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The Russian bass, Anatoli [Anatoly] Safiulin, trained at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow with Professor G.G. Aden, graduating in 1977.
He is acclaimed as ‘a champion of Russian Music’ for his interpretations of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Dmitri Shostakovich as well as for the premieres of works by many distinguished Russian composers including Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Schnittke. His wide-ranging repertoire also encompasses works by J.S. Bach, Béla Bartók, Johannes Brahms, Benjamin Britten, Gustav Mahler, Massenet, W.A. Mozart, Arnold Schoenberg, Schubert and Verdi.
Anatoli Safiulin is regularly invited to international music festivals including the Bratislava Autumn, Budapest Bartok Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Prague Spring and White Nights of St Petersburg. He has worked with such distinguished conductors as Fedoseyev, Mariss Jansons, Kakhidze, Alexander Lazarev, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Masur and Penderecki. Among his recordings, his Olympia version of D. Shostakovich’s Thirteenth and Fourteenth Symphonies, with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, has won especially favourable notices from the British Press.
UK appearances have included performances of N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri coupled with the W.A. Mozart's Requiem with the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert and the City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox at the Royal Festival Hall. In February 1995, Anatoli Safiulin performed the Knight’s Monologue from The Miserly Knight by S. Rachmaninov with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Katz in Leeds, Northampton and for the London International Orchestral Season at the Royal Festival Hall. Partnered by award-winning pianist Nikolai Demidenko, he performed the complete Mussorgsky song cycles in St John’s Smith Square; Rouen and at the 1995 Verbier International Festival. The Hyperion recording of these works was released in Autumn 1995.
Anatoli Safiulin returned to the Royal Festival Hall in February 1996 for a performance of S. Rachmaninov’s Spring Cantata with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Djong Victorin Yu. This work and The Bells were recorded for Carlton Classics. In March 1997 he appeared with the Guildford Philharmonic and En Shao in a performance of The Bells for the Guildford International Festival. In February 1999 he returned to the UK to take part in a further performance of The Bells and the Spring Cantata with The Bach Choir and the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by David Hill, at the Royal Festival Hall. In January 2000 he took part in a concert and recording of Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Le Rossignol with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, conducted by Mario Venzago. In 2001 he took part in performances of J.S. Bach's Passions under the baton of Robert Canetti at the Abu-Gosh Music Festival in Israel. |
