Konstantin Mostras

Konstantin Georgiyevich Mostras (April 4, 1886 – September 6, 1965) was a Russian violinist, pupil of Boris Sibor, a teacher at the Moscow Philharmonic Society school (1914) and at the Moscow Conservatory (1922).

Russian violinist, teacher and composer. He studied at the Moscow Philharmonic School of Music and Drama until 1914, and taught there himself (1914–22). During this period he performed in the Lenin Quartet (1918–1919), one of the earliest Soviet quartets, and of Persimfans (1922–1932), the first Soviet orchestra to perform without a conductor and meet the Communist ideal of collectivism. From 1922 he taught the violin at the Moscow Conservatory, where he became head of the violin department and in 1931 introduced his own course on violin technique. From 1922 to 1932 he was one of the directors of Persimfans, the conductorless symphony orchestra. But his chief importance was as a teacher who played a significant role in the development of a Soviet violin school; among his pupils were Ivan Galamian and Mikhail Terian. He wrote and edited numerous instructional works and transcriptions for the violin, including an edition of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (in collaboration with David Oistrakh) with a commentary on technique (Moscow, 1947) and studies for solo violin, as well as valuable writings on violin technique.

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Writings

Intonatsiya na skripke [Intonation on the violin] (Moscow and Leningrad, 1947, 2/1963; Ger. trans., 1961)

Ritmicheskaya distsiplina skripacha [The rhythmical discipline of the violinist] (Moscow, 1951; Ger. trans., 1959)

Dinamika v skripichnom iskusstve [The dynamics of the art of violin playing] (Moscow, 1956)

Sistema domashnikh zanyatiy skripacha [A system of home studies for the violinist] (Moscow, 1956)

Metodicheskiy komentariy k 24 kaprisam dlya skripki solo N. Paganini [A technical commentary on Paganini's 24 Caprices for violin solo] (Moscow, 1959)

I.M. Yampol′sky/R

References