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Karl Albrecht (1836-1893)Karl Albrecht

Карл Альбрехт

Cellist and teacher. Born on 4 October 1836 in Elberfeld, Germany, son of the German conductor and composer Karl ALBRECHT (1807-1863). In 1838 the Albrecht family moved from Düsseldorf to Saint Petersburg, where father and son were known as Karl Frantsevich AL'BREKHT [Карл Францевич Альбрехт] and Konstantin Karlovich AL'BREKHT [Константин Карлович Альбрехт) respectively.

The younger Karl followed in his father's musical footsteps, and became a cellist with the Bol'shoi Theatre in Moscow in 1854. Here he worked with Nikolai Rubinstein to help found the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society in 1860, becoming a teacher in the society's music classes. After the opening of Moscow Conservatory in 1866, Albrecht was appointed as supervisor and instructor in choral singing and elementary theory, a position he held until 1889. It was at the Conservatory that Tchaikovsky and Albrecht first met as fellow tutors, and the two men remained good friends for the rest of their lives.

In 1878 Albrecht also helped to found the Russian Choral Society in Moscow, and while working at the Conservatory he also produced a Manual of choral singing after the numerical method of Chevé [Руководство к хоровому пению по цифирной методе Шеве] and Collections of choral pieces for single and mixed voices [Сборники хоровых пьес, для однородных и смешанных голосов], to which Tchaikovsky contributed the choruses. Spring, Evening, and Blessed is He Who Smiles. Albrecht also compiled and published catalogues of selected works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Glinka.

Tchaikovsky's letters show that he thought highly of Albrecht's musical abilities, and regretted that the latter had chosen not to develop them further. He was deeply upset by the news of Albrecht's death on 14/26 June 1893 in Moscow, aged 57.

Tchaikovsky's Modern Greek Song (No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 16) and his Serenade for String Orchestra (1880) are both dedicated to Karl Albrecht.