Russian Balalaika Orchestra

              1913
AMERICAN TOUR
RUSSIAN BALALAIKA ORCHESTRA
ALEXANDER KIRILLOFF   CONDUCTOR


Figure


DOUBLE QUARTETTE OF THE ORCHESTRA

JULIAN FUHS   MANAGING DIRECTOR


COLUMBIA THEATRE
TWO PERFORMANCES
EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 4th
MAT. 3 P. M.   EVE. 8.30 P. M.




Press Criticisms on the
Russian Balalaika Orchestra

No more entrancing music has been played for New York music lovers than the strains of the Balalaika by these remarkable Russian artists.—
N. Y. Herald.


Marvelous rhythm and harmony of tone won the audience to the Russian Balalaika musicians.—
N. Y. Times.


Blased New York received a new thrill when it sat down to listen to the most alluring music in the world produced by the Russian Balalaika artists.—
N. Y. Globe.


So thoroughly is the Balalaika understood by its exponents in the orchestra that in the short space of a half bar it is possible for them to scale from the most brilliant crescendo to the lightest pianissimo.—
Montreal Telegraph.


The Russian Folk songs and the wonderful 'Volga Boatman's Song' were played with revelous, rhythmic and vital excellence by the masterful Russian musicians on their unique Balalaika instruments.—
Montreal Star.


Russia has sent us a heretofore unknown musical joy in the wonderful Balalaika Orchestra from Petrograd.—
N. Y. Mail.


It was not alone the music which pleased.  It was as much the musicians and the way they produced their harmonies.—
Montreal Gazette.


A new sensation has come to New York.  It is the Russian Balalaika Orchestra.—
N. Y. Eve. World.


The Balalaika music has wondrous charm.—
N. Y. Sun.


Dash and rapturous rhythm has this Balalaika music.—
N. Y. World.


Soothing melody and mystic charm are expressed in our latest music—The Balalaika—brought from far-off Russia.—
N. Y. Post.


The most unique musical organization in the world.—
N. Y. Eve. Sun.



The Volga Boatman's Song
This melody as performed by the Russian Balalaika Orchestra, on their three-cornered, three-pegged, three-stringed instruments, produces a most pleasant and lasting impression on the ear.  That part which modulates into D minor, reverting back to A minor is a tone-picture of haunting harmony.  The doleful strains linger in the memory long after the artists' touch of the strings have ceased to enthrall the music lover.




THE BALALAIKA
AND
THE RUSSIAN ARTISTS
WHO PLAY IT
The Russian Balalaika Orchestra takes its name from the instrument its members play.  It is a stringed device, given many forms and sizes, yet having a common foundation.  Three corners, three pegs and three strings dominate its weird mechanism.

The Balalaika was the primitive musical instrument of Russia.  It had a conspicuous part in the early pagan worship; so much so that it was banned by the priesthood with the introduction of Christianity.

Thereafter the instrument was neglected and forgotten.  Only at the very outposts of civilization, where the Mujicks clung to it, as they did to their folklore and folksongs, was the music heard.

A poetic idealist, high in the graces of the present Tsar of all the Russias, M. Andreeff, determined to revive the Balalaika for Nationalistic reasons.  He made such rapid progress with the work, both as teacher and orchestra conductor, that he established the popularity of the instrument not only in Russia, but in England.

It was while making a tour of England that the Balalaika Orchestra attracted the attention of Americans and was brought to this country for the first time five years ago.  It immediately became triumphant in artistic successes and won popular favor in the few cities where the orchestra played.

The musical critics of New York and other musical centres of America have pronounced the playing of the Balalaika unique, rhythmic, rapturous and vital.  It associates the imagination with semi-barbaric national dances, folk songs and crooning lilts characteristic of a great nation filled with varied historic sentiment.

The Volga Boatman's Song clearly expresses the wonders in sound of this remarkable instrument which the Russian artists have mastered to a degree of perfection pronounced marvelous.  No program is complete without this Balalaika masterpiece, which never fails to excite the keenest delight and arouse enthusiasm seldom witnessed at musical functions.





RUSSIAN BALALAIKA ORCHESTRA IN NATIONAL COSTUME