Tchaikovsky
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Karl Albrecht

Karl Albrecht, also known as Konstantin Karlovich Al'brekht (Константин Карлович Альбрехт) was a cellist and teacher, born on 22 September/4 October 1836 in Elberfeld, Prussia, son of the German conductor and composer Karl Albrecht (1807–1863), and older brother to Eugen Albrecht (1842–1894). In 1838 the Albrecht family moved from Düsseldorf to Saint Petersburg, where they became naturalised Russian citizens.

The younger Karl followed in his father's musical footsteps, and became a cellist with the Bol'shoi Theatre in Moscow in 1854. Here he worked with Nikolai Rubinstein to help found the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society in 1860, becoming a teacher in the society's music classes. After the opening of the Moscow Conservatory in 1866, Albrecht was appointed as supervisor and instructor in choral singing and elementary theory, a position he held until 1889. It was at the Conservatory that Tchaikovsky and Albrecht first met as fellow tutors, and the two men remained good friends for the rest of their lives.

In 1878 Albrecht also helped to found the Russian Choral Society in Moscow, and while working at the Conservatory he also produced a Manual of choral singing after the numerical method of Chevé (Руководство к хоровому пению по цифирной методе Шеве) and Collections of choral pieces for single and mixed voices (Сборники хоровых пьес, для однородных и смешанных голосов), to which Tchaikovsky contributed the choruses. Spring, Evening, and Blessed is He Who Smiles. Albrecht also compiled and published catalogues of selected works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Glinka.

Tchaikovsky's letters show that he thought highly of Albrecht's musical abilities, and regretted that the latter had chosen not to develop them further. His Modern Greek Song (No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 16) and his Serenade for String Orchestra (1880) are both dedicated to Karl Albrecht.

Karl Albrecht died in Moscow on 14/26 June 1893, aged 57.