OVERTURE Jacob Burstein Plays for Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov

Jacob Burstein plays for Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov

In January 1893 Tchaikovsky at the height of his fame arrived in Odessa via Brussels and Paris, shortly after the Christmas premieres of the Nutcracker and his short opera Iolanta at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. He was there to conduct five concerts with the Odessa branch of the Russian Musical Society. Though perpetually exhausted and suffering chronic bowel problems, in the previous two years he had toured America and given concerts in Berlin, Basle and elsewhere between stops at his rented house near Moscow to score Pique Dame (“The Queen of Spades”) and other works.

Pyotr Ilich (as he was called) sought out Odessa in Russia’s far south partly because he expected a respite from ice. Instead he got “winter as in Archangelsk – snow almost up to the knee, everyone wrapped in furs” with “the sea frozen for tens of versts.” He also sat for an oil portrait and was targeted with a fire-hose of appearances and honorary feasts, mitigated by effusive provincial praise. “Never have I been so exhausted from conducting,” he wrote his brother Modest, “but nowhere have I been so praised and feted as here. . . .There were many . . . heavy hours (e.g. the festival dinner at the English Club) but also many gratifying ones. If only I could be lauded one-tenth as much in the capitals . . .!”

Tchaikovsky’s Odessa performances included his Tempest fantasia, Nutcracker orchestral suite, and 1812 Overture. Like the Pathetique -- which opens with a bassoon passage -- most of these featured expansive parts for the haunting sound of the fagot.

In the first bassoon chair of the Musical Society orchestra for these performances was a tall young man with a large mustache and a quiet, dignified air.

Jacob Meir Burstein -- recently returned to Odessa with his piano-teacher wife Genia and toddling daughter Bertha from their native Kishinev -- had overcome long odds to occupy that chair.

The product of a broken home, he was initially a self-taught trumpeter at Jewish weddings, forced to climb garden trees to practice by a mother who could not tolerate music. Then he was

2 taken in hand, still a boy, by a traveling German bassoonist intrigued by his curiosity and tone. He followed to Odessa when the German took a position there. Consumed by the instrument’s mysterious depth and the lure of better pay, over fifteen years he had elevated his musical skills to become a pioneer Russian-born classical double-reed player. When his mentor returned to Germany in 1891, Jacob took his place in the Odessa orchestra.

Jacob had many distractions besides his new family. He was just settling in as a contract orchestra player and beginning part-time teaching. Due to his father-in-law’s premature death two years before, he also was mentoring Genia’s pack of younger brothers, teaching them the classical musician's trade. Nevertheless he remained focused professionally.

At age 26, Jacob played all the bassoon parts in Tchaikovsky’s performances, including notoriously tricky Nutcracker passages.1 He apparently played them so well that the master presented him a kabinett portrait taken in Petersburg for the Nutcracker premiere, autographed “To Ja. Burstein in commemoration.”2

Tchaikovsky left Odessa in February 1893. In parting, he urged that his friendly rival Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov be invited to conduct a similar concert series. When Tchaikovsky died suddenly and mysteriously in November 1893,3 Rimsky-Korsakov’s February 1894 Odessa visit became a series of emotional memorials.

Like Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the Nutcracker suite. He also conducted Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, Third Symphony,4 and Romeo and Juliet Overture.

Jacob Burstein played those bassoon parts too, including the Third Symphony’s bassoon solo. As had Tchaikovsky, the hyphenated composer – soon to be head of the Petersburg Conservatory that ultimately bore his name – presented him an autographed portrait, inscribed “To J. Burstein, with appreciation.”

The month before, Jacob’s second daughter Rebecca had arrived.

And so it began . . .

Jacob’s bassoon solo, 1812 Overture

“To Ja. Burstein in commemoration. P Tschaikovski” (Jan. 1893)5

“To J.A. Burstein, with appreciation. Rimsky-Korsakov, Odessa, 1894.”

Tchaikovsky, by Nikolai Kuznetsov (detail; painted Odessa, Jan. 1893)

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre (formerly Odessa Municipal Theatre), 1 Tchaikovsky Street (opened 1887)

Grand Staircase, Odessa Opera & Ballet Theatre

1 See, e.g., Barry Stees, “Christmas for Bassoon!” (Dec. 2012), http://steesbassoon.blogspot.com/2012/12/Christmas-for-bassoon.html (accessed 7-12-15).

2 Authors’ note: Jacob Burstein also may have received one of the composer’s silver-bound “sticks” or conducting batons – a gift recently revealed in family lore but not yet documented.

3 See, e.g., “How Did Tchaikovsky Really Die?” www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2832/how-did- Tchaikovsky-really-die; Rictor Norton, “Gay Love-Letters from Tchaikovsky to His Nephew Bob Davidov,” Gay History and Literature (11-22-11), http://rictornorton.co.uk/tchaikov.htm; “Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky (each accessed 7-12-15).

4 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_%28Tchaikovsky%29 (accessed 7-12-15).

5 Authors’ note: This photograph and the following one hung in Jacob Burstein's rooms until he died in 1943.