Aleksandr Ivanovich Orlov () (

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

18 August 1873 –

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

October 10, 1948) was a Russian opera conductor, and

People's Artist of the RSFSR People's Artist of the RSFSR (, ''Narodnyj artist RSFSR'') was an honorary title granted to Soviet Union artists, including theatre and film directors, actors, choreographers, music performers, and orchestra conductors, who had outstanding achiev ...

(1945). He was the first head of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio (1930–1937).

Biography

Orlov studied violin at the

St. 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 members ...

, under Pyotr Krasnokutsky, and conducting under

Paul Juon Paul Juon (, ''Pavel Fyodorovich Yuon''; 6 March 1872 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian-born Swiss composer. Life Juon was born in Moscow, where his father was an insurance official. His parents were Swiss, and he attended a German primary school ...

in Berlin. From 1902, he worked as a symphonic and opera conductor in the cities of southern Russia. From 1912 to 1917, he was conductor of the Symphony Orchestra under

Serge Koussevitzky Serge Koussevitzky (born Sergey Aleksandrovich Kusevitsky;Koussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling "Serge", using it in his sig ...

in Moscow, and at the same time implemented a number of opera productions, 1914-1924. From 1925 to 1929, Orlov was Principal Conductor of Kiev State Academic Ukrainian Opera, where he conducted

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

on September of 1928, and a professor of the

Kiev Conservatory The Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music (), formerly Kyiv Conservatory, is a national music tertiary academy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Its courses include postgraduate education. History The Kyiv Conservatory was founded on 3 November 1913 at ...

. His students included

Natan Rakhlin Natan Hryhorovych Rakhlin (28 June 1979) was a Soviet and Ukrainian Jewish conductor. Biography Rakhlin was born January 10, 1906, in Snovsk, Gorodnyansky Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire. He served as Artistic Director of the Ukr ...

. From 1930, Orlov headed the

Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra is a Russian classical music radio orchestra established in 1930. It was founded as the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, and served as the official symphony for the Soviet All-Union Radio network. History Follo ...

, and premiered many works by Soviet composers, and directing opera performances on radio and at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

. He conducted

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

's first recorded performance of Beethoven's

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

in 1946.The gramophone: 1997 Lastly, the earliest generally available recording of Yehudi Menuhin playing Beethoven'^ Violin Concerto, taken down live in Moscow in 1 946 under the baton of Alexander Orlov

Selected Opera Recordings

* 1937 - "Eugene Onegin" (Onegin - Panteleimon Nortsov, Lensky - Ivan Kozlovsky, Tatiana - Elena Kruglikova) * 1946 - "Lakme" sung in Russian (Lakmé - Hope Kazantsev, Gerald - Sergei Lemeshev) * 1947 - "La Traviata" sung in Russian (Violetta - Elizabeth Shumskaya, Alfredo Germont - Ivan Kozlovsky, Germont - Paul Lisician) * 1948 - "Eugene Onegin" (Onegin - Andrey Ivanov, Lensky -

Ivan Kozlovsky Ivan Semyonovich Kozlovsky (21 December 1993) was a Soviet lyric tenor and one of the most well known stars of Russian opera, as well a producer and director of his own opera company, and longtime teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. People' ...

, Tatiana - Elena Kruglikova)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orlov, Aleksandr Ivanovich 1873 births 1948 deaths Conductors (music) from the Russian Empire Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni Soviet conductors (music)