(This biography was excerpted from Lev Ginsburg's Volume 3 of "The Art of the Violoncello" pp. 310-314, translated by Yuriy Leonovich).

Mikhail Evseevich Bukinik

[p. 310]

Born in 1872 into a poor Kharkiv family, Mikhail Evseevich Bukinik received his elementary education at a municipal school. His early musical talent and love of the cello led him in 1885 to the Music College of the Kharkiv branch of the Russian Musical Society (RMS), where he became a pupil of A. E. von Glehn. When K. Yu. Davydov gave concerts in Kharkiv two years later, he heard the young cellist play and encouraged him to continue his studies.

In 1890, when von Glehn moved to the Moscow Conservatory, he took Bukinik with him; in the second half of that year, Bukinik was admitted to his class on a probationary basis. By 1892, he was already performing the first movement of Davydov’s Second Concerto at a musical evening, subsequently giving a public performance of the first movement of Schumann’s Concerto. Thereafter, he appeared repeatedly at student and public concerts, chiefly performing works by Davydov and Tchaikovsky. The seriousness of Bukinik’s musical interests is evident in his commitment to chamber music, which emerged while he was still a student. In addition to participating in cello ensembles—at evenings commemorating N. G. Rubinstein, he took part in K. Schuberth’s Fantasia for five cellos and double bass [Presumably the Fantaisie concertante, Op. 19, scored for four cellos and double bass.—Trans.] and performed Popper’s Suite for two cellos with I. Dubinsky—he frequently appeared in chamber ensembles with piano, as well as in a quartet with K. Saradzhev, R. Glière, and A. Medtner. In 1894, he performed Mendelssohn’s D-minor Trio with V. Maurina and G. Dulov. At the same concert, Bukinik played pieces by Davydov, Tchaikovsky, Popper, and his fellow student F. Bubeck.

In his final year at the conservatory, 1895, Bukinik performed Davydov’s Fantasia on Russian Songs with an orchestra conducted by V. I. Safonov, and played Davydov’s Allegro de concert at the annual ceremonial assembly. The young cellist’s preference for Davydov’s works reflected both his own and his teacher’s respect for the “patriarch of the Russian cello school,” together with their desire to cultivate and perpetuate his tradition.¹

Bukinik graduated from the conservatory with a diploma conferring the title of “free artist” and a silver medal. He was also presented with a cello and awarded a grant for travel abroad, which he used in 1898.

Before this, he had performed in Moscow; one documented appearance, for example, was his performance of Rubinstein’s Sonata with A. B. Goldenweiser in 1897. He then went for further study [p. 311] to Berlin, where he apparently sought advice from Hugo Becker and also appeared in concerts.

After returning to Moscow in 1899, Bukinik received an offer to teach at the Music College of the Saratov branch of the RMS. He worked in Saratov for five years, by no means confining himself to teaching. He contributed greatly to the city’s musical and broader cultural life: he organized concerts and literary-musical evenings, gave lectures, contributed to the press, helped arrange an art exhibition, and undertook other activities.

The chamber concerts he organized featured the finest classical and contemporary works. In 1902, for example, Saratov audiences heard a Beethoven trio, performed by Avierino, Medzhevitenko, and Bukinik; Rubinstein’s Sonata, performed by Goldenweiser and Bukinik; and a Schumann sonata, played by Goldenweiser. In 1904, Bukinik organized an “Evening of New Art” in Saratov, at which he himself performed Rachmaninov’s Sonata with A. B. Goldenweiser, as well as pieces by Rebikov.

From time to time, he visited Moscow. In 1900, for instance, at an RMS symphony concert commemorating N. G. Rubinstein, Bukinik performed Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, then still rarely heard, with an orchestra conducted by V. I. Safonov. A review of the performance stated:

“Mr. Bukinik appeared in Tchaikovsky’s forgotten Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra. This work was composed in 1878¹ and performed that same year by Fitzenhagen, to whom it is dedicated; since then, however, it has fallen into wholly undeserved oblivion, and only now, thanks to Mr. Bukinik, has it returned to concert programmes. The young artist rendered Tchaikovsky’s beautiful variations with great elegance and technical polish. Although his tone is somewhat weak, there is much lyrical warmth in his playing. His phrasing is musical. At the conclusion of the work, the audience rewarded the artist with applause and insisted on an encore.”²

In 1904, Bukinik left Saratov and soon went abroad, remaining there until 1906. His surviving letters to V. V. Maslovskaya in Saratov provide information about his life in Germany, France, and Switzerland during this period.³ After spending two months in Berlin, Bukinik accepted an invitation in 1905 to take up the position of soloist with the symphony orchestra in Görlitz; each week he performed as a soloist with [p. 312] the orchestra and also played in a quartet. He writes of the public’s exceptional interest in Russian music—especially Tchaikovsky—and Russian musicians. “I play only Russian composers, of course,” Bukinik wrote on 3 February 1905. “They like Arensky very much. Rachmaninov’s Sonata seems not to have been to their taste. They did not understand it. Juon’s, on the other hand, was a great success.”

One of the enclosed newspaper clippings reads:

“The new soloist, Mr. Bukinik of Moscow, cellist of our municipal orchestra, proved himself an outstanding artist in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, which had not previously been performed here. Mr. Bukinik played this graceful work with great musicality and assurance, with broad, singing bow strokes and lightness in passagework and bowing. His fine instrument sounded splendid in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. Thunderous applause greeted this artistic performance.”

Despite his successes, Bukinik longed for his homeland and returned to Moscow in 1906. There he undertook a wide range of activities in public musical life: he played an active role in the work of the People’s Conservatory, affiliated with the Society of People’s Universities,¹ and in establishing the Society of Orchestral Musicians, the Society for the Promotion of Chamber Music, and other organizations.

Bukinik also appeared occasionally on the concert platform. Lacking particularly striking gifts as a performer, he appeared chiefly in chamber concerts. His name occurs repeatedly in the chamber-music programmes of the RMS, the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, the Society for the Promotion of Chamber Music, and other organizations. A. B. Goldenweiser names him among the musicians who performed for L. N. Tolstoy.

At the concert commemorating A. S. Arensky in 1906, he played Arensky’s cello pieces and took part in a performance of his trio with A. N. Koreshchenko and N. K. Avierino. On several occasions, he performed trios by Tchaikovsky, Arensky, and Taneyev with A. B. Goldenweiser and B. O. Sibor. Bukinik also played Taneyev’s Trio with the composer at concerts devoted to his music: in 1909 with the violinist A. Ya. Mogilevsky, and in 1915 with B. O. Sibor. At the latter concert, Bukinik also participated in performances of Taneyev’s Quintet, with the composer, B. O. Sibor, K. G. Mostras, and V. R. Bakaleinikov, and his Canzona, with N. G. Raisky, S. I. Taneyev, and B. O. Sibor.

Bukinik also performed trios by Kornilov, Goedicke, and Pomerantsev with their composers [p. 313]; the violin parts were played by K. S. Saradzhev, A. G. Metz, and A. Ya. Mogilevsky.

In 1909, B. O. Sibor and M. E. Bukinik partnered the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska during her visit to Moscow; the ensemble performed a Beethoven trio and a concert for three instruments by Rameau. Together with Sibor, Bukinik organized chamber-music evenings open to the general public. At one such evening in 1908, for example, they performed trios by Beethoven and Rachmaninov with A. B. Goldenweiser, and a Haydn quartet with K. G. Mostras and A. K. Medtner. Another evening featured Beethoven’s Septet, a Schumann quartet, and Brahms’s E-minor Cello Sonata, with K. N. Igumnov at the piano.

In considering Bukinik’s chamber-music activities, we should also note his performances of sonatas by Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Brahms, and other composers. He played sonatas particularly frequently with A. B. Goldenweiser.

The cellist’s repertoire included many pieces by Russian composers—Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Rachmaninov—as well as his own compositions, which he performed at various concerts.

Occasionally, Bukinik also gave concerts of his own. In October 1910, for example, in the Small Hall of the Conservatory, he played Chopin’s Sonata with A. B. Goldenweiser; Boëllmann’s Symphonic Variations; Bubeck’s Andante cantabile for cello and organ, with A. F. Morozov; Tchaikovsky’s Intermezzo, Op. 43, in his own arrangement; Glière’s Moment musical; his own Fantasia for cello and double bass, with V. N. Praskurnin; and other compositions of his own: Preludes and Concert Étude No. 4 for solo cello, and Six Little Pieces.¹ The reviewer was reserved in his assessment of Bukinik’s compositions, praised the performances of Chopin’s Sonata and Glière’s piece, and wrote that “Mr. Bukinik’s playing is thoughtful and expressive, but does not captivate the listener.”²

Apparently, Bukinik’s playing lacked virtuosic brilliance and interpretive sweep, but revealed considerable musical culture and an understanding of the style of the music he performed. This assessment is also supported by responses to his participation in the cello competition held in Moscow in 1911 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the RMS. Grigory Prokofiev, for example, wrote that Bukinik “succeeded in giving his performance of the Bach suite true artistic [p. 314] significance.”¹ (Bukinik’s programme comprised Bach’s Fifth Suite, Davydov’s Second Concerto, the Tchaikovsky–Bukinik Intermezzo, and his own Concert Étude No. 4.)

In 1915, Bukinik was called up for military service and did not return to music until after the Revolution. In 1919, he took up a professorship at the Kharkiv Conservatory and simultaneously worked in the Commissariat of Public Education, serving on the three-member committee responsible for musical education in Ukraine. (Among Bukinik’s Kharkiv pupils in the early 1920s was A. V. Broun, now a professor at the Gorky Conservatory.)

In 1922, with the permission of the Ukrainian government, Bukinik left for America with his son, who was going there to continue his education. Longing for his homeland, he subsequently made strenuous efforts to return. In the 1930s, Bukinik sent a brief autobiography from New York to Moscow, together with his reminiscences of P. I. Tchaikovsky. In it he wrote: “In America, of course, my homeland’s concerns remain my own, and I keenly share in everything that our great and glorious people are experiencing.”²

Bukinik’s pedagogical works include Fingerings for Scales in One, Two, and Three Octaves, Basic Exercises in Shifting, Virtuoso Exercises in Arpeggios, Six Easy Pieces, and Six Easy Duets. His Four Concert Études, dedicated to his “dear teacher and friend A. E. von Glehn,” are of considerable interest for their masterly use of virtuoso technique. The last of these, in F minor, was performed by all participants in the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962.³ His Ten Preludes for Solo Cello are also not without musical merit; they employ various techniques of cello virtuosity in ways no less interesting.

Bukinik also wrote a piece for solo cello entitled A Story.

A number of Bukinik’s transcriptions for cello and piano have been published. These include Lensky’s aria from Eugene Onegin, the lullaby from Mazeppa, a chorus from The Maid of Orleans, and the Intermezzo from the Suite, Op. 43, by Tchaikovsky; Rubinstein’s Barcarolle; Kalinnikov’s Chanson triste; the Romance from Nápravník’s Dubrovsky; and others.

Original footnotes

Page 310

¹ According to A. N. Egorov, who met Bukinik in 1920, he spoke of von Glehn with profound respect.

Page 311

¹ The Variations were composed in 1876–77, not in 1878. (L. G.)

² Moskovskie vedomosti, 1900, no. 7.

³ Preserved in the Manuscript Department of the V. I. Lenin State Library. Fond 218, no. 478/9.

Page 312

¹ K. Wiłkomirski studied with him there and subsequently graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in A. E. von Glehn’s class.

Page 313

¹ Appearing in a concert given by V. Panina in 1910, Bukinik performed his own Elegy and Serenade, as well as Popper’s Hungarian Fantasy.

² Muzyka i zhizn, 1910, no. 11, p. 18.

Page 314

¹ Russkaya muzykalnaya gazeta, 1912, no. 2, col. 56.

² Mikhail Bukinik’s reminiscences and autobiography are held at the P. I. Tchaikovsky House-Museum in Klin.

³ Published by Muzgiz in 1962.