Lev Naumov
Witness of a great Tradition

Rolf Walter
Piano News
March 2001

The first russian pianists which became known in western countries lived in the 19th century, and their list begins with names like Anton und Nikolai Rubinstein, Alexander Siloti, his student Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev and also Pavel Pabst, who was in his time a pedagogue of high reputation (his best known students were Igumnov and Goldenweiser). All these names are related to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. We have to mention also Heinrich Neuhaus who joined the conservatory teaching roster, although he had been student of Leopold Godowski in Berlin before.
Russian musical education existed since tsarist times, however blossomed as a result of rigid and consequent state support in the communist era. The world has been influenced by artists from the Soviet Union in all fields - literature, the arts and music - which is still continuing today. The consequently centralized soviet education system in Russia, functioning to date, was bearing richly fruit. Today there are only very few musical institutions in Russia which have gained worldwide fame, but all internationally known Russian musicians have emerged from them. The first to mention in this line are the two conservatories in St Petersburg and Moscow.
Accordingly there is a relatively short and straight line from the beginning of the so called Russian piano school until today. Lev Naumov is today because of his background and age one of the really few, who can tell firsthand about the most famous musicians of the last century, which has only just come to an end. This makes him a sought after figure in today's musical life. The headline of this article could perhaps be the question: "Last witness of a great tradition?" The student of Heinrich Neuhaus, to whom many addict the birth of the often cited Russian piano school, is today himself 75 years old; he is still teaching at Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. After his own studies there in the class of Neuhaus, Naumov became one of his assistants. After Neuhaus' death, his class was divided by his three assistants and after the death of one of them, assistant and son Stanislav, Naumov took over also his students. Since those times he taught without interruption at Tchaikovsky Conservatory and produced a comparatively huge number of successful students. Looking only statistically at them, one finds about 70 pianists who have been awarded with top prizes at international competitions. It is surely true to call Naumov one of the most successful piano pedagogues at all of the last century.
"Lev Nikolaevich, I mention here only a small number of all those of your students, who have become known in the West over the last years: Andrei Diev, Andrei Gavrilov, Ilya Itin, Alexander Kobrin, Anna Malikova, Alexander Melnikov, Alexei Nasedkin, Konstantin Sherbakov, Alexei Sultanov, Alexander Toradze, Vladimir Viardo, ... and excuse myself that I can not name all of them here. What is your secret for this impressive success as a pedagogue?"
I don't know - perhaps my only secret is good luck? Generally speaking I cannot make talent, which has to be there by itself. I consider myself being a pretty normal man. Perhaps my students think of me differently because I am still feeling a little like a composer? Perhaps it is a mixture of all of this?
Lev Naumov is an exception from all of his colleagues teaching at Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Although there are still others who can tell as eyewittnesses about people like the two Neuhaus, Goldenweiser, Zak, Igumnov, Sofronitzky etc., he is however the only one among his colleagues, who has in early years decided to concentrate on teaching. Pianists like Dmitri Bashkirov, Sergei Dorensky, Rudolf Kehrer, Vladimir Krainev, Evgeni Malinin, Tatiana Nikolaeva, Eliso Virsaladze, Mikhail Voskresensky have inspite of their teaching work at the Conservatory always performed on international stages, partly with big success.
"What made you decide not to go into a similar direction like your colleages and refrain from a concert career?"
There are several reasons to that. While I was myself still a student, I was feeling in reality more to be a composer than a pianist, at least this was my dream. Unfortunately I was not able to write like Beethoven or Chopin, but I didn't want to achieve less. With my playing it was not much different: I could not really let all my ideas materialize by playing the piano. Somehow I was always, so to say, sandwiched between these two sides. Furthermore and very simply: my nerves were always tricking me when I had to go onto stage to perform. Moreover I realized, that I could express myself with much more ease and success while teaching, resulting in much more sactisfaction. For my eventual decision to concentrate wholely on teaching, Genrich Gustavovich [Neuhaus] played a big role.
The biography of Lev Naumov is quickly told. He studied at the Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus and composition with V. Schebalin and A.Alexandrov. What is little known outside Russia: he did not only graduate from the Conservatory as pianist, but in 1950 also as composer, and began to make serious efforts in this field. For instance did the composer Naumov produce a cantata, a symphony, a string quartet, two songs for voice and orchestra, additionally some piano pieces like a passacaglia, a fuge, a sonata, two concert studies. At the 3rd Tchaikovsky Competition in 1960 his song "Alenushka" was the imposed work of the competitions voice section.
Immediately after his graduation Naumov began to teach. In the mid 50ies Neuhaus invited him to be his assistant; at the same time he had two more assistants: his son Stanislav and as third one Evgeni Malinin.
In 1967 Naumov was officially registered with his own class and in 1976 he was promoted to professor. As early as 1966 he was awarded with the title "Honored Artist of the Russian SSR" and 1973 he became "Honored Artist of the USSR".
Until today Naumov is tutoring not only an international piano class at Tchaikovsky Conservatory. but he is also invited to sit on the juries of international competitions worldwide and masterclasses in Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Japan.
"Lev Nikolaevich, we in the West know since decades about the "Russian School". Although one does first think about eminent musicians like Gilels, Horowitz, Richter, Berman, maybe the expression "Russian pianism", although probably not liked by everyone, would be more accurate. What do you connect with the term "Russkaya shkola"?"
In principle I do not like this expression very much. Does it really exist, or maybe even not? Perhaps there is something like a nordic school, if you think about a composer like Grieg. Or maybe a french school, with names like Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen. But a Russian one? Possibly we are benefiting today from the traditions of a so called Russian school, but in my opinion we ourselves, today, are not forming it.
"While Russians perform in the West Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev, they have a lot of success. However with composers like Mozart, Beethoven, also Debussy, Ravel, this is at times not the same. Could you understand prejustices of this sort? Or asked a little different: do you think that the musical abilities of someone have to do with his origin? I am including here the question about your experience with a lot of young pianists from Asia, of whom many are studying in Moscow."
Surely things like mentality and character have to do with someones origin, athough I believe that genius can go beyond borders and break chains. Nevertheless a human being is always formed by the humus from which he is emerging. When you grow up in a certain cultural environment you are always more at ease and convincing while expressing yourself accordingly than someone who is kind of "collecting informations". These matters do not have anything to do with being right or wrong but are based simply on differences in human sense. I do in fact believe that there is something like national mentality.
"Today you are not only sitting in juries of the important international piano competitions (Naumov interrupts: not really in many!), but you are also giving many international masterclasses. Presumably few have a similar good knowledge about the level of education with regard to the upgrowing new generation of young pianists. Are you able to imagine improvement here? Asking even a little provocative: do you fear that in the future we will have a lot of Gilels and Richters?"
Very definitely not - provided, that it will not be possible to clone them post mortem! It seems almost possible nowadays, that one has reason to be afraid of something like that! An improvement? My god, hopefully not! I cannot believe that it is possible to play better the piano than today. I even would like to say the following: among the masses of really very well playing young pianists it might soon become pretty difficult to find true musical - not pianistic! - talent. If I try to imagine that Neuhaus or Sofronitzky would play in today's competitions..., no, I don't even think I want to try to think this out: never would they have won competitions! There were, are and will be examples that pianists become "great" without competitions. Although I do sometimes sit on juries, I am of the opinion that competitions do musically not make much sense; to tell the truth, I even don't like them very much.
Inspite of all the conditions in Russia which make it difficult for musicians to survive earlier because of political and today economic reasons, Naumov gives the impression of being a nicely balanced, even satisfied person. Never would he think about living abroad, even if much more comfortably. With strength and never ending energy has he built himself a world in which he seems to be happy. He understands a little German and has an interest in German literature, however while talking with him in Russian one becomes known of him as a person with a vivid brain. He can tell about a long artist's life at one of the culturally most vital places of the world. It seems impossible for him to think about retirement from teaching. Although Naumov is technically living on pension (like some of his fellow professors), the Russian system allows him to continue working without limit.
As a man he is everything but a typical Russian. He is charming, open and straightforward, natural and very sensitive. These features of his personality must be, at least partly, the reason for his success as a pedagogue. However, his convictions are surprisingly simple and very unique. For instance: asked what kind of developments both pianistically and musically are to be expected for the future, other people would maybe give extensive and complicated answers. His answer comes quickly and without having to think for a second:
I have no idea. The only thing I know is, that we have Bach - and him we will still have for quite some time...