Let’s recall the famous musicians who at various times taught at the St.Petersburg
Conservatory, and above all, Anton Rubinstein whose talent and energy made
the Conservatory happen in 1862…
Uniquely endowed in all things musical, Anton Rubinstein found himself
in the very heart of the city’s musical life early on. Before long, word
about the Russian wunderkind spread all across Europe inviting comparisons
with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself… By age 25, Rubinstein was touted
as Europe’s number one pianist, on a par with Ferenz Liszt. 
Rubinstein was more than just a pianistic genius, he was also a very able
composer penning a staggering thirteen operas, six symphonies, ten orchestral
overtures, twenty ensemble pieces, nearly two hundred romances and over
two hundred pieces for piano – more than any other European composer could
boast…
Always hardworking, independent and strong willed, Anton Rubinstein was
also highly driven and purposeful – traits that helped him found Russia’s
first conservatory…
Educated by the best teachers in Vienna and Berlin, Rubinstein was only
32 when the St.Petersburg Conservatory was inaugurated on September 8,
1862. Despite his young age, Rubinstein enjoyed unquestionable authority
among the country’s rich and famous. Small wonder that he became the Conservatory’s
first director and, despite his over-packed timetable, he found time to
also teach piano and composition there…
Inviting 29 of the capital’s best musicians to work on the Conservatory’s
staff, Rubinstein created a uniquely creative atmosphere, which to this
very day makes the St.Petersburg Conservatory so special. It was then and
there that the very foundations of Russian instrumental music were laid.
Karl Davydov launched the Russian school of cello playing, Leopold Auer
– of the violin and Albert Zabel – of the harp. And it would be no exaggeration
to say that Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov proudly and legitimately presided
over the exclusive community of St.Petersburg composers…
Strange as it may sound, Rimsky-Korsakov did not have any formal musical
education. A naval officer circumnavigating the globe early on, on board
the clipper Almaz, and the author of a wealth of popular music compositions,
he had but a cursory idea of music theory. Something Anton Rubinstein never
suspected when he asked Rimsky-Korsakov to teach at his conservatory…
The new professor joined the conservatory faculty in the fall of 1871.
Years later he wrote: “If I only knew a tiny bit more than I actually did,
I would realize that I had no right whatsoever to teach there…” 
Rimsky-Korsakov was now working almost round the clock catching up on music
theory and teaching at the Conservatory. Professor Rimsky-Korsakov
became the most knowledge-hungry and hardworking student around making
himself one of the best-educated people of his time and for 37 years he
generously shared his vast knowledge and expertise with his students…
The author of fifteen operas, many symphonies and scores of romances, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov created a very colorful and absolutely inimitable musical
language, which, in many respects, precipitated the advent of the French
impressionists. A quick listen to the music written by his students leaves
one wondering how their teacher had managed to develop the young composers’
authentic writing manner and never ever to force his own style on his students,
Anatoly Lyadov, Anton Arensky, Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Miaskovsky, Sergei
Prokofyev and other equally towering figures…
Even though he was never part of the conservatory’s brass, Rimsky-Korsakov
enjoyed a measure of respect that would make every leader salivate. His
clout made itself felt particularly well in 1905…
On January 9, 1905 hundreds of people were shot and killed when army troops
fired at a huge crowd of peaceful protesters heading towards the Winter
Palace. The terrible massacre triggered widespread unrest that engulfed
virtually every segment of Russian society. Including the Conservatory
where the students immediately went on strike. The officials running the
conservatory demanded the resumption of classes. The students refused.
The administration hit back hard expelling dozens of protesting students.
Professor Rimsky-Korsakov was quick to raise his voice against that outrage
and, in a letter to the management he said he shared many of the strikers’
demands. On March 21, 1905 the famous musician was fired. Rimsky-Korsakov’s
dismissal set off a wave of angry protests among students and fellow faculty
members. Several leading professors tendered their resignations and,
a few months later, the Conservatory management asked Rimsky-Korsakov and
others to return to work. Most of the strikers’ demands were accommodated,
including one calling for the Conservatory to stop taking orders from the
Music Society led by a bunch of highborn laymen…
The St.Petersburg Conservatory was a large part of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s
life until his very death in 1908. He developed a perfect method of teaching
music and was the author of a manual, which is still very much in use today.
During Rimsky-Korsakov’s centennial birthday celebrations in 1944, his
name was given to the Leningrad (St.Petersburg) Conservatory he once taught
at. There is a monument in front of the Conservatory building where
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is shown sitting on a bench and holding sheets
of notational paper on his lap. Staring at the notes before him the composer
has his right arm in the air as if conducting an orchestra…
Until 1905 the Conservatory directors were all appointed by the Imperial
Music Society. After the student riots in January 1905 the practice gave
way to free elections. Winning the majority of votes, 40-year-old Professor
Alexander Glazunov became the first elected director of the St.Petersburg
Conservatory.
A phenomenally endowed musician whose perfect ear and amazing memory left
people in stunned admiration, Glazunov could easily play any piece of music
he had never heard before, no matter how difficult or long it might be…
Successfully unveiling his first symphony in St.Petersburg as a 17-year-old
young man, Alexander Glazunov was already a nationally and international
acclaimed musician by the time he started teaching at the St.Petersburg
Conservatory…
Despite his phlegmatic looks, Glazunov was a born leader, always able to
get the authorities doing what he pleased, convince colleagues and inflame
his students. Seasoned pros and young greenhorns all liked this big master
and a wonderful and friendly man always ready to help…
At the Conservatory, Alexander Glazunov was everyone’s darling. The smell
of his cigar (he was a chain smoker) indicated where exactly the director
might be at any time showing the numerous well-wishers the way to say hello
and wish him well…
Glazunov never missed a grade exam and knew every student by name. Especially
young composers. Conservatively minded as he was, Glazunov had a perfect
ear for genuine talent and even though he could not be particularly happy
about some of the new trends coming along, he never stood in the way. Looking
back on his life, Alexander Glazunov had ample reason to say he had never
missed or stifled anything or anyone that bore hallmarks of genuine talent…
Alexander Glazunov presided over probably the most difficult period in
the life of the St.Petersburg Conservatory and Russia itself. The 1905
Revolution in Russia was followed by World War One, two more revolutions
in 1917 and a Civil War. St.Petersburg-Petrograd had its full share
of trials and tribulations, starving to death, freezing and rising from
the dead, over and over again… It’s absolutely amazing how this man actually
managed to keep the Conservatory alive against such overwhelming odds!
Using his towering authority, Glazunov made sure the Conservatory always
had enough firewood to keep warm, and enough food rations to feed the faculty
and students. Among them the up and coming young composer Dmitry Shostakovich…
In 1926 the aging and ailing Glazunov was leaving Russia heading to Europe
to restore his failing health. He never got back to his native St.Petersburg,
to his beloved Conservatory he had lived and worked at for more than two
decades…
One of the country’s leading musicians whom Anton Rubinstein invited to
join the conservatory’s faculty was harpist Albert Zabel. An ethnic German,
Albert Zabel started off just like so many other child prodigies had done
before him. At age 12, he arrived in St. Petersburg as part of an ongoing
European tour. Nine years later he came again to stay first as a lead singer
with the Mariinsky Theater and later as a conservatory professor.
At the Mariinsky, besides playing the harp, Zabel would often edit harp
solos. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who was then working on The Sleeping Beauty and
The Nutcracker ballets, regularly came to him to discuss possible inclusions
of harp parts into the score.
Albert Zabel taught at the St.Petersburg Conservatory for almost 40 years
becoming the founding father of a professional school of harp playing that
inspired many generations of Russian harp players.
Professor Leopold Auer is to Russian violinists what Albert Zabel was to
Russian harp players. Finding himself in Russia as a 23 year-old young
man, Auer, a native of Hungary, immediately plunged himself into the capital’s
bubbling musical life playing concerts as the lead violinist of the St.
Petersburg String Quartet, conducting the orchestra of the Russian Music
Society and teaching at the local conservatory. 
Leopold Auer definitely was one of the best violinists of his time. He
was more than an inimitable virtuoso making easy work of the most finger
twisting riffs. Fast and driven, Auer immediately energized his audiences
who adored and idolized him…
Leopold Auer made an equally heavy contribution to developing the Russian
violin repertoire. The country’s leading composers, Tchaikovsky included,
dedicated their best work to him, and Alexander Glazunov wrote a concerto
for violin and orchestra expressly for Leopold Auer…
As a teacher, Leopold Auer was an absolute no-contest in late-19th and
early-20th century Russia and Europe. Just like Albert Zabel, he spent
almost 40 years teaching at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and spawned
a veritable constellation of excellent violinists, among them Yefrem Tsimbalist
and Yasha Heifets.
Karl Davydov is very aptly called the head of 19th-century Russian cello
music. An awesome soloist and a great ensemble player - he also played
with the St. Petersburg String Quartet – a fine composer and conductor,
he left an indelible imprint on Russian music. Even more than that, however,
he will forever be remembered as a brilliant teacher producing a galaxy
of excellent cellists and leaving behind The School of Cello Playing –
an absolutely priceless textbook Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran
and other great cellists learned from and used to teach their own students…
Besides Anton Rubinstein, there were several other leading piano professors
teaching at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Above all, Anna Yesipova,
a Conservatory graduate herself and the first Russian woman to build a
hugely successful career of a performing pianist touring the world solo
and with violinist Leopold Auer. 
By the time she took up teaching, Anna Yesipova was already a seasoned
professional. Students lined up to join the class of this no nonsense and
very demanding instructor. Including Sergei Prokofyev who, besides his
larger than life compositional talent, was a brilliant pianist awarded
with a grand piano upon his graduation from the Conservatory.
Leonid Nikolayev contributed equally heavily to the advancement of Russian
piano playing. Early in the 20th century, Nikolayev, a Moscow Conservatory
graduate who studied with Sergei Rakhmaninoff, moved to St. Petersburg
and in 1909 he started teaching at Russia’s oldest conservatory. A brilliant
musician, he easily got along with his students bringing out the best in
them… Dmitry Shostakovich definitely stands out from the long and
star-studded list of Nikolayev’s students. The would-be author of the world-famous
Leningrad Symphony, he was also a piano major at the Conservatory and in
1926 became a winner of the first Chopin international piano competition
in Warsaw, Poland. Shostakovich the pianist was a brilliant performer
of his own music, and he eventually became a St. Petersburg conservatory
professor himself spending many years teaching composition at Russia’s
oldest institution of higher musical learning…
Let’s get back to the class of Professor Leonid Nikolayev though. Among
his many students was Pavel Serebryakov who later became one of the city’s
leading pianists. A romantic by nature, Serebryakov offered absolutely
inimitable interpretations of Chopin, Schumann and Rakhmaninoff in his
vast repertoire that included a whopping 500 numbers!
Pavel Serebryakov spent a whole 45 years teaching at the St. Petersburg
Conservatory and nearly 30 years as its director. Intelligent, refined
and friendly, he expertly handled all the problems of day-to-day running
of the conservatory business.
His directorship coincided in time with a very difficult period in the
life of this country and one can only admire how courageously and wisely
this man managed to stand up to all the odds that came his way…
During the 1930s, when thousands of innocent people were stigmatized as
“enemies of the people”, Pavel Serebyakov managed to save the lives of
many of his conservatory colleagues and students…
In 1941, as the German armies were fast advancing towards Leningrad, Serebryakov
presided over a textbook evacuation of the conservatory to the east and,
before long, the conservatory was back to work. After the deadly 900-day
siege was over, Pavel Serebryakov and his leading professors were working
hard restoring the conservatory to its pre-war capacity.
Despite his everyday managerial chores, Pavel Serebryakov also continued
as a teacher spawning a dozens of excellent pianists to keep alive the
grand traditions of Russian performing school once established by the venerable
Anton Rubinstein.
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