Issay Dobrowen

Issay Alexandrovich Dobrowen was a Russian and Norwegian pianist, conductor, and composer. Born Itschok Zorakhovich Barabeichik in Nizhny Novgorod into a Jewish musical family, he was later adopted by his grandfather, assuming a variation of his surname as a pseudonym. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1911, where he studied piano under Konstantin Igumnov and composition under Sergei Taneyev, later furthering his studies abroad with Leopold Godowsky.

In his early career, Dobrowen performed as a concert pianist, notably in a trio with Misha Mishakov and Gregor Piatigorsky, and conducted theater orchestras between 1920 and 1922. He was acquainted with figures such as Maxim Gorky and Fridtjof Nansen. A famous anecdote recounts that Dobrowen played Beethoven's "Appassionata" sonata for Vladimir Lenin at the apartment of Ekaterina Peshkova, Gorky's former wife.

Dobrowen left Russia in 1923, initially settling in Germany where he helped prepare the German premiere of Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov" in Dresden. He became a Norwegian citizen in 1929. His conducting career was international and distinguished; he served as the principal conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic (1928–1931), the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest (1927–1928), the San Francisco Symphony (1931–1934), and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1941–1953).

As a composer, Dobrowen wrote works for piano and violin, romances, and theater music. His life and the specific incident of playing for Lenin were later depicted in the 1963 film "Appassionata," where the role of Dobrowen was played by the pianist Rudolf Kehrer.

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