Nicolai Golovanov

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Nikolay Semyonovich Golovanov ( [o.s. 9] 21 January 1891 – 28 August 1953) was a Soviet conductor and composer.

He conducted the premiere performances of a number of works, among them Nikolai Myaskovsky's sixth symphony in May 1924, and recorded operas and concert works by Glazunov, Mussorgsky and Liszt among others.

Golovanov held some of the highest musical positions in the USSR, including an extensive association with the Bolshoi Opera. In her autobiography, Galina Vishnevskaya terms him the theater's chief conductor, and tells of his dismisal from the Bolshoi and his early death - which she attributed to the humiliation of the experience of losing this position.

Golovanov's recorded output was substantial and quite individual in interpretive approach. In his discography we find all but one of the Liszt Tone Poems, the complete Scriabin Symphonies and Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky's Symphonies 1 & 6, as well as shorter works, Beethoven's 1st Symphony, Violin Concerto and Triple Concerto, Rimsky's "Scheherazade" and his operas "Sadko" and "Christmas Eve," Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" and "Pictures at an Exhibition," Rachmaninoff's 2nd & 3rd Symphonies plus the opera "Aleko" and other compositions, Glazunov's 5th, 6th and 7th Symphonies, and scores by Grieg, Mozart and others. Based upon the evidence of his recordings, Golovanov's charecteristic performance mode was full-blooded and nearly vehement in tone, with a powerful, almost overloaded sense of sonority, and extreme flexibility in matters of tempo, phrasing and dynamics.

Golovanov was also a composer, with several choral works to his credit. He was a well-regarded piano accompanist in the early years of his career.

http://www.vor.ru/English/Music_Portraits/Music_Portraite_05.html "Musical Portrait"]

Preceded by Alexander Orlov	Music Directors, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio 1937–1953	Succeeded by Alexander Gauk
Preceded by Ari Pazovsky	Music Directors, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow 1948–1953	Succeeded by Alexander Melik-Pashayev