Andre Kostelanetz


Andre Kostelanetz was a Russian-American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orchestra music.

Biography

Abram Naumovich Kostelyanetz was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia to a prominent Jewish family. He was a cousin of physicist Lew Kowarski.
His father, Nachman Yokhelevich Kostelyanetz, was active on the St. Petersburg stock exchange; his maternal grandfather, Aizik Yevelevich Dymshitz, was a wealthy merchant and industrialist, engaged in timber production. Kostelanetz began playing the piano at four and a half years old. He studied composition and orchestration at the Petrograd Conservatory of Music. When he was 19, the Grand Petrograd Opera Company held a competition to select a chorusmaster and assistant conductor, in which he was selected despite being the youngest applicant. Kostelanetz continued there until leaving Russia in March 1922 after the Russian Revolution, when he stayed in Paris for a time before moving on to the United States.
He arrived in the United States that year, and in the 1920s, conducted concerts for radio. In the 1930s, he began his own weekly show on CBS, Andre Kostelanetz Presents. Kostelanetz was known for arranging and recording light classical music pieces for mass audiences, as well as orchestral versions of songs and Broadway show tunes. He made numerous recordings over the course of his career, which had sales of over 50 million. For many years, he conducted the New York Philharmonic in pops concerts and recordings, in which they were billed as Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra.
Kostelanetz may be best known to modern audiences for a series of easy listening instrumental albums on Columbia Records from the 1940s until 1980. Kostelanetz actually started making this music before there was a genre called "easy listening". He continued until after some of his contemporaries, including Mantovani, had stopped recording. Outside the United States, one of his best known works was an orchestral arrangement of the tune "With a Song in my Heart", which was the signature tune of a long-running BBC radio program, at first called Forces Favourites, then Family Favourites, and finally Two Way Family Favourites.
He commissioned many works, including Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, Jerome Kern's Portrait of Mark Twain, William Schuman's New England Triptych, Paul Creston's Frontiers, Ferde Grofé's Hudson River Suite, Virgil Thomson's musical portraits of Fiorello La Guardia and Dorothy Thompson, Alan Hovhaness's Floating World, and Ezra Laderman's Magic Prison. William Walton dedicated his Capriccio burlesco to Kostelanetz, who conducted the first performance and made the first recording, both with the New York Philharmonic.
His last concert was A Night in Old Vienna with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at that city's War Memorial Opera House on December 31, 1979.

Personal life

His first wife was soprano Lily Pons from 1938 to 1958, when they divorced. They owned a home in Palm Springs, California which was built in 1955. In 1960 he married Sara Gene Orcutt; the marriage lasted several years. Both unions were childless.
His brother, Boris Kostelanetz, was a prominent tax defense lawyer.

Death

After the December 31, 1979 concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Kostelanetz left for a vacation in Haiti. While in Haiti, Kostelanetz contracted pneumonia and died on January 13, 1980, aged 78.

Discography (partial)

Many of the early LP releases were actually re-releases of albums released earlier on 78 rpm records. Musical Comedy Favorites, for example, was released as Volume 1 in late 1940 for songs 1 through 8, and Volume 2 in 1941 for the remaining 8 songs on the second side of the LP.
Four of Kostelanetz's albums made the Billboard Hot 200, no match for his Columbia easy listening rivals Ray Conniff and Percy Faith but typical of many of popular instrumental easy listening artists of the day whose audience did not buy their albums immediately upon release but bought them over the years.Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra: "Carmen" LP #693cl735 Columbia 1950 U.S.A.Music of Sigmund Romberg,1946, Columbia Masterworks MM635The Music of Victor Herbert, Columbia Masterworks M-415Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, 1956, Columbia Long Playing CL 730Music of Irving Berlin, 1950, Columbia Masterworks MM/ML-4314The Music of Stephen Foster, 1941, 3 LP Set, Columbia Masterworks M-442 78'sMississippi Suite, 1947, Columbia Masterworks MX-284 12" albumThe Music of Chopin, 1949, Columbia Masterworks MM-840Waltzes of Johann Strauss, 1948, Columbia Masterworks ML-2011 10" albumMusic of Cole Porter, 1948, Columbia Masterworks ML-2014Music of George Gershwin, 1948, Columbia Masterworks 2026Mississippi Suite, 1948, Columbia Masterworks ML-2046 10" albumInvitation to the Waltz, 1948, Columbia Masterworks ML-2069 10" albumSwan Lake, Columbia Masterworks ML-4308 1950An American in Paris, Columbia Masterworks ML-4455 1951Black Magic, 1955, Columbia CL 712Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite, 1955, Columbia CL 716Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf & Saint-Seans, Carnival of the Animals, 1955, Columbia CL 720Music of Vincent Youmans, 1955, Columbia CL 734Verdi: Aida, 1955, Columbia CL 755 Bravo!, 1955, Columbia CL 758Vienna Nights, 1955, Columbia CL 769Music of Fritz Kreisler, Music of Sigmund Romberg, 1955, Columbia CL 771You and the Night and the Music, 1955, Columbia CL 772Musical Comedy Favorites, 1955, Columbia CL 775Music of Jerome Kern, 1955, Columbia CL 776The Lure of the Tropics, 1955, Columbia CL 780Stardust, 1955, Columbia CL 781Kostelanetz Conducts..., 1955, Columbia CL 786An American In Paris/Rhapsody In Blue, 1955, Columbia CL 795La Boheme for Orchestra, 1955, Columbia CL 797Clair de Lune and Popular Favorites, 1955, Columbia CL 798 La Traviata, 1955 Columbia CL 799The Sleeping Beauty, 1956, Columbia CL 804Strauss Waltzes, 1956, Columbia CL 805Calendar Girl, 1956, Columbia CL 811 Bolero!, 1956, Columbia CL 833The Very Thought of You, 1956, Columbia CL 843Music of Chopin, 1956, Columbia CL 862Cafe Continental, 1956, Columbia CL 863Beautiful Dreamer: Music of Stephen Foster, 1956, Columbia CL 864Broadway Spectacular, 1956, Columbia CL 865Madame Butterfly, 1956, Columbia CL 869Tender Is the Night, 1956, Columbia CL 886The Lure of Spain, 1957, Columbia CL 943Rigoletto, 1957, Columbia CL 970The Romantic Music of Rachmaninoff, 1957, Columbia CL 1001The Lure of France, 1958, Columbia CL 1054/CS 8111The Columbia Album of Richard Rodgers, Vol. 1, 1958, Columbia CL 1068The Columbia Album of Richard Rodgers, Vol. 2, 1958, Columbia CL 1069Blues Opera, 1958, Columbia CL 1099Encore!, 1958, Columbia CL 1135/CS 8008Theatre Party, 1958, Columbia CL 1199/CS 8026The Romantic Music of Tchaikovsky, Vol. 1, 1958, Columbia CL 1208The Romantic Music of Tchaikovsky, Vol. 2, 1958, Columbia CL 1209Romantic Arias for Orchestra, 1959, Columbia CL 1263Flower Drum Song, 1959, Columbia CL 1280/CS 8095Great Waltzes, 1959, Columbia CL 1321The Lure of Paradise, 1959, Columbia CL 1335/CS 8144Strauss Waltzes, 1959, Columbia CL 1354/CS 8162Gypsy Passion, 1960, Columbia CL 1431/CS 8228Joy to the World, 1960, Columbia CL 1528/CS 8328The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 1960, Columbia CL 1576/CS 8376Kostelanetz Favorites Columbia ML 4065The Nutcracker Suite, 1961, Columbia Masterworks 6264The New Wonderland of Sound, 1961, Columbia CL 1657/CS 8457Star Spangled Marches, 1962, Columbia CL 1718/CS 8518Broadway's Greatest Hits, 1962, Columbia CL 1827/CS 8627Fire and Jealousy, Columbia CL 1898/CS 8698Music from "Mr. President", 1962, Columbia CL 1921/CS 8721World Favorite Romantic Concertos for Piano & Orchestra, 1963, Columbia Masterworks ML 5876/MS 6476Wonderland of Sound, 1963, Columbia-CL-1938Wonderland of Golden Hits, 1963, Columbia CL 2039/CS 8839Wonderland of Christmas, 1963, Columbia CL 2068/CS 8868Kostelanetz in Wonderland: Golden Encores, 1963, Columbia CL 2078/CS 8878New York Wonderland, 1964, Columbia CL 2138/CS 8938 - #68 Billboard AlbumsI Wish You Love, 1964, Columbia CL 2185/CS 8985New Orleans Wonderland, 1964, Columbia CL 2250/CS 9050The Romantic Strings of Andre Kostelanetz, 1965, Columbia Masterworks ML 6119/MS 6711Wishing You a Merry Christmas, 1965, Columbia Masterworks ML 6179/MS 6779Romantic Waltzes by Tchaikovsky, 1965, Columbia Masterworks MS 6824Warsaw Concerto, 1966, Columbia Masterworks ML 6226/MS 6826 Today's Golden Hits, 1966, Columbia CS 9334The Shadow of Your Smile, 1966, Columbia CS 13285Grand Canyon suite 1966 Harmony HS 11195Season's Greetings from Barbra Streisand and Friends,1967, Columbia Special Products, CSS 1075Exotic Nights, 1967, Columbia CS 9381The Kostelanetz Sound of Today, 1967, Columbia CS 9409Today's Greatest Movie Hits, 1967, Columbia CS 9556Scarborough Fair, 1968, Columbia CS 9623For the Young at Heart, 1968, Columbia CS 9691Sounds of Love, 1968, Columbia - #194 Billboard AlbumsTraces, 1969, Columbia CS 9823 - #200 Billboard AlbumsMagic of Music 1968 Harmony HS 11281Andre Kostelanetz Conducts Puccini's "La Boheme" for Orchestra, 1969, Columbia Masterworks MS 7219Greatest Hits of the '60s, 1970, Columbia CS 9973I'll Never Fall in Love Again, 1970, Columbia CS 9998Everything Is Beautiful, 1970, Columbia 30037Sunset, 1970, Columbia Masterworks 30075Be My love, 1970 Harmony H30014And God Created Great Whales, 1971, Columbia 30390Love Story, 1971, Columbia 30501 - #183 Billboard AlbumsFor All We Know, 1971, Columbia 30672Plays Chicago, 1971, Columbia 31002Plays Cole Porter, 1972, Columbia 31491Love Theme from "The Godfather", 1972, Harmony 31500Plays the greatest hits of Broadway & Hollywood, 1972 Harmony 31414Plays the Worlds Greatest Love Songs, 1973, Columbia 32002Last Tango in Paris, 1973, Columbia 32187Moon River, 1973, Columbia 32243Plays Great Hits of Today, 1973, Columbia 32415The Way We Were, 1974, Columbia 32578Plays Michel Legrand's Greatest Hits, 1974, Columbia 32580Plays Music of Villa-Lobos, 1974, Columbia 32821Plays Gershwin, 1974, Columbia 32825Musical Reflections of Broadway and Hollywood, 1974, Columbia 33061Plays "Murder on the Orient Express" and Other Great Themes, 1975, Columbia 33437Never Can Say Goodbye, 1975, Columbia 33550I'm Easy, 1976, Columbia 34157Dance With Me, 1976, Columbia 34352Plays the Music of Charlie Chaplin and Duke Ellington, 1977, Columbia 34660Plays Broadway's Greatest Hits, 1977, Columbia 34864You Light Up My Life, 1978, Columbia 35328Theme from "Superman", 1979, Columbia 35781Various Themes, 1980, Columbia 36382