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In an earlier posting I asked for information about Gabriel Romanovsky,
the Russian pianist who recorded Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
for the German Welte-Mignon firm in 1910.  Since that time I learned
that Romanovsky appears in the index of "Lost in the Stars," Charles
Barber's book about Alexander Siloti.  I did a search on the web and
found a used copy for sale (the book is out of print), which I ordered
immediately.  It arrived today.

There is actually very little about Romanovsky in "Lost in the Stars."
Most of what is to be learned about him appears in a short biography,
apparently written by Dr. Barber, near the end of the book.  I quote
this bio in full.  I have been very careful to quote it exactly;
spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are exactly as given here:

  "Gavriil Ivanovich Romanovsky (1873-1941), pianist, enjoyed a long
  and productive association with Siloti.  He was a 1904 graduate of
  the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with Essipova.
  Romanovsky took up a career as a touring pianist, appeared in
  Meyerhold's famous production of Masquerade, and in time became
  heavily involved in Soviet music education."

My earlier understanding is that Romanovsky was born on April 3, 1873
(I do not know if this is "Old Style" or not) and died in 1942.  The
bio above gives his date of death as 1941, which does not agree.

Wayne Stahnke
wayne@live-performance.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]