Nikolai Bakaleynikov
Nikolai Bakaleynikov was a Russian and Soviet flutist and composer. He was born in Moscow on December 13, 1881, into a family of musicians; his father played clarinet in an orchestra. His brothers Vladimir, Mikhail, and Konstantin also became composers.
In 1900, Bakaleynikov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied flute with Wilhelm Kretschmann. He also took lessons in harmony and counterpoint from Sergei Taneyev. From 1900 to 1905, he worked as a conductor and choirmaster with theater companies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He was a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra from 1905 to 1919 and took part in Sergei Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons in Paris. From 1914 to 1919, he also served as a bandmaster with military bands in Moscow. According to music critic Leonid Sabaneev, Bakaleynikov wrote music for Alexander Vertinsky’s performances at Moscow’s Alatr artists’ club between 1914 and 1917.
From 1919, he worked as a conductor in Kyiv. In the 1920s, he was appointed head of the orchestras of the Kyiv Military District headquarters and later joined the organizing group of Kyivsimfans, a conductorless symphony orchestra modeled on Moscow’s Persimfans. In 1931, he moved to Sverdlovsk, where he conducted ballet performances at the A. V. Lunacharsky Opera and Ballet Theatre and later led the philharmonic orchestra. From 1933 to 1949, he headed the music department of the Sverdlovsk Drama Theatre and wrote scores for more than fifty productions.
Bakaleynikov began teaching flute at the newly opened Sverdlovsk Conservatory in 1934. He directed the conservatory from 1939 to 1941 and chaired its department of orchestral instruments, later renamed the wind instruments department, from 1942 to 1956. He became a professor in 1940. His students included future conservatory teachers Alexander Ivannikov and Ivan Serebryakov, and Bashkir conductor Gali Mutalov. He recorded for labels including International Zonophone, Odeon Record, Beka Grand Record, and Melodiya.
His compositions include works for wind orchestra, concert pieces, arrangements for wind instruments, folk-song settings, and romances. His best-known pieces included the waltz “Grief,” the romances “Have Pity,” “Come, Fly Faster, Horses,” and “Stars Shine at Night,” and the “Youth March” and “Fanfare March” for wind orchestra. “Come, Fly Faster, Horses” uses his own words; “Stars Shine at Night” sets a poem by Nikolai von Ritter. His romances were performed by singers including Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Vadim Kozin, and Boris Shtokolov. Bakaleynikov died in Sverdlovsk on March 6, 1957.