Elena Glasunow

Elena Günther-Glasunow, née Gavrilova, also Elena Glasunow (27 March 1905, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire — 18 June 1999, Munich, Germany), was a Russian-German pianist, adopted daughter of composer Alexander Glazunov. She married a pianist and music pedagogue Sergei Tarnowsky (1883—1976) in 1928 and remarried German musicologist Herbert Günther (1906—1978) in 1947 (see the last photo). Name variations: Elena Glasunov, Glasunova, Helen Tarnowsky, Елена Глазунова, Елена Глазунова-Гюнтер, Елена Гаврилова Helen first moved into Glazunov's St. Petersburg house in the early 1920s when her mother, Olga Nikolaevna Gavrilova, née Gromyko (1888—1968), joined to serve as the housekeeper. (Nothing is known about her biological father, Michail Gavrilov.) Alexander Glazunov, who was in his sixties, lived with his mother his entire adult life and never got married. According to biographical sources, Glazunov didn't even have romantic relationships before Olga Gavrilova (or suspiciously close male assistants and pupils, for that matter, which would suggest closeted homosexuality); most researchers assume it was a case of an overcaring mother who inadvertently isolated the composer from any female influence. Alexander Glazunov grew very close to Olga and her daughter, treating them both as a family. He encouraged Elena to pursue musical studies at Leningrad Conservatory, where she learned under Leonid Nikolaev, graduating in 1924. (In subsequent years, she took private lessons with Egon Petri and Artur Schnabel in Berlin.) Elena Gavrilova soon met aspiring virtuoso pianist Sergei Tarnowsky, her father's protege and fellow Conservatory graduate, and they began dating. Elena started her stage career in the Soviet Union; in 1926, she performed Alexander Glazunov's Second Piano Concerto at the Grand Hall Of The Leningrad Philharmonia and debuted Glazunov's Idylle, Op. 103, written for her, at Philharmonia's Small Hall. Gavrilova married Tarnowsky in February 1928, and shortly after, they immigrated to France with Alexander Glazunov and her mother, Olga. They settled in Paris, where Elena Tarnowsky regularly performed, soon touring Spain and Portugal. On 19 December 1928, she accompanied Alexander Glazunov at his debut concert at Salle Pleyel, performing the Second Concerto and a few other works under Glazunov's baton. In June 1929, the composer officially married Elena's mother, Olga Gavrilova. Sergey Tarnowsky soon arranged an American concert tour with Sol Hurok for his father-in-law, and in 1930, both families relocated to the USA. In March 1936, just a few weeks before his death, Alexander Glazunov formally adopted Elena as his daughter, signing papers at the USSR General Consulate in Paris. He was hospitalized at Villa Borghèse clinic a few days later, where Alexander died peacefully. Elena Glazunov inherited his Paris apartment and private archives. In the late 1930s, Elena divorced Sergei Tarnowsky, who permanently relocated to the USA. She remained in Paris and married a German musicologist, Herbert Karl Bernhard Günther, in 1947; they eventually relocated to Munich. Elena Glasunow released several LP albums on Telefunken and Colosseum labels in Germany, including both of her father-in-law's Piano Concertos. In 1972, Elena Glazunow-Günther granted permission to transfer Glazunov's remains from Neuilly-sur-Seine in France to St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery's necropolis in Leningrad; she continuously made attempts to establish her father-in-law's memorial museum, which never came to fruition. After Elena died in 1999, Glazunov's archives finally got transferred to Russia, currently preserved at the St. Petersburg Museum of Theatre at Sheremetev Palace.