A missing person in music history

The name Leokadia Kashperova is probably not even familiar to many music lovers. And if they do, then at best as Igor Stravinsky's piano teacher in St. Petersburg. Yet it was precisely in this musical metropolis that she was regarded as an outstanding pianist and talented composer, at least until the Russian Revolution, and was also a much sought-after teacher. Stravinsky mentions her in detail in his Chroniques de ma vie and in the Conversations with Robert Craft.

Leokadia Kashperova was born in 1872 in a village near Yaroslavl. She studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the elite piano class of the legendary Anton Rubinstein and graduated with top marks in 1893. Two years later, as a pupil of Nikolai Solovyov, she also completed her studies in composition. Her most important works were performed over the next twenty years, including a symphony, a piano concerto, choral works and much chamber music.

In 1916, she married her student Sergei Andropov, a Bolshevik revolutionary and close confidant of Lenin. This obviously changed her life drastically. After the revolution, she occasionally performed as a pianist, but her music was hardly ever played. And when she died in 1940, her person and her work were completely forgotten.

This has changed in recent years, not least thanks to the initiative of Graham Griffiths, who has published some of her works in a special edition with Boosey & Hawkes. Kashperova Edition has published. We also have him to thank for a new edition of the piano suite In the middle of nature (Au Sein de la Nature) from 1910. As in numerous songs and chamber music works, Kashperova's deep love of nature manifests itself in this work. The six movements are cleverly graded according to difficulty, which could indicate that the pieces were also intended for teaching.

The first four Deux Roses and Deux feuilles d'automne are kept simple and can (almost) be played at sight. However, this simplicity is anything but primitive. The music flows and breathes with a wonderful naturalness, like poetic verses that rhyme in an unforced way. The fifth piece Le murmure des blés, a rewarding sound study for nimble fingers, makes greater pianistic demands. And the concluding Battage du blé with its stomping martellato brings a surprisingly coarse component into play.

The publisher is to be highly complimented on this careful and attractively designed new edition, not least for the fact that the foreword in English, German and French provides a wealth of interesting information about this extraordinary musician.

Leokadiya Kashperova: In the midst of nature, suite for piano solo in six movements, edited by Graham Griffiths, BH 13563, € 17.00, Boosey & Hawkes, London 2021 (Schott)