Taken from Oktvism.com: “Mikhail (Motja Moiseevich) Zlatopolsky (1934-2001) was born to a Jewish family in Tashkent. After the Revolution, when the Orthodox singing moved into the category of marginal employment, the number of oktavists sharply declined. Soviet oktavists enjoyed intense demand: during the Brezhnev era, Moscow choirs outbid each other for Zlatopolsky as the star player. Zlatopolsky began singing with Yurlov's choir, and later participated in the recording on Valery Polyansky's recording of Grechaninov's 'Seven Days of Passion' with the Russian State Symphonic Cappella. Zlatopolsky's place of employment was considered the Union Radio Choir, but he also performed with a number of Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches--even at times in the synagogue. Zlatopolsky recorded with the Don Cossacks Choir of Russia, conducted by Marcel Verhoeff-not to be confused with the more famous Cossack Choir under Serge Jaroff. He also can be heard singing Sviridov's Kursk Songs with Moscow State Chamber Choir under Vladimir Minin.
Besides his musical career, Zlatopolsky also worked as an actor on several Russian films and TV shows, often playing the part of a Russian Orthodox priest. Although these parts were mostly small, his most prominent roles include "Yemelyan Pugachev" (1978),"Three Years" (1980), "We are Not Crowned in the Church" (1982), and "Storm over Russia" (1992). Other video footage of Zlatopolsky may be seen on the DVD "Great Singers of Russia, Vol 1 - Chaliapin, et. al" (2003).”
Finally glad to get this long awaited video out. I’m home from uni at the moment, so maybe expect a video or two over the next month. Am thinking of doing a video on the big 3 acapella basses as they won’t take as much time as researching and going through someone’s entire discography. Been thinking about doing a video for Jeff Chapman too...
Thanks to the range planet for providing the info for his notes (can view Zlatopolsky’s thread here: therangeplanet.proboards.com/..., and thanks as well to Jay from the Oktavism Channel. I got talking to him a few months ago about making this video when I’d already started. He was really helpful and gave me an insight into which parts Zlatopolsky would’ve and wouldn’t have sung. Thanks to him for also providing the majority of the content and research on Zlatopolosky, and oktavism in general.
There were a few notes (another F1 and Eb1, possibly others) that were noted that I wasn’t able to find. Some notes are sort of in-between pitches so it's hard to determine which note they lie closer to. Apologies for any that are marked incorrectly.
Sorry for the lack of high notes. I did originally plan to start the high notes at F3 and work up from there, but after talking to Jay, I decided it would be more accurate to start higher and only include his solo lines. I was using music where his high notes might’ve been in the background, but it’s not uncommon for an oktavist to simply drop out when a line goes higher for them and to rejoin in when it comes back down, so for that reason, I couldn’t be sure if he was singing the backing notes, so I decided to leave them out, unless they were lead vocal lines that were indisputably him.
Thanks for watching