con ...

Leo Ornstein Leo Ornstein (born ''Lev Ornshteyn''; ; – February 24, 2002) was an American Experimental music, experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and ev ...

Isidor Achron Isidor Yulyevich Achron (; – May 12, 1948) was a Russian-American pianist, composer and music teacher. Birth and early childhood Isidor Achron, youngest brother of Joseph Achron, was born on November 11, 1892, in Warsaw to Russian parents of ...

Thomas de Hartmann Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann (; October 3 .S.: September 21 1884March 28, 1956) was a Ukrainian-born composer, pianist and professor of composition. Life De Hartmann was born on his father’s estate in Khoruzhivka, Poltava Governorate, Uk ...

, and

Alexander Borovsky Alexander Borovsky (also spelled Borowski and Borowsky; 1889-1968) was a Russian-American pianist. He completed his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1912 with a gold medal and the Anton Rubinstein Prize. Early life and career Alex ...

(Borowsky).

Recordings

In the early 1900s, Yesipova made a number of

piano roll A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. Piano rolls, like other music rolls, are continuous rolls of paper with holes punched into them. These perforations represent note contro ...

s, some of which have made been available as modern recordings (including Thalberg's ''Fantasia on a theme from Bellini's

La Sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (; ''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

''). There is one extant acoustic recording of her playing

Benjamin Godard Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (18 August 184910 January 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction, best known for his opera '' Jocelyn''. Godard composed eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin conce ...

's Gavotte in G, recorded on an Edison cylinder by Julius Block in November 1898. This is one of a series of c. 200 cylinders recorded by Block in Russia in the 1890s and believed to be lost, until they were relocated at

Pushkin House The Pushkin House (), formally the Institute of Russian Literature (), is a research institute in St. Petersburg. It is part of a network of institutions affiliated with the Russian Academy of Sciences. History Establishment The Russian Lite ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and published for the first time in 2008.''The Dawn of Recording: The Julius Block Cylinders'' (Marston Records 53011-2): Liner notes
D. J. Wakin

''New York Times'', October 24, 2008.

Notes

References

Sources

*
Comtesse Angèle Potocka: ''Theodore Leschetizky, an intimate study of the man and the musician''. New York, The Century co., 1903 p. 223 f.

External links

Yesipova plays Godard's Gavotte in G, Op. 81, no. 2
(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Yesipova, Anna 1914 deaths 1851 births 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century women musicians from the Russian Empire Pianists from the Russian Empire Piano educators Russian women classical pianists Russian music educators Russian women music educators Academic staff of Saint Petersburg Conservatory Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery Pupils of Theodor Leschetizky 19th-century women pianists