VADIM NOVIKOV: LIFE WITH THE TRUMPET
by Prof. Dr. Inessa Svirida
Translated from the Russian by Dr. Anastassia Novikova
Edited by James Olcott

THIS COMPACT DISK was recorded by Vadim Novikov, an outstanding Russian musician, between 1958–2011. His creative activity, marked by an unfailing dedication to music and his trumpet, is aimed at establishing the trumpet in Russia as a solo instrument and as a constant and equal participant in concert life. In this way Vadim Novikov strives to include the Russian trumpet community in the circle of significant trumpet schools in the world. Novikov’s own performing activity, his decades of work as a Professor at the P. I. Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatoire, and his persistent efforts as the founder and President of the Interregional Trumpet Guild have contributed towards this goal.

The importance of the issue of the solo trumpet can be understood in connection with the peculiarities of the development of the Russian trumpet school. In Europe, the 'golden age' of the trumpet took place during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Russia the situation was different, as masterful symphonic playing existed alongside the lack of a solid tradition of solo performance. Separate bright exceptions, defined by a relatively late emergence of secular instrumental music in Russia, including solo music (in the Russian Church instrumental music was not allowed), did not change the overall state of affairs. However, the necessity to master the technique of contemporary performance, as well as contemporary repertoire, became an important agenda item.

As a result, the development of the Russian trumpet school became connected with Russian symphonism. It is not coincidental that one of its famous moments is the trumpet solo in the Poem of Ecstasy by Scriabin (1907). Its performance brought fame to such musicians as M. I. Tabakov (1877–1956) and S.N. Yeremin (1903–1975).  Both of them had an exceptionally large bright sound and free technique. The issues of sound were important to Novikov from the beginning of his musical path. From Yeremin Novikov also inherited an interest in trumpet pedagogy.

Performance
Yeremin became Novikov’s principal teacher, having accepted him into the College affiliated to the Conservatoire (formerly called Uchilische), after hearing him play the C major scale and the Romance of Pauline from The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, which was enough for Yeremin to evaluate Novikov’s striking native ability.

As a student he performed the Haydn Concerto on the B-flat trumpet at the 1962 International Competition in Helsinki, where he received the first prize and the gold medal as well as the special prize of the jury for his performance of Hindemith Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, a compulsory piece at the competition.  

Years later, Novikov’s highly individual manner of musical performance, his innovative teaching, and determined social musical activity became the foundations that gave him the opportunity to fight the traditional attitude towards the trumpet. The famed Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky saw Novikov as an ‘outstanding soloist’ and a ‘leader of the community of Russian trumpet players’, as well as appreciating him as a musician, who had “adorned the operas and ballets” he conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre. One particularly memorable moment was Novikov’s performance of the first trumpet part in Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky, which he sightread at the Paris Grande Opera.                  

Novikov’s performance is characterized by a special feature: along with technical agility in all ranges accessible to the trumpet, his own tonal color is rare in its beauty and suppleness. This quality exhibits itself both in technical virtuoso pieces, such as the Toccata by Martini, and in lyrical works, such as the Vocalise by Rachmaninov, a masterpiece of Russian musical lyricism. All of these qualities are beautifully demonstrated on this CD.

Novikov began his orchestral practice during his student years, when he played first trumpet in the Conservatoire orchestra conducted by Mikhail Terian, also a brilliant pedagogue, and later by the world-famous Igor Markevich during his legendary three-month conductor’s seminar (1963), which influenced the paths of many future conductors, with some of whom Novikov played in later years.  Along with this, for more than twenty years Novikov worked in the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre (1964-86), where he performed the principal trumpet parts of the opera and ballet repertoire, led by major orchestra conductors such as Y. Svetlanov, G. Rozhdestvensky, Y. Simonov, A. Zhuraitis, A. Lazarev and Y. Temirkanov. On numerous occasions he has performed in the Moscow Chamber Orchestra at the invitation of its conductor, Rudolf Barshai, in Russia and abroad.

Teaching
In 1964 Novikov also started teaching trumpet at the Musical College and at the Palace of Young Pioneers (PYP) in Moscow where he taught a trumpet class that prepared musicians for the brass orchestra organized at the PYP. The 1960s was a period during which Russian cultural life underwent many positive changes, but there was still a long way to go towards acquiring the mastery of solo performance, assimilation of contemporary world concert repertoire, and organization of trumpet concert life. These tasks, which Novikov faced, were difficult to solve. However, people, who entered cultural life in the 1960s, knew how to achieve their goals.

In 1972, at the invitation of Timofey Dokschitzer, Novikov worked as an assistant in his class at the Gnessin Institute. Wanting to get back to independent pedagogical work, he returned to the College in 1974, where he was again given his own trumpet class, which he had taught from 1964-1972.

In 1979 Novikov began teaching at the P. I. Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatoire, which he continues to do as a leading professor to this day. Highly successful as a teacher, students of both younger and older generations receive awards at international competitions. Special concerts featuring his trumpet classes routinely attract large audiences and consistently feature interesting and diversified programs of the highest calibre. One such class concert, which took place at the Rachmaninov Hall of the Conservatoire and featured trumpet concertos of the 17th through 20th centuries, was the topic of a news item published in the ITG Journal in 2011.

Novikov’s students have included young trumpeters from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tatarstan, South Korea, China, Algeria, Peru and others. Among his brightest pupils are Mikhail Gaiduk, Mikhail Anisiforov, and Jasulan Abdykalykov.

Novikov’s pedagogical principles have been taught in numerous masterclasses he has held in Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Salzburg (Mozarteum), London (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), and at several conservatoires in Italy. He has given many lectures for Russian trumpet teachers on the method behind his teaching.

Through his students, Novikov is now inspiring a new generation of trumpeters. His graduates are soloists of major Russian orchestras (three of them work, as their professor did, at the Bolshoi) and in a number of foreign orchestras. They also teach at schools of higher education in Russia and abroad (Sweden, Germany, Israel, South Korea, the USA), and continue to develop those principles of Novikov’s school which set them on the path to become prominent musicians on their own. Such players include Victor Kisnichenko, Boris Shlepakov, Dmitry Lokalenkov, Iskander Akhmadullin and many others. Some have won first prizes at prestigious international competitions, having competed against representatives of the leading trumpet schools of the world. At a competition organized by Moscow Conservatoire in 2011 Mikhail Gaiduk and Jasulan Abdykalykov won first and second prizes, having competed against trumpeters from France, Britain, Japan, etc.

American professor Bradley Ulrich, who held a masterclass with Novikov’s students at the Moscow Conservatoire in 2008, called Novikov a ‘legendary pedagogue’ and ‘a ‘fantastic teacher.’ Describing his impressions of his work with Novikov’s students, Ulrich noted that “the students performed brilliantly … and were very eager to learn.” Novikov also teaches his students to soak in professional knowledge, he said.

The music
The concept of the solo trumpet, realised by Novikov through his performance and pedagogical practice, stems from the possibilities of the instrument itself. The task of demonstrating that concept via the historically-formed European repertoire and, now, Russian music, defines the multifaceted contents of the disk, which, in turn, reveals that concept in the process of listening.

However, the pieces on this disk are not presented in chronological order, but are arranged in a sequence of artistic images. Whether contrasting or complementing each other, they allow the listener to make a kind of pilgrimage through musical eras and through the world of sounds created by Novikov. On this journey the styles of individual composers are also given attention by the performer. The Toccata by Martini and the Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni (arrangement by Remo Giazotto) reveal two sides of the Baroque era, the love of festivities in the Toccata and the memento mori in the Adagio. A special suite representing psychological moods prevalent in nineteenth-century music seems to unfold out of Tchaikovsky’s compositions in different genres, connected by the sound of Novikov's trumpet (the Sentimental Waltz, the romance When Day Reigns and the Neapolitan Dance). The twentieth century is brilliantly represented on the disk by western composers Enescu, Honegger and Hindemith. Here also is Rachmaninov, ‘the most Russian composer,’ with his deep Vocalise, where the hero is striving but not finding the way towards the light, and the tempestuous, purifying Spring Waters.

The presentation of musical imagery begins with the Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra by Giuseppe Torelli, one of thirty Torelli wrote for the trumpet, his favorite instrument. This recording was made in 1958 when Novikov was still a student at the Music College, and was later released as a vinyl record by Melodiya Records. This recording has become archival and is highly significant in the history of Russian solo performance. The recording presents the first performance in Russia of a solo trumpet piece from the Baroque period, and was made during a time when the Baroque era was little recognized in Russia, and was just in the process of being discovered, despite having played a large role in the history of Russian culture.

The Torelli recording was made under the initiative of conductor Anatoly Knorre, Baroque connoisseur and leader of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Radio Committee. He ‘discovered’ not only the Concerto by Torelli but also Novikov as a trumpeter, whom he had previously known only by his playing in the amateur symphony orchestra of the Club of Railway Workers.  

Novikov became the first performer of Baroque music on the trumpet in a public concert in Russia, peforming with organist Boris Romanov at the Tchaikovsky Philharmonic Hall in Moscow in 1970 and in 1971 in Minsk and then in Tallinn at the International Festival of Organ Music. With these concerts collaborations were created with many organists, among whom were masters, such as A. Fisseisky, A. Parshin and A. Shmitov, as well as the French organist Annick Chevalier. Affinity between the two instruments ermerged as it had been in the Baroque era, and with it, Novikov’s trumpet has acquired particular power over the audience. 

Novikov was the first in Russia to include Baroque-style pieces in the curriculum of the trumpet class of the Conservatoire, having published two compendiums of Baroque Sonatas (1979 and 1984) and editions of the concertos of Hummel and Haydn transcribed for E-flat trumpet published together in 1982. Publications of both concertos are kept at the Moscow Conservatoire Library and are constantly used by students as are two other handwritten compendiums which include the trumpet parts for the cantatas of J.S. Bach and the trumpet part for operas and ballets by Russian and Soviet composers based on the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater.

By doing the above, Novikov introduced the use of high-pitched instruments into Russian practice, which he himself commands beautifully, as displayed on his recording of Martini’s Toccata on this disk.

The disk comprises both well-known pieces and those brought to life again by the performer, such as the Prelude by Feodor Goedicke, the father of the famous Russian organist. Some of the others are well known works in the trumpet repertoire, including the Legende by Eugene Enescu, written with a deep knowledge of the possibilities of the instrument, which Novikov’s performance masterfully demonstrates.

The disk also presents one of the most fundamental works of the trumpet repertoire, the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Paul Hindemith (1939). This is a product of the first war years and is a truly philosophical oeuvre. This piece is technically difficult as well, and requires particular physical endurance on the part of the performer. This sonata is difficult for the listener as well. Only listening to it many times reveals the layers of meaning related to man’s existential problems introduced by the composer and brightly and clearly read by the performer.

The recording of 2011 presented here is the pinnacle of Novikov’s musical maturity. As has already been mentioned, Novikov performed this Sonata for the first time in 1962 at the International Competition in Helsinki and then performed it at the related concert at the Small Hall of the Conservatoire in Moscow, so his repertoire breakthroughs concerned contemporary music, as well. Nowadays such breakthroughs are accomplished by his pupils, who are playing complex works by Arthur Honneger, André Jolivet, Henri Tomasi and others.

Although some of the pieces presented on the disk were not written for the trumpet but for voice or other instruments, Novikov usually performs them without any adaptation and fully reproduces the author’s original, which does not preclude him from giving the music his own interpretation. This happens with the famous Aria of the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute. It is, for the most part, freed from the dramatic role-play aspect of the operatic aria. Contrary to the opera libretto, in Novikov’s interpretation the evil ‘prickly’ motifs do not triumph in the aria. Mozart’s music sounds heroic in its pure and almost inaccessible beauty, as if overcoming world evil. It was precisely the struggle of these two elements that Mozart implied in this opera, which has many subtexts.

The recordings included on this CD have been made in the course of half-a-century. However, they all possess the quality of wholesomeness, which characterizes Novikov as a great musician. His manner is always academically strict and seemingly reserved but, at the same time, emotionally saturated. Novikov is both capable of reproducing, in slightly faded tones, the half-forgotten wistful melody of the Sentimental Waltz, interrupted by bright splashes of memories, as well as broadening the palette and painting with a powerful brush such a monumental fresco as Hindemith’s Sonata. 

Results
Novikov’s disk, together with his pupils’ successes, raises the hope that his dream of establishing the trumpet in Russia as a solo instrument is becoming a palpable reality. Already in 2002 Novikov’s achievements in Russian music culture were marked by the high state title of “Meritorious Personality in the Arts.”  In 2002 Novikov was also awarded the Dostoevsky medal ‘for beauty, humanity and justice.’  Novikov’s school of solo trumpet playing, whose principles are being transmitted by his pupils throughout Russia and abroad, has played a leading role in the process of creating the new traditions of Russian solo trumpet performance.

All of this Novikov has managed to achieve despite serious health problems which caused four breaks in his musical practice, each several months long, after which he had to start mastering his instrument again.

In 2006, Culture, a central newspaper, headlined an interview with Novikov entitled Trumpet, a Full-fledged Solo Instrument. In 2011 another article from Culture called Novikov ‘forward-looking’, using the definition given to him by Dr. Edward Tarr, a well-known American trumpeter and trumpet historian and the author of a book on the history of Russian trumpet.* In a note to Dr. Tarr, Novikov wrote, “I have always striven to find out something new and introduce it into our trumpet life. The fact that you have perceived and highlighted it in my work is very significant for me.” Tarr also referred to Novikov as “an important bridge-builder between trumpeters of Russia and the West.”

While Tarr called Novikov ‘a kind and caring person,’ Leonard Candelaria, one of America’s leading trumpeters who headed the International Guild of Trumpeters for several years, wrote in his greeting to Novikov in 2002 that, for him, "it is a great honour and pleasure” to consider Professor Novikov among his respected professional colleagues and personal partners. “He has established himself to be one of the most well-known pedagogues in Russia ... and brought up many young Russian musicians. Professor Novikov, thanks to his performing and pedagogical art, (has) made a significant contribution to the development of solo trumpet playing and pedagogy which is historically linked to the Russian Trumpet School and (the) traditions of such predecessors, as Brandt, Liamin, Tabakov, and Yeremin.”

Having welcomed the works on this disk, Professor David Hickman, one of the prominent American trumpet players and pedagogues and President of the International Trumpet Guild for many years, wrote to Vadim Novikov: “The trumpet community in the United States and the rest of the world are becoming aware of your incredible musical abilities, and there is a deep interest in having your … compact disk released.  Your reputation as a Professor at the Moscow Conservatoire is excellent, and it would be fantastic if you were to produce a CD of major trumpet works by Hindemith, Honegger, Enescu, and perhaps Russian composers. This disk would be a tremendous asset and an inspiration in the trumpet world. It would also favourably characterize Moscow Conservatoire and the art of the trumpet in Russia.”

In Moscow this CD of Novikov’s recordings was published under the heading From the Collection of Moscow Conservatoire (November 2014) along with CDs of other prominent musicians. The CD, now in the ITG edition, has been distributed amongst the members of the Guild around the world, increasing the Russian trumpet school’s presence in the international trumpet community.

About the author:
Inessa Svirida is on the staff of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Slavonic Studies where she is Chief Research Fellow of the Institute. She has authored or been project leader of over ten books and over 300 major articles on the subject of history of culture, some of which have been published in France, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. To mark her academic contributions to Polish studies, she was awarded the Polish Order of the Cavalier Cross of Merit of the Rzeczpospolita Polska in 2004 after previously being awarded the Medal Named After Composer Karol Szymanowsky in 2002. As a musician, she trained as a violinist at the Central Music School affiliated to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and toured in Russia and intenationally for several years with the the orchestra of Moscow State Lomonossov University while attaining her degrees there.