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Donald Macleod explores Kashperova’s life and music during the Russian Revolution including marriage to a revolutionary

The name of Leokadiya Kashperova was, for many decades, recorded in mainstream musical history as a footnote: the piano teacher of Igor Stravinsky. Her full story as a musician and composer has finally now been unearthed, through the research of Dr Graham Griffiths, supported by Radio 3’s Forgotten Women Composers project in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the publisher Boosey and Hawkes. This week, in the year of her 150th anniversary, Donald Macleod is joined by Dr Graham Griffiths, author of Leokadiya Kashperova: Biography, Memoirs and Recollections of Anton Rubinstein, to rediscover this once renowned musician, and features many specially made recordings and UK premieres.

Kashperova was one of the most talented composers and pianists of her generation, described as ‘a most welcome phenomenon of St Petersburg’s musical life’. She studied composition with Nikolay Solovyov and piano with Anton Rubinstein. Both Glazunov and Balakirev favoured Kashperova in the interpretation of their music, and she travelled internationally as a soloist to destinations such as Berlin and London. She also often performed her own compositions. Prior to 1917 most of Kashperova’s works were published and heard, but the arrival of the Russian Revolution caused her voice to be silenced. Public performances of Kashperova’s music stopped altogether because of her connections with the gentry. Private performances were rare. She continued to compose, but now without any hope of hearing it played.

In their final programme, Donald and Graham see Kashperova navigate the turbulent waters of Russia's communist Revolution.
Leokadiya Kashperova now found herself in a precarious position. As someone with family roots in the landed gentry, she could have found herself in serious danger at any moment. However, her circumstances altered when, in 1916, she married one of her piano pupils, Sergei Andropov. He was a revolutionary, who had previously been sent to prison, and into exile, and was a colleague of Lenin. Not long after their marriage, Kashperova resigned from a number of teaching positions she held and she withdrew from the exclusive institutions that were disapproved of by Lenin's Bolsheviks. In 1918, Kashperova and her husband fled Petrograd for the Caucasus, leaving behind a number of her mature compositions. These scores including a trio and a third cello sonata have, as yet, not been found. In 1922 they moved to Moscow, but her music was no longer performed and Kashperova kept a low profile until her death in 1940. She continued to compose music, but these late works were never heard during her lifetime.

Wirklichkeit (Songs of Love: 12 Romances, No 7)
Claire Booth, soprano
Alisdair Hogarth, piano

Cello Sonata in G major, Op 1 No 1 (Scherzo: Allegretto vivace)
Andrei Ionita, cello
Lilit Grigoryan, piano

Dich Einz’gen lieb’ ich (Songs of Love: 12 Romances, No 6) UK Premiere
Wiedersehen (Songs of Love: 12 Romances, No 8) UK Premiere
Claire Booth, soprano
Alisdair Hogarth, piano

Elizavetta Kashperova
Laughter Through the Tears, UK Premiere
Claire Booth, soprano
Alisdair Hogarth, piano

Elizavetta Kashperova
Prelude No 2 in D flat major (Two Preludes after Konstantin Balmont), UK Premiere
Hiroaki Takenouchi, piano

Leokadiya Kashperova
Piano Trio in A minor, Op Posth (excerpt)
Gould Piano Trio

Symphony in B minor, Op 4 (Finale: Andante sostenuto – molto allegro)
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Jane Glover, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock