Gramplastinki

Konstanty Kazimierz Regamey Sr’s long-time collaboration with his publisher Henrik Indzhishek (who ran not only a sheet music publishing house and a large music and instruments store, but also Kyiv’s gramophone record label Ekstrafon) resulted in recording several titles in that company’s professional studio. Those records were still made of heavy shellac but already pressed on both sides, so that they could contain two 5- to 7-minute-long pieces of music (one on either side). They were played back at 78 rpm. Either side of the record had its separate, consecutive catalogue number (e.g. 163 and 164), printed on a neatly designed, coloured label that contained abbreviated data such as the composer’s name, work title, and name of performer.

Since we have been unable to access those precious archive recordings so far, we do not know their musical content or the style of Regamey Sr’s (Russian spelling: Konstantin Regame’s) piano playing. The same is true of his own Prelude in G Minor, Op. 7, whose recording is still missing – a painful loss, especially since the composer personally chose this piece to present it in his own interpretation on an Ekstrafon record. Hopefully, these gramplastinki may still be found one day. 

Katalog gramplastinek aktsyonernogo obshchestva ‘Ekstrafon’, Kyiv 1909–1917 

In his catalogue of Ekstrafon label’s gramophone records, Anatolii Zheleznyi lists the following records from 1909–1917 that feature Konstanty Regamey Sr:

Item 1.

Solo piano recordings by K. Regame: 

S. Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, Ekstrafon 163 (side A)

K. Regame, Prelude in G Minor, Op. 7, Ekstrafon 164 (side B)

Item 2. 

Mykola Mykolaevich Filimonov – baritone, Konstanty Regame – piano: 

K. Regame, Ya zdes’ Inezilya [Serenade to Inesilla], Ekstrafon 25063 (side A)         

P. Tchaikovsky, Soloviov, Ekstrafon 25064 (side B)

Item 3. 

P. Tchaikovsky, Pochemu? [Why?], Ekstrafon 2565 (side A)

K. Regame, Ja vnov odin [Forsaken], Ekstrafon 25066 (side B)

Item 4. 

L. Nikolaev, Yaka noch [What Night], Ekstrafon 25067 (side A)

K. Regame Mne snilos vechernee nebo [In My Dreams I Saw Heavens... Bespangled), Ekstrafon 25068 (side B)

Mykola Filimonov (1884-1943), five years Regamey’s junior, was a close friend and one of the singers with whom Regamey Sr regularly collaborated. A Kyiv Opera soloist from 1916, he was accompanied by Regamey Sr during countless performances and concerts broadcast live from Kyiv Radio studio, as well as auditions at the Mykola Lysenko Music and Drama Institute, where both of them worked until 1932 (when that school was closed down for political reasons despite its important merits). Sentenced to four years in exile in 1933, Filimonov later returned to Kyiv, where he died prematurely.

In 1936 the Ukrainian Soviet authorities appointed Konstanty Kazimierz Regamey for the task of organising and directing the Polish song-and-dance ensemble in Kyiv. He passionately dedicated himself to this job, unaware that it might bring secret police investigation upon him. He thus announced in Radyanska Muzyka the establishment of the ensemble (1936) and its first concerts (1937). Until recently there was no information about his other activity as a composer and conductor. Regamey Sr began to compile the repertoire for this ensemble by arranging several Polish folksongs and traditional songs for small orchestra. This work has been preserved in the form of gramophone recordings of several such arrangements, for which, as a professor at Kyiv Conservatory, he employed that school’s orchestra. The records were released in Kyiv by another label, Gramplasttrest.

The following items are listed in the catalogue of Russian gramophone recordings russian-records.com:

Item 5. 

Ty dzevukho [You, Lass], Gramplasttrest 5074, side A [label preserved]

S’veti mesats, s’veti, Gramplasstrest 5075, side B [label preserved]

Ty dzevukho [You, Lass], Gramplasttrest 5074

Item 6. 

Pie Kuba do Yakuba, Gramplasttrest 5209, side A [label preserved]

Yasyu kone piil, Gramplasttrest 5210, side B [label preserved] 

Pie Kuba do Yakuba, Gramplasttrest 5209 

Performers: State Polish Song and Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR and symphonic ensemble of students from Kyiv State Conservatory. Conductor: Prof. K.R. Regame

Altogether, nine works recorded by Regamey Sr on gramophone records are known to us: four compositions of his own (Prelude in G Minor and three songs) as well as a Rachmaninoff Prelude and four of Regamey Sr’s arrangements of folk tunes. These works were released on six different records by two music labels: Ekstrafon (in 1909–17) and Gramplasttrest (1937).

Jerzy Stankiewicz