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Vasily Ilyich Safonov (Russian: Василий Ильич Сафонов; 25 January [O.S. 6 February] 1852 – 27 February 1918), also known as Wassily Safonoff, was a Russian pianist, teacher, conductor and composer.[1]
Biography
editVasily Safonov, or Safonoff as he was known in the West during his lifetime, was born at Ishcherskaya (also known as Itschory, Itsyursk, or Itsiursk), Russian Caucasus (now in Chechnya), son of the Cossack General Ilya Ivanovich Safonov.[2]
Safonov was educated at the Imperial Alexandra Lyceum, Saint Petersburg, and at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory of Music from 1881 until 1885 under Louis Brassin. He graduated as Bachelor of Laws, and won the gold medal as a pianist of the Conservatory. He was also a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky and Nikolai Zaremba.[2]
Safonov had several daughters. Anna Vasilyevna Timiryova (1893–1975) was a poet who spent much of her life in labor camps or in exile.[3] Varvara Vasilievna Safonova (1895–1942), a painter, died during the siege of Leningrad. Yelena Vasilievna Safonova (1902–1980), studied painting, designed theatre costumes, and published children's books. From 1932 to 1958 she lived in exile in the city of Kursk.[4]
Safonov was never a particularly successful composer in his own right, but was a master music educator, becoming director of the Moscow Conservatory in 1889. He was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York.
He was the teacher of some of the best Russian pianists, notably Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner, Josef Lhévinne and Rosina Bessie (later Lhévinne). He also taught the noted teacher and theorist Madame Maria Levinskaya, and Marthe Servine, a French-American composer and pianist.See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#Vasily Safonov.
After retiring from teaching, Safonov became well known as a conductor. He was the conductor of the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony (No. 6), on 4/16 December 1893, seven weeks after its premiere under the composer's baton and six weeks after his death.[5]
He conducted nearly all the principal orchestras in Europe, including the philharmonic orchestras of Berlin, Vienna and Prague, the Lamoureux Orchestra of Paris, the London Symphony, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the New York Philharmonic Society.[6]
Safonov is the first known modern conductor to have dispensed with the use of the baton, which came about when he forgot to take his baton to a rehearsal on a certain occasion; he chose to use his hands alone, and decided that from then on a baton was entirely unnecessary.[7] Safonov died in Kislovodsk on 27 February 1918, aged 66.
His voice
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| Anton Rubinstein: | What a wonderful thing. | Какая прекрасная вещь ....хорошо... (in Russian) |
| Julius Block: | At last. | Наконец-то. |
| Elizaveta Lavrovskaya: | You're disgusting. How dare you call me crafty? | Пративный *** да как вы смеете называть меня коварной? |
| Vasily Safonov: | (sings) | |
| Pyotr Tchaikovsky: | This trill could be better. | Эта трель могла бы быть и лучше. |
| Lavrovskaya: | (sings) | |
| Tchaikovsky: | Blok is a good fellow, but Edison is even better. | Блок молодец, но у Эдисона ещё лучше! |
| Lavrovskaya: | (sings) A-o, a-o. | А-о, а-о. |
| Safonov: | Peter Jurgenson in Moscow. | Peter Jurgenson in Moskau. (in German) |
| Tchaikovsky: | Who's speaking now? It seems like Safonov's voice. | Кто сейчас говорит? Кажется голос Сафонова. |
| Safonov: | (whistles) |
References
edit- ^ Jaffé, Daniel (8 March 2012). Historical Dictionary of Russian Music. Scarecrow Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-8108-7980-5.
- ^ a b "Contemporaries Vasily Safonov (1852–1918)". Gustav-Mahler.eu. 6 January 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ^ "Kolchak's final love". Historical Omsk. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ^ Homage to Savitsky: Collecting 20th-Century Russian and Uzbek Art. Arnoldsche Art Publishers. 2015. pp. 144–151. ISBN 9783897904309.
- ^ Tchaikovsky Research; accessed 18 November 2014.
- ^ "Russian Leader for the Philharmonic; Mr. Safonoff of Moscow Conducts Its Seventh Public Rehearsal" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-03.
- ^ Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 1954, vol. VII, p. 359
External links
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Media related to Vasily Ilyich Safonov at Wikimedia Commons- Free scores by Vasily Safonov at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
