Alexander Anissimov

While in Perm he conducted the first performance in the then Soviet Union of Prokofiev’s Fire Angel and Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace in the original version extending over two evenings. He also conducted eight symphonic concerts each season while in Perm with the symphony orchestra of the Tchaikovsky Theatre. After his work in Perm, the President of Russia presented him with title, Honoured Musician of Russia. Returning to Minsk in 1990 he conducted the Soviet Union première of Prokofiev’s Maddalena.

During the years that he has worked in St Petersburg, Minsk, Perm and Ireland he has conducted a vast repertoire—orchestral repertoire, ballet and opera. From the Russian repertoire he has conducted Glinka’s Life for the Tsar, Mussorgsky’s Khovantchina, Borodin’s Prince Igor, Rimsky Korsakov’s Fiancée of the Tsar, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Queen of Spades and Iolanta and of course all the famous ballets of Tchaikovsky, Khatchaturian and Prokofiev.

His repertoire in classic opera includes Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Zauberflöte and Marriage of Figaro, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Seviglia, Verdi’s Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, Don Carlos, Un Ballo in Maschera, Otello and Nabucco. He toured extensively for many years as a guest conductor throughout the Soviet Union. He was a regular guest conductor in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater, in Leningrad at the Kirov Opera, and also in Novosibirsk, Kazan. He regularly visited many of the former republics of the Soviet Union including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Azerbhaidjan and Moldavia. Since 1993 he has had a particularly close contact with the Kirov Opera particularly in the period since Valery Gergiev became principal conductor. At the Kirov he conducted all the principal works in the repertoire of opera and ballet, and a new production of Madame Butterfly, as well as concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of the Kirov Opera, including Rachmaninov’s Bells. In 1996 the Kirov invited him as a guest conductor for a tour in Seoul, Korea where he conducted Prince Igor. He was an assistant of Valery Gergiev in a production in San Francisco of Prokofiev’s War and Peace, and made his American début conducting the last performance of War and Peace in that season.

1993 was a year in which Alexander Anissimov travelled extensively and realised an extraordinary number of projects both at home and abroad. He made his début at Wexford Festival, Ireland, conducting Tchaikovsky’s Tcherevitchki, where he received immediate re-invitations to conduct Rubinstein’s Demon in 1994 and Fosca by Gomez in 1998. Demon was recorded live for NAXOS. He appeared in Rome with the Orchestra Santa Cecilia, and was awarded the Leonard Bernstein baton for artistic achievement. He conducted Don Carlos at Genoa, commemorating 500 years since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in Bilbao and Seville in Spain, working with Mstislav Rostropovich. In the Netherlands he made his début at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

He conducted a recital at the Moscow Kremlin with Montserrat Caballé while his career continued to blossom with a début at La Fenice in Venice to conduct Boris Godunov, a début with Rotterdam Philharmonic and a début in Argentina at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, where he also received immediate re-invitations to return for regular guest appearances.

In 1995 he began a period as principal guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, conducting many concerts throughout the season in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and on regular national tours to other cities in Ireland. In this period he made recordings with the NSOI of all the symphonies of Rachmaninov including the choral symphony Bells and the symphonic poems for NAXOS. He made his début at Paris Bastille Opera, conducting Tchaikovsky’s Evgeniy Onegin, and the ballet Balanchine-Tchaikovsky, and toured in Spain as guest conductor of the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra with soloist Maxim Vengerov. Between 1994–1998 he also made recordings for NAXOS with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra of nine symphonies of Glazunov, all the ballets including Raymonda and symphonic poems, in all eight CDs.

In 1996 Alexander conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonia at the Hong Kong International Festival at the invitation of Galina Gorchikova. He returned to San Francisco to conduct Prince Igor in San Francisco and later in the year at Marseilles. He made a début in Verdi’s Macbeth with Opera Ireland in Dublin, and with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, recording with Barry Douglas and conducting in the Ulster Hall with Philippe Cassard as soloist in Ravel’s piano concerto. In 1997 he conducted Rimsky Korsakov’s Tsar Saltan at the Teatro Communale in Florence, Glazunov’s Raymonda in the Opera Bastille and Evgeniy Onegin in Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona.

From September 1998 he began his period as principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. His concert programmes during these seasons have included works such as Orff’s Carmina Burana, Messiaen’s L’Ascension, Mahler’s 3rd Symphony, Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’Été, Scriabin’s Poème d’Extase, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Walton’s Cello concerto. He opened his second season with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the RTE Philharmonic Choir and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. The season continued with a Wagner cycle with vocal extracts from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Parsifal in five concerts in January and February 2000. A highlight of the season in Dublin was the performance of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. At the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in their début performance in this hall, in a programme with Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony. All his concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland throughout each season are broadcast live on Lyric FM, the Irish national classical radio station.

He made début appearances with the Symphony Orchestra of the Staatsoper of Braunschweig, and with Nuremberg Symphony resulting in an immediate re-invitation. With the Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Minsk, he conducted Prince Igor, Evgeniy Onegin and Aida at the Classic Openair Opera Festival in Solothurn, Switzerland. He toured in the United States of America with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland in Chicago, Boston and Milwaukee. On his return he conducted Fosca at Wexford and Cavalliera Rusticana and I Pagliacci for Opera Ireland. He worked with the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1998, conducting Scriabin’s Poème d’Extase and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 1.

In addition to his work as principal conductor in Minsk and in Dublin, during 1999 Alexander conducted Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in England, Rigoletto in Mannheim and La Forza del Destino at Hamburg Opera. He conducted an outstanding Boris Godunov for Opera Ireland in the autumn season. He has worked a great deal and with enormous pleasure with young musicians. He was founder of the orchestra in the Minsk Conservatory and conducted this orchestra for 15 years from 1980–1995, and has also worked with the symphony orchestra of the Conservatoire de Paris, with whom he performed Shostakovich’s 1st Symphony and Prokofiev’s symphonic suite, The Love for Three Oranges. He is a regular guest conductor with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. With the National Youth Orchestra and choirs from Belfast, Dublin and Cork he conducted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in January 1999 and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in August 1999 concluding this summer tour with a début performance in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. The renowned English cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, performed Elgar’s cello concerto in this programme.

He has spent an extended period with Opera Bastille in Paris conducting Raymonda as well as appearances in Germany, the Netherlands, California and Russia. He conducted the Irish première of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for Opera Ireland in November 2000 followed by the final concert of the millennium year in St Petersburg.. His 2001 diary included Houston Grand Opera with Prince Igor, Berlin Komische Oper with Boris Godunov and the Bolshoi Theatre, Minsk, for Il Trovatore and Otello. He also conducted a complete Wagner Ring Cycle in August 2002 in concert performance with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland in association with Opera Ireland in University Concert Hall, Limerick and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.