Although not music related, I would like to post this link about Arevik Shmavonyan. Those who can help – please write paper letters, they have to answer them, e-mails can be simply deleted.
The Bulgarian version is here.
Thank you!

Talking to various people I realized that the blind copying does not only exist in the musical world. Mikhail Simkin, the author of entertaining quizzes but also an author of many serious papers, has very enlightening conclusions on the subject. In “Copied citations create renowned papers” he writes: “Recently we discovered [5] that copying from the lists of references used in other papers is a major component of the citation dynamics in scientific publication. This way a paper that already was cited is likely to be cited again, and after it is cited again it is even more likely to be cited in the future. In other words, “unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance”[6], [7]. This phenomenon is known as “Matthew effect” [6], “cumulative advantage” [8], or “preferential attachment” [9]. ”
And the abstract from his “Read before you cite!” says it clearly: “We report a method of estimating what percentage of people who cited a paper had actually read it. The method is based on a stochastic modeling of the citation process that explains empirical studies of misprint distributions in citations (which we show follows a Zipf law). Our estimate is only about 20% of citers read the original.”

Or even less?

The other disturbing subject (for me) is the easy made and easy given negative opinions about the unknown, forgotten composers and their work. The less a composer is known, the less is the respect for him. The examples could fill a book – in all possible languages. From the French “Histoire da la musique” in 4 volumes, published by Gallimard: “A l’exemple de quelques pianistes d’Europe centrale, notamment de Steibelt, Dussek et Cramer, qui commencent à inonder le monde musical de leurs médiocres et insignifiantes compositions, nos auteurs recherchent de plus en plus l’écriture volubile”. (“Taking example from some pianists of central Europe, like Steibelt, Dussek and Cramer, who begin to flood the musical world with their mediocre and insignificant compositions, our (French) authors seek more and more a voluble way of writing.”) After such information I hardly can imagine the young music student running to the next library in search for Dussek or Cramer…

Larry Todd in his very detailed biography of Mendelssohn surprises with: “Berger composed not only piano sonatas and nondescript etudes reminiscent of Clementi…”. Ludwig Berger (1777-1839), a former student of Clementi and the teacher of Felix and Fanny was a well-known composer and pianist, his “nondescript” etudes, op.12 (1816) and op.22 (1822) were praised by not lesser than Robert Schumann: “… diese Studien die jeder Lernende auswendig wissen müsste”. („These studies (here about op.12), should be known by heart by every student”.) Sorry Mr. Todd, many of the studies are not at all reminiscent of Clementi, they anticipate Mendelssohn, Chopin and yes, even Brahms.

Not otherwise it is in Italy – Andrea Gherzi in his ”La sonata per pianoforte nel 1700 e 1800” affirms that: “Kalkbrenner si può considerare come uno Steibelt più romantico, ma ambedue furono mediocre architetti: le loro sonate mancano di senso dinamico e drammatico, di unitarietà”. (“Kalkbrenner can be condsiderated as more romantic than Steibelt, but both were mediocre architechts: their sonatas lack a dynamical and dramatical sense and unitarity.”)

How could I deprive you of one of the pearls from renowned “The sonata since Beethoven” by William Newman: „But the weak ideas , dull accompaniments, and lack of any compelling sense of form do not suggest that master nor explain the respect in which he was held by his young friend Chopin” – this is written about the first compositions (1805) of August Klengel (1785-1852). Now – can you see any link between the youth sonatas of the composer and the friendship the same shared with Chopin 25 years later? I can’t, but I see my respect for W. Newman drastically diminishing. How strong must have been his urge to deny the talent of a “third-rate” author which led him to such logical mistakes! But who cares?
Certainly we all like some composers more and reject others, but do not the readers of scientific researches deserve a professional, objective presentation instead of cock-and-bull stories wrapped up in scientific disguise?

Well, I am not so keen on doing quizzes but I found Mikhail Simkin’s worth trying. Here is Mozart or Salieri, but why not give a try to a MIDI or Virtuoso as well?

I’d be interested in how you did.

So hurry up, may be in a week or two it would be cheaper to invite Mr Malcolm Bilson to your own place for a lecture!

Click here to view the embedded video.

and

Click here to view the embedded video.

I do not know if it is a joke or erratum, but I like the idea that it is not simply $ 6,231.00, but $6,6231.Seventy One Cents!

Here an excerpt from “Knowing the score”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

P.S. In case one of the DVDs is sold meanwhile, here’s a screenshot ;)

About Ari Leschnikoff in Bulgaria. You wrote: “Ari had already had to return to Sophia to carry out his duties as a senior officer in the Bulgarian army” and then you wrote also: “He fought with the partisans in the mountains to prevent the Russians and the Nazis from entering Bulgaria during the war”. Interesting is that Ari was probably able to return to Berlin in 1939 or even 1940? – he recorded there alone.

Then back in Bulgaria he continued to sing and record too. During 1940-41 he was responsible for the musical section of the company “Microphone”.

From 1942 to 1943 he was an assistant commander, and from 1943 – the commanding officer of the Central Rail Station in Sofia. At least it is what he says in the documentary and I don’t see why he should lie. Now – how could he be in two places at once – in Sofia with an important mission and in the mountains as a partisan in the same time? Do you mean he deserted secretly the army to join the partisans? Because the partisan movement was guided by the Communist party and so coordinated with the Soviet communist party as well. That’s why the partisans did not fight to prevent Russians entering Bulgaria. And if he was a partisan, after the war he would have enjoyed the privileges many partisans received, but it does not seem to be the case.

You write as well: he smuggled Jews and gypsies out of the country during the war too. Not many people know this, and I am proud of it, since my mother is Jewish.

I don’t know how and when he smuggled Jewish or Roma (Gypsies), but there is one thing that not many people outside Bulgaria know: during the Second World War the Jewish people in Bulgaria have had a very different destiny compared to those in the other Europe’s parts. Please read this.

In Bulgaria they were not victims of deportation to Germany. When the first Jewish groups for the first deportation train arrived in Plovdiv, the population protested violently and the (future) Bulgarian Patriarch warned that he will join the Jewish people. The deportation was stopped. There were even rumors that Tzar Boris III was poisoned after his meeting with Hitler in 1943, when he made clear his position about the Jews. Yes, some of them were sent to the countryside for labors, but they all returned, and this I know myself not only from older friends, but also from older Jewish acquaintances. The Jewish from the “new” parts of Bulgaria (Jews from Aegean Thrace (now in Greece) and Vardar Macedonia (now Republic of Macedonia), which were then under German occupation and Bulgarian administration) were sent to Germany and it could be possible that as a commandant of the Rail Station Ari was in a position to help. But I think you can be proud of your grandfather in any case, even if your mother were not Jewish :-).

Ari Leschnikoff was seen as a traitor in the 50’s not because of his singing in foreign languages. That was the case with Snegina Tchelebieva. Ari offended the Regime because he sang old city songs (starigradski pesni) and this was considered as bourgeois.

I have to correct the following too: “Did the Communist Party outlaw all the fantastic operas from France or Italy: yes – because they were seen as bourgeois. That’s why so many opera stars that emerged from Russia and the former Soviet Union only sang Verdi in Russian!”

The communist regime did outlaw neither Italian nor the French operas – otherwise the Russian or Soviet singers will not be able to sing it at all, not even in Russian. But they sang in Russian – because such was the old tradition. Already in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th in Russia the operas were translated in Russian, giving the public the possibility to understand everything.

A small example:

The famous Russian singer A. Nezhdanova 1906 in “Caro Nome” (Verdi)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not less famous L.Sobinov 1911 in “Je crois entendre encore” (Bizet)

Click here to view the embedded video.

So it was possible to hear in Russia an opera with the Russians singing in Russian and the guests in Italian. In Bulgaria the future singers had to learn Italian to be able to understand and sing in the original language too. But many other nations did the same. Same could be said about the original editions of sheet music (Urtext) – only in the last 30-40 years they began to be of importance.
An interesting parallel – in West Germany during many years after the war all the movies were translated in German without subtitles. The foreign movies shown on the TV were in German too. Some operas were sung in German as well, here Hermann Prey and Fritz Wunderlich in Rossini:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jessica, I think today it should be not a problem for you to learn more about Ari’s second family and your uncle in Bulgaria:

And do visit Bulgaria when you have the opportunity!

Best regards
Anna

I admit that it was a difficult quiz, as there are no recordings of his music, except only one sonata. But Georgi was very close with his guess-congratulations! (And I also would like to thank Acnapyx and Michel for their participation.)

What I really wished is to show that the “charlatans” can write wonderful music too. :-)

More about Steibelt coming soon… stay tuned!