Mark Fridrikhovich Ermler (; 5 May 193214 April 2002) was a Russian
conductor.
Biography
Mark Ermler was born in
Leningrad
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 ...
in 1932. His parents were Vera Bakun, a film set designer, and
Fridrikh Ermler, a film director. He began to study
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 ...
at age 5.
His first conducting appearance at the Bolshoi Theatre was in a 1957 production of ''
Cavalleria rusticana''. His other noted operatic engagements included conducting the first performances of
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 ...
's last opera, ''
The Story of a Real Man''.
Ermler was especially noted for his conducting of ballets. He conducted, among others, ''
Swan Lake'', ''
Petrushka'', ''
The Firebird'', ''
The Sleeping Beauty'', and ''
The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...
''. He made complete recordings of all three of
Tchaikovsky's ballets and Prokofiev's ''
Romeo and Juliet
''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
'' with the orchestra of the
Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden. He became principal guest conductor of the Royal Ballet, London, in 1985.
Ermler died at April 4, 2002 during the tour with the
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul.
Selected recordings
* Prokofiev – ''The Story of a Real Man''. Bolshoi, 1961. reissued Chandos.
* Prokofiev –
Symphony No. 5. Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Soviet Union. Melodiya. 33C10-09945-6. (LP)
See also
*
Ermler
References
External links
Obituary
1932 births
2002 deaths
Russian Jews
Musicians from Saint Petersburg
20th-century Russian conductors (music)
Russian male conductors (music)
20th-century Russian male musicians
21st-century Russian conductors (music)
21st-century Russian male musicians
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