Aleksandr Sheremetev

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.

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

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]

In 1917, Count Aleksandr and his wife fled to their estates in Finland and escaped the Red Terror. They lost all their possessions in Russia, but sold their Finnish estates and moved to Belgium and then to Paris. After a while the money ran out and they lived in poverty, helped somewhat by a charity. They both died there in the 1930 and were buried in the Russian cemetery in Paris.

Their son, Georgy, fought for the Whites, fled Russia and worked as secretary for Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich of Russia in France in the 1920s.

References
  • Wagner & Russia, Rosamund Bartlett. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-03582-1
  • former People, Douglas Smith. Pan Books, 2013. ISBN 978-0-330-52029-4

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