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A. Scriabin arrangements of Symphonies for Piano Duet

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:51 pm
by goldberg988
Hi guys,

I'm wondering about a little gem I just found in the library. It's a 1972 Muzgiz edition of Scriabin's first three symphonies transcribed for piano duet. The first symphony was transcribed by Alexandre Winkler (1865-1935), the second by Vasily Kalafati (1869-1942) and the third symphony (Divine Poem) by "Léon Conus". I can't find any information on this "Léon Conus" but there apparently was a Lev Conus active in Russia and France in the early part of the century. His dates are 1871-1944. Does anyone know if Léon is possibly a gallicization of Lev? Also, if that was the case, would any or all of these be public domain? I'm pretty sure it would be in the U.S. but I'm not sure about anywhere else.

Also, I might have to have someone give me some tips on using Adobe Acrobat Pro for touching up scores after I scan them... right now I am "faking" it and I need to figure out how to remove extraneous marks from the page. Thanks

Lyndon

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:26 pm
by Carolus
Lev and Léon are indeed the same person, whose dates are 1871-1944. He was the son of the composer and pianist Eduard Kostantinovich Konyus (sometimes transliterated Conus) (1827-1902), and brother of composers Gyorgi Eduardovich (1862-1933) and Yuli Eduardovich (1869-1942).

Lev apparently moved to the west and died in Cincinnati, while his brothers remained in Russia/USSR. All the transcriptions would be free in Canada if they were fist published back in the Belaieff or Jurgenson days instead of 1972, which is most likely the case since publishers often issued such transcriptions in order to promote an orchestral work before the days of recordings.