Peter Nevsky

[wes williams]

Fred Gaisberg, Chief Recording Expert for The Gramophone Company/HMV,  wrote in his autobiography about recording Peter Nevsky, a popular entertainer with his 'concertina', in St Petersburg, Russia in 1901. Although you might assume that Fred would know what a concertina was, as opposed to an accordion, after his early associations with Percy Honri, the autobiography was written in 1943 when Fred's memory wasn't as sharp as it had been, and in the second video you'll see a miniature accordion which might easily be mistaken for a concertina.  Here is a recording of Nevsky, which will be interesting to free-reed folk.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tZyJwUT8Zw

 

There's also a video in Russian about an accordion museum in Moscow that gives lots of information about Nevsky and his instruments from about 11 minutes onwards.

 

 

 

[CrP]

Thank you for finding this and bringing it to our attention. Having watched the video & explanation all the way thro',  I think know the difference between a "bayan" and  "garmoshka" and a "Cherepashka."

[Mike Franch]

I can't believe I watched the whole thing! While I understood only about seven words (all cognates), it was just so much fun watching this guy's enthusiasm for bellows instruments. Plus, there were some concertinas there, the rectangular "German" style ones and even a couple of English concertinas. And did I hear a hornpipe?

[Konzertina-123]

Actually I think Peter Nevsky played the English concertina - see this thread and the links given in my first post:

 

[Stephen Chambers]

2 hours ago, Konzertina-123 said:

Actually I think Peter Nevsky played the English concertina - see this thread and the links given in my first post:

 

 

I think you're right, it both sounds and FEELS like English-concertina playing, whilst the Russian word гармонистъ, that's used to describe Nevsky, translates as garmonist (though it can mis-translate as "harmonist"!) = harmonica player, and in German, as well as Nordic and Eastern European languages, the word "harmonica" has a broader meaning than it does in English, so it can signify concertina as well as accordion.

 

Also, the article that John Moncton provided a link to, http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/528/, states that "The event that completely changed his life was a meeting with the circus troupe of the Yurovs - eccentric musicians with world fame. The well-known concertinist (concertina is a type of harmonica) Dmitry Yurov, who played excellently on the Tula seven-valve, became Nevsky's teacher. It was he who created a bright artist out of a talented self-taught accordion player, who perfectly masters not only the instrument, but also the auditorium." So I guess we know who taught him!

 

[Konzertina-123]

Another piece indicating Nevsky's important part in the history of concertina music is this recording, where he plays (on an accordion) the polka later played and recorded by Gregory Matusewitch :

https://www.russian-records.com/details.php?image_id=34359