MARIA NIKOLAEVNA BARINOVA
(MARCH 18/30, 1878, ST. PETERSBURG – OCTOBER 18, 1956, LENINGRAD, NOW ST.
PETERSBURG; LITERATORSKIE MOSTKI VOLKOV (NOW VOLKOVSKOGO) CEMETERY)
She was born into a family of a sculptor and an architect. From early
childhood she demonstrated musical talent. At the age of 8 she began systematic
piano lessons with S. I. Paul, a student of T. Stein . She studied piano
privately for two years with the professor of the Conservatory N. B. Pansh
(1894–1896). After graduating from the Mariinsky Girls' Gymnasium, she entered
the Conservatory in the senior course in the piano class of N. B. Pansh
(1896–1898). During her studies, she began actively giving concerts in Pavlovsk
(1900–1902), Nizhny Novgorod at the invitation of V. Yu. Villuan (1901), and
took part in Evenings of Contemporary Music (1902), where she performed works
by contemporary composers (A. F. Pashchenko, V. G. Karatygina , A. K. Glazunov
).
She graduated from the Conservatory in two specialties: piano (class
of S. A. Malozemova , 1898–1902, Mikhailovsky Palace Prize — the highest award)
and composition (class of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov , 1899–1903). In the summer of
1902, Barinova’s orchestral Overture was performed in Pavlovsk under Glazunov’s
direction. Her examination cantata, Northern Legend (words by A. A.
Golenishchev-Kutuzov), was performed at the Conservatory Gala Concert and
received high praise from critics (Petersburg Leaflet, 1903, No. 126).
Since 1903 she has performed as a soloist. The concert repertoire
included musical works from the Baroque era, the classical-romantic period, as
well as contemporary (mainly Russian) composers - P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. A.
Balakirev, A. K. Lyadov , S. V. Rachmaninoff, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, J. Vitols
and others.
She participated as a pianist in concerts at the Pavlovsk Music
Station under the direction of N. V. Galkin.
She performed in an ensemble with violinist A. L. Sapelnikov, cellist
L. Abbiate , and singer S. N. Mendelssohn. With her first husband, cellist E.
F. Malmgren, she toured in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Berlin,
Leipzig, and other German cities (1904–1905, 1905–1907).
She perfected her performing skills in Germany and Switzerland. In
Berlin, she took lessons from the famous German pianist I. Hoffmann (1904).
From him, she adopted a new technique for placing hands and a logical approach
to constructing musical form. She attended master classes by pianist A.
Reisenauer, attended classes by L. Godowsky, studied various methodological
guidelines, took composition lessons from G. Kaun, attended symphony concerts
by A. Nikisch and earned high praise for her performance from him. She won
first prize at the V. A. Erakova piano competition (1904, St. Petersburg). She
became acquainted with new methodological ideas in Basel, where she studied
with pianist and composer F. Busoni (1910). She studied the system of playing
movements and the theory of pianism of R. M. Breithaupt and E. Bach. She gained
popularity in Berlin as a teacher. One of her students, V. G. Gamaley, became
her second husband (1907) and the father of famous Russian musicians: violinist
G. V. Barinova (professor at the Moscow Conservatory, laureate of the Stalin
Prize) and conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre, professor Yu. V. Gamaley.
At the invitation of A.K. Glazunov, she headed the class of S.A.
Malozemova, who was forced to leave the Conservatory due to health reasons
(1907). She managed to gain a reputation as an innovative teacher. She
developed her own course on the methodology of teaching piano playing, in which
an important role was given to the history and theory of piano art, analysis of
the historical style and form of the work.
In the spring of 1913, taking a year's leave from the Conservatory,
Barinova and her class went to Berlin, where she continued her studies and gave
solo concerts.
With the outbreak of World War I (1914), she returned to St.
Petersburg and devoted her concert and performance activities entirely to the
tasks of musical education. Continuing the work of A. G. Rubinstein, she held a
series of historical lectures and concerts in the Chamber Hall of the
Conservatory, dedicated to the history of piano literature from F. Couperin and
J. Rameau to contemporary authors (1915–1916, 1916–1917). She involved the best
students in her class in her performance programs. Barinova’s pedagogical
authority among the students of the Conservatory was very high.
After the revolution, she joined the council of the Union of Musical
Figures (1917), as well as the Petrograd Commission for the Reform of Musical
Education, along with A.K. Glazunov, B.V. Asafiev , A.V. Ossovsky , S.M.
Lyapunov , E.M. Braudo, A.I. Ziloti, S.A. Koussevitzky and other prominent
musical figures.
For three decades, Barinova organized public lecture-concerts, which
she held in workers' clubs and educational institutions, the House of
Scientists, the Palace of Education (Yusupov Palace), the Institute of Theatre
and Music, the Military Academy and many other venues.
At the Conservatory: teacher (1907), senior teacher (1908), 2nd degree
professor (1910–1913; 1915–1929) of the piano class. Left the Conservatory in
protest against the unfair dismissal of Professor S. M. Maikapar.
The main place in Barinova's multifaceted activity was occupied by
pedagogy. She developed the creative initiative of students, their natural
musical abilities. She organized a course in piano playing methodology for
student pianists, gave reports on methodological topics, and gave open lessons.
She created a set of piano exercises to overcome professional diseases of
pianists' hands.
Simultaneously with her work at the Conservatory, she taught and
conducted methodological work in music technical schools and children's music
schools in Leningrad, and was in charge of the piano department at the branch
of the Central Correspondence Music and Pedagogical Institute (1938–1941). She
was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Music Teachers (1940),
and a senior research fellow at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre and
Music (1943–1947).
She wrote the first textbook in Russia on the methods of teaching
pianists, Essays on Piano Methodology (1928). From 1924, she conducted
unofficial courses to improve the qualifications of piano teachers at her home.
She was the first to open a pedagogical workshop (pedagogical practice) in one
of the music technical schools in Leningrad (1926).
Her students included many talented musicians, including prominent
performers, teachers and educators: I. A. Braudo , A. A. Lyublinsky , V. V.
Shaub, E. F. Girovsky, V. L. Pastukhov (1913–1917), V. L. Mikhelis; composers:
A. S. Lurye, B. G. Golts, G. N. Popov, V. K. Sorokin, G. A. Gassanov and
others, pianist, opera and chamber singer L. A. Borisova-Morozova (1920–1925).
TRACKLIST
1. 1947 WELTE-MIGNON TCHAIKOVSKY - Song of Autumn, Op. 37a, #10, d
“The Months”
2. 1948 WELTE-MIGNON JUON - Humoresque, Op. 12, No. 3
