Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Nikolayev, Leonid (Vladimirovich)

(b Kiev, 13 Aug 1878; d Tashkent, 11 Oct 1942). Russian pianist, teacher and composer. He studied the piano with Vladimir Pukhal'sky and composition with Yevgeny Rib in Kiev. He then attended the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in the piano from Safonov's class in 1900 and two years later from the composition class of Taneyev and Ippolitov-Ivanov. After a period as répétiteur at the Bol'shoy Theatre, during which time he also carried out extensive research on Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, he became a teacher at the Moscow Philharmonic School (1904–6). At this time he also produced a number of works which brought him recognition as a composer whose command of form and of harmonic inflection betrayed the influence of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, yet whose subtler melodic nuances revealed a personal voice of true expressive power. From 1909 he taught at the St Petersburg Conservatory and was made professor in 1912, remaining there until 1942, when he moved to Tashkent to escape the German invasion.

As a teacher, Nikolayev was instrumental in establishing one of the most distinctive yet heterogeneous schools of Russian pianism. Although Leschetizky's legacy was a pervasive influence, the unifying feature among Nikolayev's students was their predisposition to large-scale dynamic structures and imaginative colouristic effects. Most notable among his piano pupils were Sofronitsky, Shostakovich, Yudina and Serebryakov; his composition students included Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Deshevov and Aleksandr Krein. Nikolayev's own compositions include a Piano Sonata, Variations for piano, Tarantella for piano and Suite for two pianos, in addition to a Violin Sonata, a Cello Sonata, three string quartets and songs. He also made transcriptions of organ works by Buxtehude and Pachelbel that gained popularity through the performances of his most distinguished students.

CHARLES HOPKINS

Nikolayeva, Tat'yana (Petrovna)

(b Bezhitza, 4 May 1924; d San Francisco, 22 Nov 1993). Russian pianist, teacher and composer. Her mother was a professional pianist and former pupil of Godenweiser, with whom Nikolayeva herself had lessons from the age of 13. She continued studies with him at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating from his class in 1947 and, following that, from Golubev's composition class in 1950. In the latter year she won first prize at the Bach Competition in Leipzig. Shostakovich was a member of the jury and was so impressed with her playing that he took a special interest in her career and later wrote the 24 Preludes and Fugues op.87 with her in mind. Nikolayeva recorded the set three times. She began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1959, and from 1965 was a professor. Although she had an extensive career throughout the USSR and Eastern bloc countries, it was not until the 1980s that her playing became widely known in Western Europe, where her interpretation of Bach, in particular, was admired for its intelligence and resourceful use of tonal variety. Her repertory was comprehensive, with cyclical performances of works such as Bach's ‘48’ and Art of Fugue and the 32 Beethoven sonatas being a speciality. Nikolayeva's own compositions, which include two piano concertos, a set of 24 concert studies for piano, a piano sonata and quintet, as well as symphonic music, are based on firmly polyphonic structures – a characteristic that was so much the mark of her own approach to interpretation.

JAMES METHUEN-CAMPBELL

Nikolov, Lazar (Kostov)

(b Burgas, 26 Aug 1922). Bulgarian composer. Together with Konstantin Iliev he was a founder of Bulgaria’s postwar avant garde, and among the first composers in eastern Europe to subscribe to modernism and the use of non-tonal techniques. His compositional aesthetic ran counter to the doctrines of the communist regime which was particularly oppressive at the start of his career in the late 1940s. For most of his professional life his work was censored.

In 1946 Nikolov completed his formal education at the Bulgarian State Music Academy, having studied the piano and composition with Nenov and composition, briefly, with Pancho Vladigerov. From the time of his graduation to the time he was appointed teacher of score reading at the State Academy (1961) Nikolov worked as an accompanist. From 1966 to 1969 he was secretary of the Union of Bulgarian Composers; in 1992 he became its chairman. During a distinguished career he has received numerous awards, including major prizes from the Bulgarian Composers’ Union (1983, 1984), the Order of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1982), the title People’s Artist (1984) and from the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1992). His works have been performed at the Warsaw Autumn, the Zagreb Biennial, the Berlin Musik-Biennale and the Prague Spring festivals.

In addition to Nenov, Nikolov’s early influences included Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Hindemith. Like Iliev he rejected folk music sources and the late Romantic style of Vladigerov, seeking instead smaller forms and economical means of expression that were clear and linear. In early works such as the First and Second Piano Sonatas Nikolov employed Classical forms and polyphony. The bulk of his output is instrumental, preferring instrumental to vocal forces to express purely abstract musical ideas. His first successsful composition and the beginnings of an evolving, individual style was his Concerto for String Orchestra (1949). Following its première the work was criticised harshly by the authorities but quickly gained widespread popularity; it has since become one of his most well-known works. Throughout the 1960s he experimented with instrumental timbre, controlled aleatory elements and highly virtuoso techniques, as evidenced in the First String Quartet (1964–5) and Pianistichni otblyasatsi (‘Piano Reflections’, 1972).

A special place in his compositional output has been reserved for the sonata, a genre he has regularly employed. His piano sonatas (1950–91), in particular, have served to document the various stages of his style. In his later sonatas, as well as other works, Nikolov makes extensive use of aleatory techniques, tone clusters, glissandi played directly on the strings and other colouristic effects. The freer sections, however, are controlled by means of detailed instructions to the performer.

WORKS

(selective list)

Dramatic: Prikovaniyat Promotey [Prometheus Chained] (chbr op-orat, after Aeschylus), 1963–9; Chichovsti [The Uncles] (op-comique), 1971

Orch: Pf Conc. no.1, 1947; Conc., str orch, 1949; Vn Conc., 1952; Sym. no.1, 1953; Pf Conc. no.2, 1954; Sym. no.2, 1960–62; Concertino, pf, orch, 1964; Syms., 13 str, 1965; Divertimento concertante, 1968; Sym. no.3, 1976; Sym. no.4, 1984; Sym. no.5, 1988; Lento, 1990; Otblyasatsi i zalez [Reflections and Sunset], 1990; Metamorfozi no.4, 12 vc, 1991

Chbr: Sonata, vn, pf, 1953–4; Sonata, va, pf, 1955; Pf Qnt, 1958–9; Sonata, fl, pf, 1962; Sonata, vc, pf, 1962; Sonata, cl, pf; Str Qt no.1, 1964–5; Str Qt no.2, 1970; Sonata, 2 hp, 1970–72; Sonata, db, pf, 1971–2; Sonata, ob, pf, 1975–6; Sonata, bn, pf, 1976; Sonata, tpt, pf, 1983–4; Sonata, tbn, pf, 1985–6; Str Qt no.3, 1990; Trio, vn. va, pf, 1993; Intermezzo per 3, vn, vc, pf, 1994; Pezzo tempestoso, vc, pf, 1994; Sonata no.2, vn, pf, 1996

Pf: sonatas: 1950, 1951, 1955–6, 1964, 1979–80, 1982, 1991; 2 sonatas, 2 pf, 1952, 1992; Pianistichni otblyasatsi [Piano Reflections], pf, 1972

Solo vocal: Pesnopeniya [Songs], 1969–70; Requiem, Mez, pf, 1995; Ogromni utrinni zvezdi [Enormous Morning Stars], S, pf, 1996

Principal publishers: Muzika, Nauka i Izkhustvo (Sofia), Muzyka (Moscow), Schott, Peters

BIBLIOGRAPHY

‘60 Godini Lazar Nikolov’, Balgarska muzika, xxxiii/7 (1982)

L. Nikolov: ‘Begli Spomeni i Misli v Pomosht na Badeshtiia Biograf’, Balgarska muzika, xxxiv/8 (1983), 52–7

R. Raicheva: ‘Kontzert za Strunen Orkestar ot Lazar Nikolov: Fakturinii i Muzikalno-Protsesualni Osobenosti’, Balgarska muzika, xxxvi/10 (1985), 12–20

ANN LEYY, GREGORY MYERS