Nikolai Pavlovich Anosov (Russian:Никола́й Па́влович Ано́сов; 17 February [O.S. 5 February] 1900 – 2 December 1962) was a Soviet conductor and pedagogue who conducted theMoscow State Symphony Orchestra (МГАСО) afterLev Steinberg.[2] He was the father ofGennady Rozhdestvensky, who adopted the maiden name of his mother, sopranoNatalya Rozhdestvenskaya[3] in its masculine form to avoid the appearance of nepotism when making his own career, and the painter P. N. Anosov.
Anosov was born inBorisoglebsk, then in theTambov Governorate, today in theVoronezh Oblast, where his father was a manager at the Volga-Kama Bank, and Nikolai received music lessons at home. After graduating from the Alexander High School in Borisoglebsk in 1918 he entered thePetrovsko-Razumovskaya Agricultural University inMoscow, but volunteered in theRed Army, and at the end of the year, as a cadet of the First Artillery School, participated in the suppression of theKronstadt rebellion. Because of his facility with foreign languages (French, English and German), Anosov was sent to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dealing with foreign aid agencies.
Only in the mid-1920s did he commit his interests to music, taking a position as pianist-accompanist in theStanislavsky Opera Studio, then in 1928 in theMoscow Philharmonic, while studying music theory with ProfessorAndrei Fedorovich Mutli,[4] and composition withAnatoly Nikolayevich Alexandrov, then in the opera section of theRadiokomitet.
Although not officially qualified as a conductor in 1930 he replaced the scheduled, but indisposed, conductor ofChristoph Willibald Gluck's operaOrfeo ed Euridice on the radio, as a result of which Anosov was officially granted status as a conductor. From 1937 to 1938 he was the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra ofRostov-on-Don, from 1938 to 1940 of thePhilharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Azerbaijan on the invitation ofUzeyir Hajibeyov (1885–1948). From 1938 Anosov taught atBaku. During theSecond World War, from 1941 to 1944 he was artistic director of theFront-line Opera VTO, during which time also, in 1943, he graduated in composition from theMoscow Conservatory as an external student.
From 1944 to 1949 he was chief conductor of the Opera Studio of the Moscow Conservatory, where he promoted awareness of early Russian opera, conducting in 1947Yevstigney Fomin's operaThe Coachmen ("Ямщики на подставе", premiered 1787) andDmitri Bortniansky'sLe Fils-Rival, ou La Moderne Stratonice ("Сын-соперник", premiered 1787), neither of which had been heard since their premieres. In 1951 he was made aMeritorious Artist of theRSFSR,[5] published a textbook to reading symphonic music,[6] and was appointed a professor at theMoscow Conservatory. Anosov continued to conduct, touring Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other countries. He died inMoscow, aged 62.
A complete listing of the recordings of Anosov in Russian or English has yet to be made, and the majority of his recordings lie unexplored in the Archive of All-Union Radio. He was the first performer of many works of Soviet composers and a significant number of operas.
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