Youssoupoff, Prince Nikolai Borisovich

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Youssoupoff, Prince Nikolai Borisovich

Youssoupoff, Prince Nikolai Borisovich, Russian musical dilettante and writer on music; b. St. Petersburg, 1827; d. Baden-Baden, Aug. 3, 1891. He studied violin with Vieuxtemps, and was an eager collector of violin literature; had a private orch. in his palace in St. Petersburg, but lived abroad for many years. He composed a programmatic sym., Gonzalvo de Cordova, with violin obbligato, Concerto symphonique for violin and orch., and several pieces for violin and piano (Féeries de la scène, Hallucination, Chant d’amour, Plainte, Saltimbanques, etc.). He also publ. an interesting book on violin making, Luthomonographie, historique et raisonnée: Essai sur l’histoire du violon et sur les ouvrages des anciens luthiers célèbres du temps de la Renaissance, par un amateur (Frankfurt am Main, 1862), and Musique sacrée suivie d’un choix de morceaux de chants d’église (Paris, 1862, as Vol. I of a projected Histoire de la musique en Russie; contains a valuable study of Russian neumes and examples of traditional chants). Themes from Youssoupoff ′s Ballet d’Espagne were used by Bériot for a group of 6 violin duets.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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