Aleksandr Sheremetev

Aleksandr Sheremetev in the uniform of a fire brigade, c. 1903.

Count Aleksandr Dmitriyevich Sheremetev (11 March [O.S. 27 February] 1859 – 18 May 1931) was a Russian composer, conductor and entrepreneur. He founded his own private symphony orchestra in 1882, and from 1898 organized public concerts in Saint Petersburg involving the orchestra and a choir he had inherited from his father, Dmitri Sheremetev. He also founded the Musical Historical Society in 1910, which gave free lecture recitals involving his orchestra and choir.

Sheremetev conducted the Russian premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal in a series of three concerts in 1906; however his conducting on that occasion was described by the press as "primitive".^[1] This was followed by Sheremetev conducting the opera's first Russian staging on 21 December 1913 (according to the Russian Old Style calendar; 3 January 1914 according to the standard Western calendar), performed at the Hermitage Theatre before the Imperial Family, the diplomatic corps, representative members of the State Duma and senior government officials. After two further performances there, the production transferred to the Theatre of Musical Drama.^[2]

On 10 June 1883 Sheremetev married Marie Heyden (born 1863 in Reval), daughter of Governor-General of Finland count Frederick Heyden (1821–1900) and Elisabeth Zubov (1833–1894).^[3]

References

• Wagner & Russia, Rosamund Bartlett. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-03582-1

Notes

1. Bartlett, p. 88
2. Bartlett, pp. 112-13
3. (German) Genealogy handbook of Baltic nobility