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Price: $1000.00 |
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FINE CONDITION |
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Scarce youthful verso autographed and inscribed I.S. Afanseva of Moscow carte de visite photograph by the Russian composer, pianist and organist May 25, 1907.
Goedicke (1877-1957) came from a German family that had lived in Russia for multiple generations. All of the male line were musicians, all organists, choral directors and his father was also a repetiteur at the Bolshoi Theatre and taught the first level piano class at the Moscow Conservatory. Nikolai Medtner was a cousin. All of the male line were allegedly blessed with perfect pitch.
Goedicke studied piano with Pabst and Safanov and composition and theory with Arensky, Conus and Morozov at the Moscow Conservatory. Apparently he found much of his experience at the Conservatory mundane, especially the non music course like culture, literature, sculpture and painting.
In 1900, Goedicke won the Rubinstein Prize in Vienna for his konzertstücke for pianoforte, his violin sonata and several piano works in the composer competition and received and honorable mention as a pianist. Emile Bosquet, the Belgian pianist won the piano prize. Alexander Goldenweiser participated in the competition and said both Goedicke and his cousing Nikolai Medtner were far superior to Bosquet.
Goedicke continued to teach privately and at the Elizabethan Institute for Girls. He also installed a pipe organ in his home. In 1909 he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1919 he was appointed Chairman of the chamber ensemble department and in 1920 he added organ teaching responsibilities and in 1923 he was made Chairman of the organ department. He gave his first solo concert when he was appointed in 1923 at the Big Hall of the Conservatory. In demand, his organ pupils included the most important in Russia at the time, Dizhur, Grodberg, Roizman, Starokadomsky, Vygodsky and Weiss were among many. As a performer, he played the entire organ repertory of Johann Sebastian Bach. He made recordings for Meloydia between 1947 and 1949 which can be heard on YouTube. He was also noted for a walking gate, use of a walking stick, his peasant appearance and his ability to never raise his voice to make a point. Her and his wife were animal enthusiasts and they apparently lived with a dozen cats and a stray special needs dog that they adopted.
As a composer Goedicke was prolific, some 4 operas, 3 symphonies, overtures, individual concertos for piano, organ, violin, horn, trumpet and orchestra, chamber works, solo piano and organ works, cantatas, songs and choruses. His works are steeped in Romanticism, though one would not describe his works as completely Russian in character as he was certainly influenced by the works of the German and French Romantics. His concert etude for trumpet and piano, op. 49 is a virtuosic feast and is featured on YouTube in several renditions.
Exceedingly rare, this is the first autographed photograph we have seen on the market in 40 years of collecting and as a dealer.
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ALEXANDRE GOEDICKE - COMPOSER |
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Phone: 212-860-5541 * Fax: 917-677-8247
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