{{Short description|Russian pianist (1851–1914)}} {{about||the Ukrainian synchronized swimmer|Anna Yesipova (swimmer)}} {{refimprove|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Anna Yesipova | image = File:Annette von Essipoff, Brustbild.jpg | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1851|2|12}} | birth_place = Saint Petersburg, Russia | death_date = {{death date and age|1914|8|18|1851|2|12}} | death_place = Saint Petersburg, Russia | origin = | instrument = Piano | genre = | occupation = {{hlist|Musician|professor}} | years_active = 1874–1914 | label = | website = }}
'''Anna Yesipova'''{{efn|Her name is cited variously as ''Anna Esipova''; ''Anna'' or ''Annette Essipova''; ''Anna'', ''Annette'' or ''Annetta Essipoff''; ''Annette von Essipow''; ''Anna Jessipowa''.}} (born '''Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova'''; {{langx|ru|Анна Николаевна Есипова}}; {{OldStyleDate|12 February|1851|31 January}}{{snd}}{{OldStyleDate|18 August|1914|5 August}}) was a Russian pianist.
== Life == [[Image:Esipova grave.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Yesipova's grave in the cemetery of Alexander Nevsky Lavra]]
Yesipova was one of Teodor Leszetycki's most brilliant pupils. She made her debut in Saint Petersburg in 1874 attracting rave reviews and the artistic admiration of both Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Franz Liszt, particularly for her effortless virtuosity and singing tone. She then began concert tours which brought her in 1876 to the United States, where her playing was greatly admired.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anna Yesipova plays Verdi-Liszt |url=https://ok.ru/video/3066168578 |website=ok.ru |access-date=7 January 2025 |language=en |quote=In 1876 she receives an invitation to perform in the United States. 105 concerts in half a year! In New York alone she presents 37 programs on her favorite Steinway with which she never parts.}}</ref>
Yesipova was probably the first pianist to program the complete set of Frédéric Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28 in a recital, for a concert in 1876. Previously the practice was to perform excerpts only.<ref>Paul Kildea, ''Chopin's Piano'' (2018), p. 311n</ref>
In 1877, she heard the playing of Fanny Bloomfield and advised her to train under Leszetycki, whom Yesipova went on to marry in 1880, becoming his second wife, and (after they had two children, a daughter, Theresa, who became a well-known singer and teacher, and a son Robert) divorced in 1892.<ref>Grove 2001</ref> In the Summer of 1880 she gave a number of concerts in London (Covent Garden) and Lisbon, where she had a very warm reception.<ref>Cf. e.g. ''Diario Ilustrado (Lisboa)'' of [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diario_Ilustrado,_Juliol_1880.pdf July 15th p.1 column 2], 1880.</ref>
In 1885, Yesipova was appointed Royal Prussian Court Pianist. From 1893 to 1908, she was professor of pianoforte at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Among her students were Sergei Prokofiev, Leff Pouishnoff, Sergei Tarnowsky, Maria Yudina, Leonid Kreutzer, Isabelle Vengerova, Anastasia Virsaladze, Leo Ornstein, Isidor Achron, Thomas de Hartmann, and Alexander Borovsky (Borowsky). {{See LMST|Anna|Yesipova}}
== Recordings == In the early 1900s, Yesipova made a number of piano rolls, some of which have made been available as modern recordings (including Thalberg's ''Fantasia on a theme from Bellini's La Sonnambula'').<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150205085128/http://www.78rpm.net/cd/anna-essipova-welte-mignon.html Anna Essipova (Welte-Mignon Piano Rolls) - Pupils of Leschetizky Vol.1] (www.78rpm.net - 78rpm recordings reissued on Supraphon) featured on [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qzspr ''Through the Night'' program] on BBC Radio 3, 28 February 2010</ref>
There is one extant acoustic recording of her playing Benjamin Godard's Gavotte in G, recorded on an Edison cylinder by Julius Block in November 1898. This is one of a series of c. 200 cylinders recorded by Block in Russia in the 1890s and believed to be lost, until they were relocated at Pushkin House in Saint Petersburg and published for the first time in 2008.<ref>[https://www.marstonrecords.com/products/block ''The Dawn of Recording: The Julius Block Cylinders'' (Marston Records 53011-2): Liner notes]; D. J. Wakin, [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/arts/music/26waki.html "Classical Ghosts, Audible Once Again"], ''New York Times'', October 24, 2008.</ref>
== Notes == {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== Sources == * {{NIE|title=Essipoff, Annette}} * [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015007944997 Comtesse Angèle Potocka: ''Theodore Leschetizky, an intimate study of the man and the musician''. New York, The Century co., 1903 p. 223 f.]
== External links== {{Commons}} {{Wikiquote}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU2lpJ6Z1WA Yesipova plays Godard's Gavotte in G, Op. 81, no. 2] (YouTube)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yesipova, Anna}} Category:1851 births Category:1914 deaths Category:19th-century classical pianists from the Russian Empire Category:19th-century women musicians from the Russian Empire Category:19th-century women pianists Category:20th-century Russian classical pianists Category:20th-century Russian pianists Category:20th-century Russian women pianists Category:Academic staff of Saint Petersburg Conservatory Category:Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery Category:Piano educators Category:Pupils of Theodor Leschetizky Category:Russian music educators Category:Russian women classical pianists Category:Russian women music educators