Two Russian musicians-turned-Generals, Alexei Lvov and Alexander Alexandrov…
They both enjoyed worldwide acclaim as some of the greatest vocal experts
and choirmasters around. They both lived 63 years; Lvov was born in 1798
and Alexandrov almost a century later, in 1883. Composition-wise, they
were equally good both being the proud authors of Russia’s pre- and post-revolutionary
anthems…
…In 1833 Emperor Nicholas I invited Russia’s leading composes to write
this country’s first national anthem. Before that solemn occasions had
traditionally been held to celebratory Orthodox chants or to the strains
of the British national anthem anywhere else in Europe.
There were several leading Russian composers vying for the commission the
clear favorites being Mikhail Glinka, the author of Russia’s first classical
opera “A Life for the Czar,” and Alexei Lvov, Emperor Nicholas’ close confidant
and aide-de-camp. Lvov’s version ultimately won out. Written to lyrics
by the popular Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky, it opened with the “God Save
the Czar” incantation, just like the British anthem did…
110 years later, in 1943, when the Communists had been ruling this country
for more than a quarter century, the Soviet government, just like Emperor
Nicholas I before it, held a competition for the country’s new anthem.
Lvov’s anthem had long sunk into oblivion, and with good reason too since
Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, had been ousted and executed with all
his family in Yekaterinburg…
Almost immediately after the Bolsheviks took power in 1917 they replaced
the old “God Save the Czar” anthem with the more appropriately themed “Marseillaise”
and then the “International”. Faced with the daunting task of driving out
the Nazi invaders during World War Two, the Communist ideologues were desperately
looking for new, all-Russian, symbols that would rally the nation. A new
national anthem was seen as one such symbol and Josef Stalin, then all-powerful
leader of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union, set up a special
panel to work on the country’s new anthem.
Just like in the previous century, there were many composers contesting
the much-touted commission, but there again were only two hands-down hopefuls;
Dmitry Shostakovich, the world-renowned author of “The Leningrad Symphony”,
and Alexander Alexandrov, the founder and conductor of the formidable Red
Army Song and Dance Ensemble and the author of the Anthem of the Bolshevik
Party. Stalin opted for Alexandrov’s version and commissioned the popular
poet Sergei Mikhalkov to write the text.
On January 1, 1944 the new Soviet anthem became official. Alexandrov, then
60 and hugely popular in and out of this country, was already donning a
General’s uniform he had earned conducting the Red Army Ensemble. Winning
big kudos touring Europe in the Thirties, the ensemble continued working
hard throughout the war regularly entertaining Red Army soldiers in between
battles. All meaning that Alexandrov’s well-deserved popularity would by
no means have suffered even if he hadn’t written the anthem at all…
Not so in the 19th century when the 35-year-old Alexei Lvov was promoted
to General and appointed to the head of the Royal Choir in St.Petersburg
expressly for his “God Save the Czar” anthem. A smart and talented man,
Lvov used his new authority to make the Royal Choir one of the very best
in Europe and contributing some 40 excellent religious compositions to
their program.
It just so happened that Alexander Alexandrov, too, once had a brush with
the Royal Choir, only more than 50 years after Lvov and in the capacity
of a young chorister. Later graduating from two different conservatory
departments in Moscow, Alexandrov wrote scores of his own operas, symphonies
and songs. Like Lvov before him, he, too, tried his hand writing religious
chants, not for the Royal Choir, but, instead, for the choir of Christ
the Savior’s Cathedral in Moscow where he was a precentor.
However, let’s get back to the national anthems… Alexei Lvov’s “God Save
the Czar” was played in the world’s largest country for a whole 84 years,
well known to each and every of its subjects and numerously excerpted by
Russia’s leading composers. Including Pyotr Tchaikovsky who used part of
it in his “1812 Overture” he wrote for the opening of Christ the Savior’s
Cathedral in Moscow. The very same one where Alexandrov later served as
a precentor…
Alexandrov’s anthem lasted for 47 years until it was swept away by a coup,
just like Lvov’s had been half a century before that. In 1991 the Soviet
Union had fallen apart and they were now looking for a new anthem. Russia’s
then president Boris Yeltsin somehow righted the old wrong opting for the
Patriotic Song by Mikhail Glinka Emperor Nicholas I had rejected 160 years
earlier…
The country traditionally went to bed at night and woke up in the morning
to the strains of its national anthem, but Glinka’s music didn’t last long
and Russia entered the new millennium with the text-revamped old Soviet
anthem written by General Alexander Alexandrov.
Alexander Alexandrov is still remembered more as the founder of the one-of-a-kind
military ensemble, which now bears his name and sings his songs…
General Alexei Lvov earned his place in history primarily thanks to his
phenomenal skills as a violin player. The first Russian violinist to succeed
in Europe, Lvov won kudos from the likes of Robert Schumann and Hector
Berlioz who hailed him “the Russian Paganini”. Continuing the tradition
laid down by the great Italian string wizard, Alexei Lvov penned 24 virtuoso
capriccios for solo violin and a violin concerto which still grace the
repertoire of many leading Russian performers…
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