Alexander Tsfasman:Gershwin Fantasy “The man I love“ - 2 pianos

Effie Agrafioti and Giorgos Kontrafouris, two pianos: Gershwin Fantasy “The man I love (1927) by the composer Alexander Tsfasman. The activity of Alexander Tsfasman, a pianist, composer, conductor, arranger and a bandleader covers the period of Soviet jazz development from the mid-twenties till late sixties. Alexander Naumovich Tsfasman was born on December 14, 1906 in a town of Alexandrovsk (now Zaporojye), in a barber’s family. From the age of seven he was studying violin and piano play, and entered the piano class of the Nijny Novgorod musical college when he was twelve. Continuing his studies at the Moscow conservatory piano department in professor ’s class, Tsfasman gets familiar with jazz. Already in 1924 he created a number of dance pieces like “Excentrical Dance“, “Sad Mood“ and others, that gained big popularity. In the end of 1926 Alexander Tsfasman assembles “AMA - jazz“, the first professional jazz collective in Moscow. The band performed successfully in the “Hermitage“ garden, at the stages of fashionable restaurants and big cinemas. 1927 was the year when Tsfasman’s orchestra was invited to play jazz music at the radio studio. That was truly the first jazz broadcast in the USSR. Some time later the collective made a number of records, that are among the pioneer Soviet jazz , the band of Alexander Tsfasman made not a single disc after that till 1937, despite its successful artistic activity, that could be illustrated by the orchestra’s participation in the jazz-bands show of 1936 organized by the Moscow masters of arts club. As Yevgeny Gabrilovich, a that-day jazz authority, had noted, Tsfasman’s band performed at its best and was considered the perfect in every aspect. Despite his strong occupation with his orchestra, Alexander Tsfasman also succeeded in performing in solo concert programmes as a pianist. Such famous musicians and composers like A. Goldenveiser, K. Igumnov, G. Neigauz, D. Shostakovich admired Tsfasman’s pianistic talent. Pianism and composer’s mastership are brought together in Tsfasman’s art. The overwhelming majority of his works were first destined for solo piano performance, and then arranged for a jazz orchestra. There are mainly dances, songs, phantasies and popular melodies variations. However, Tsfasman had also created a number of large-scale works. The ballet suite “Rot-Front“ for orchestra (1931), the concert for piano and jazz orchestra (1941), and the concert for piano and symphonical orchestra (1956) are among them. Alexander Tsfasman was also occupied with composing music for theatre performances and cinema films. Dmitry Shostakovich, himself oftenly performing in various concert halls as a pianist, wrote to Tsfasman in 1951: “Addressing you with a deep request. I wrote something like a piano concert for the film “Unforgettable 1919“. It offers no difficulty to you. But I can’t play it myself. I ask you very much not to refuse and play this thing. Once more: it will present no difficulty to you“....