Portrait by V. N. Yakovlev, 1944.
Vasily Il’ich Safonov was a Russian pianist, teacher, conductor and public figure, active in the sphere of music. He was educated at the Imperial Aleksandrovsky Lyceum (previously called Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum). He took private lessons with Alexandre Villoing and, later, with Theodor Leschetitzky. In 1872 he graduated from the Lyceum with a Large Silver Medal, earning the rank of titular counselor, and the position of an employee at the Committee of Ministers’ Office. In 1880 he completed studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with a Small Gold Medal, where he was a piano student of Louis Brassin, and started to teach at the Conservatory. At the same time he began to perform actively in concerts and recitals as a soloist and in duos with such musicians as Karl Yur’yevich Davydov and Aleksandr Valeryanovich Werzbylowicz. Subsequently he performed frequently in ensembles with Leopold Semyonovich Auer and Ivan Voytsekhovich Grzhimali. He combined his extensive concert tours with his pedagogical activities, having earned the reputation of one of the most authoritative professors of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Upon the invitation of Tchaikovsky in 1885, Safonov became professor of the Moscow Conservatory (Tchaikovsky dedicated his piano piece “Reflection” to Safonov). His pupils included such esteemed musicians as Aleksandr Skryabin, Nikolay Medtner, Aleksandr Goedicke, Joseph Levin, Aleksandr Gretchaninov, Elena Bekman-Shcherbina and the Gnesin sisters.
Upon the recommendation of Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, Safonov assumed the post of director of the Moscow Conservatory in 1889, which he kept until early 1906. He built up and invigorated considerably the faculty of the Conservatory by inviting to teach there such musicians as pianists Ferruccio Busoni and Vasily Mikhaylovich Sapelnikov, cellist Alfred von Glehn, singers Umberto Mazetti, Camillo Everardi, Leone Giraldoni and Varvara Mikhaylovna Zarudnaya, theorist Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, who also instructed opera classes, as well as the Conservatory’s talented graduates, such as Karl Avgustovich Kipp, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Skryabin, Joseph Arkad’yevich Levin, Konstantin Nikolayevich Igumnov, Adolf Adolfovich Yaroshevsky, Feodor Feodorovich Koenemann, Arseny Nikolayevich Koreshchenko, Georgy Eduardovich Konyus and Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko.
Having become one of the directors of the Moscow Branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS), starting from the 1890-1891 season, he took upon himself the duties of artistic director and chief conductor of the concerts held by the Moscow Branch of the IRMS.
The intensive development of musical life in Moscow induced Safonov to initiate the construction of a new building for the Moscow Conservatory (its ceremonial laying of the foundation stone took place on July 27 1895). Towards the fall of 1898 the Moscow Conservatory’s new building and the Small Concert Hall had been constructed, whereas on April 7, 1901 the Grand Hall of the Conservatory received its ceremonious inauguration.
In 1906 Vasily Safonov, who had been elected as the director of the Conservatory, stepped down from his position in favor of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov.
Having received the invitation to direct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as its chief conductor, in 1906 he went to live and work in the USA. At the same time he became the director of the American National Conservatory, where he taught an advanced academic course of piano performance. In 1909 he moved to Berlin.
From 1910 he toured in all the European capitals and in many Russian cities.
He died in Kislovodsk, and his civil funeral rites took place in the Small Hall of the Conservatory in Moscow.
