Alexander Gauk

Alexander Vasilyevich Gauk (3 [15] August 1893, Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire – 30 March 1963, Moscow, USSR) was a Russian Soviet conductor, composer, and music teacher, awarded the title People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1954. He was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery. In his memoirs he wrote that the dream of conducting had possessed him from the age of three, and from his youth he pursued that ambition with determination.

He studied at the Petrograd Conservatory, where he trained in piano with Yelena Daugovet and Felix Blumenfeld, composition with Alexander Glazunov, Vasily Kalafati, Jāzeps Vītols, and Mikhail Chernov, and conducting with Nikolai Tcherepnin. He graduated in 1917 and that same year joined the Petrograd Theatre of Musical Drama, first as répétiteur and then as conductor. His debut took place on 14 November 1917 (New Style) with Tchaikovsky’s opera “Cherevichki.” During the harsh years of the Civil War he also performed before Red Army soldiers as part of an artistic brigade.

From 1920 to 1931 Gauk worked at the Leningrad Theatre of Opera and Ballet, conducting mainly ballet performances. His repertoire there included Glazunov’s “The Seasons,” Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” and Glière’s “The Red Poppy,” and as chief ballet conductor of the former Mariinsky Theatre he also introduced examples of young Soviet choreography, among them Vladimir Deshevov’s “The Red Whirlwind” (1924) and Shostakovich’s “The Golden Age” (1930) and “The Bolt” (1931). He also appeared regularly as a symphonic conductor, bringing orchestral music to new audiences in the 1920s through performances in places such as Svirstroi, Pavlovsk, and Sestroretsk.

He led the Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra from 1930 to 1934, and the years in charge of that ensemble were important in his artistic development; Gauk himself called the orchestra his “teacher,” while also playing a significant role in refining the ensemble that later achieved world renown. He moved to Moscow in 1933 and served as chief conductor of All-Union Radio until 1936. In 1936 he became the first chief conductor of the newly founded USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra, directing it until 1941. From 1953 to 1962 he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio and Television, and from 1953 to 1963 he again headed the Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio; numerous recordings made under his baton testify to the high level he achieved with the ensemble.

Gauk was also an active teacher whose work played an important role in the development of Soviet conducting. He taught at the Leningrad Conservatory (1927–1933 and 1946–1948), the Tbilisi Conservatory (1941–1943), and the Moscow Conservatory (1939–1963; professor from 1948). Among his students were Yevgeny Mravinsky, Alexander Melik-Pashayev, Konstantin Simeonov, Eduard Grikurov, Nikolai Rabinovich, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Gennady Provatorov, Evgeny Mikeladze, Mikhail Tavrizyan, and Odisseas Dimitriadi.

As a composer he wrote original works including a symphony, a sinfonietta for string orchestra, an overture, concertos for harp and for piano, romances, and piano and chamber pieces. He also produced orchestrations of works by Mikhail Glinka (“Patriotic Song”), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (“The Seasons” and two cycles of songs, 1942), and Modest Mussorgsky, completing the orchestration of the unfinished opera “Marriage” in 1917. From surviving orchestral parts he also reconstructed Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony, which he conducted on 13 November 1945 in its restored version after it had not been heard for nearly fifty years.

Noted for his sense of orchestral ensemble, stylistic awareness, and an outward restraint combined with intense inner ardor, he conducted both contemporary and classical repertoire, with monumental works occupying a special place in his programs. He presented first performances of works by Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, Khachaturian, Shaporin, Prokofiev, Muradeli, Ovchinnikov, and others, and was especially close to Myaskovsky’s symphonic music, conducting most of his symphonies. Alongside new Soviet music, he championed major works of the past that were often neglected, including Handel’s oratorio “Samson,” Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Berlioz’s “Requiem,” “Harold in Italy,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and the Funeral and Triumphal Symphony. He also toured internationally.

Chapters from Gauk’s memoirs were published in the collection “The Mastery of the Performing Artist” in 1972, and a volume titled “Memoirs, Selected Articles, Recollections of Alexander Gauk’s Contemporaries” appeared in 1975.

Connections

This figure has 13 connections in the Music Lineage catalog.