Concerto For Guitar And Strings / Variations For Guitar And Orchestra

Green labels, mono Classical guitar by noted Russian guitarist, Alexander Mikhailovich Ivanov-Kramskoy (also spelled 'Kramskoi'). This record was released in 1958 on Monitor Records, whose collection now resides with the Smithsonian Folkways label. Exceedingly rare. Per the notes on the back of the album cover: Alexander Mikhailovich Ivanov-Kramskoy was born in Moscow in 1912. He showed ability in music at an early age and learned to play the balalaika by himself when he was only seven. In 1931 he began to study guitar with P. S. Agafoshin and conducting with Prof. K. S. Saradzhev. He continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory and his concert and teaching activities began as early as 1932. Besides his concerts and teaching activities, Ivanov-Kramskoy has composed many pieces for solo guitar, guitar and orchestra and he has made many transcriptions for guitar. He has written a method for playing the six-stringed guitar which has been reprinted in several editions. For his mastery of the guitar he has been awarded the title of "Laureate of the All-Union Competition." Ivanov-Kramskoy appears presently with many of the chamber ensembles, such as the famous Beethoven and Komitas String Quartets, playing the guitar part. He also appears with some of the best-known Soviet violinists such as Leonid Kogan and Eduard Grach and with such outstanding singers as Ivan Kozlovsky and Nadezhda Obukhova.