Very soon, on March 3, it will be 152 years since the birth of Alexander Adolfovich Winkler.
But in our beloved city, which takes such pride in its past and loves to boast about its “great Kharkivites”—often counting just about anyone among them—few people today remember or honor this name. To our great shame, there are no events in Kharkiv dedicated to this world-class pianist, nor even a modest commemorative plaque on at least one of the mansions associated with the life and work of this great man. And yet there are still quite a few of them left in our city.
So who exactly is this Alexander Adolfovich Winkler, and what exactly should Kharkiv be proud of when it comes to him?
He was born in our city in 1865. His father, Adolf Ivanovich Winkler, worked in Kharkiv as an agent for the Moscow Insurance Company.
Her mother, Daria Mikhailovna Winkler, taught German at the 2nd Girls’ Gymnasium for practically her entire life.
Alexander Adolfovich received his elementary education at Kharkiv Gymnasium No. 3; in 1886, he graduated from the Kharkiv Music School, located not far from his home, with a major in piano.
And in 1887, he graduated from the law school of the Kharkiv Imperial University.
It is precisely thanks to the school records that we learn he was a foreigner of the Lutheran faith.
The few articles that mention the name of our great fellow countryman state that he was German by nationality—that is, a citizen of the German Empire. However, this is not entirely accurate. In the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region (GAHO), I found a file titled “On the Naturalization of Austrian Subject Adolf Winkler into Russian Citizenship” from 1878–1880.
This document, in particular, stated the following:
…the acquisition of Russian citizenship is always a personal matter and does not apply to children born before that time, who, upon reaching the age of majority (21), may apply for it themselves, if they so wish, each individually on their own behalf
It is for this very reason that Alexander Adolfovich Winkler is listed as a foreigner in the university records. Upon completing his studies, our fellow countryman traveled to Paris in 1887, where he became a student of Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (a French pianist, composer, and music teacher).
He then went to Vienna, where his mentor was Teodor Leschetizky (a Polish pianist, music teacher, and composer).
Winkler also studied with Karel Navrátil, a Czech composer and music educator.
In 1890, Winkler returned to Kharkiv and taught piano at the Kharkiv Music School for five years. It appears that during this period, Alexander Adolfovich met the love of his life in our city, got married, and had children. We can infer this from the scant information found in the first volume of V. N. Chuvakov’s *Unforgotten Graves—Volume 1, A–B, 1999*.
In 1896, Winkler moved to St. Petersburg at the invitation of the local conservatory, where he became a piano instructor. There, in 1897, he received the Belyaev Prize for a string quartet. Thanks to this, the musician gained admission to the so-called “Belyaev Circle.” At that time, this was a group of musicians—composers and performers—who gathered in the 1880s and 1890s for musical evenings at the home of the timber industrialist, musician, and patron M. P. Belyaev (the so-called “Belyaev Fridays”), where quartets, quintets, sextets, romances, piano pieces, and other works were performed.
The circle was led by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; its members included such outstanding figures as the composers Fyodor Akimenko, Nikolai Amani, K. A. Antipov, F. M. and S. M. Blumenfeld, Joseph Vitol, A. K. Glazunov, V. A. Zolotaryov, I. I. Kryzhanovsky, A. K. Lyadov, V. O. Malishevsky, N. A. Sokolov, N. N. Cherepnin, conductor G. O. Dutsch, and pianist N. S. Lavrov.
In 1908, Alexander Winkler was awarded the title of professor. From 1902 to 1910, he worked as a music critic, writing articles for the St. Petersburg German newspaper *St. Petersburger Zeitung* (“St. Petersburger Zeitung,” “St. Petersburg Newspaper,” 1727–1914).
As a professor at the conservatory, Winkler became the teacher of the young Sergei Prokofiev. It is believed that he was the one who recognized the young boy’s talent as a future composer and accomplished pianist. He spent a great deal of time working with the gifted boy, and the regular lesson program included not only piano playing but also music theory.
On December 18, 1908, at a concert of contemporary music in the auditorium of the Reformatory School, 17-year-old Sergei Prokofiev made his debut as a composer. Naturally, newspaper articles about him soon began to appear. The reviews by music critics were quite hurtful and scathing.
Our fellow townsman was one of the few who gave a positive review of the young prodigy’s performance.
Here is how Prokofiev himself recalls this in his autobiography:
In 1909, a grateful student dedicated four piano études to his teacher; Prokofiev later included them in “Op. 2.”
As a composer, Alexander Winkler belonged to the group of composers who regarded technical perfection as an essential requirement of a work of art. It is generally accepted that Winkler’s work is academic in nature. His chamber and instrumental works were distinguished by their polyphonic mastery and meticulous attention to texture.
Alexander Adolfovich is also the author of *A Brief Guide to Elementary Music Theory*, the arrangement for piano four hands of the ballet *Raymonda*, A. K. Glazunov’s Eighth Symphony, orchestral works by M. I. Glinka, and others.
In 1924, Alexander Adolfovich emigrated to France with his family and taught at the conservatory in Besançon. He died there on August 6, 1935.
As a result, in the USSR—and in Kharkiv in particular—the life and work of our wonderful fellow townsman, the composer, pianist, music critic, and teacher, were not merely forgotten but completely erased.
In the numerous publications from the Soviet era devoted to S. S. Prokofiev or N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, not only will we find not a single photograph of Alexander Adolfovich, but we may also come across “flattering reviews” such as these:
This is not the place to dwell on the characteristics of the Belyaev Circle. It suffices to note that its creative membership was extremely diverse: alongside outstanding composers of the older and second generations, as well as artists with vivid personalities, it also included young people—composers who had not yet come into their own— people who were, on the whole, of limited talent and lacked independence in their compositional work (such as, for example, A. Winkler, F. Akimenko, N. Lavrov, N. Sokolov, V. Kalafati, and others).
V. V. Yastrebtsov — N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. Memoirs. Vol. 1, 1959.
And yet, thanks to the second volume of the biography album *Contemporaries*, published by N. I. Afanasyev in 1910, which not only contains brief information about the musician’s life but also a photograph of him.
P.S. In his autobiography, Sergei Prokofiev recalls his beloved teacher on more than one occasion. Thanks to his recollections, personal descriptions, and assessments, Alexander Adolfovich Winkler—an Austrian composer and pianist who was born and lived in Kharkiv—comes to life before us.
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