Tchaikovsky Snittke Vadim Gluzman

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s European Concert, held each year on 1 May, is invariably an international highlight. Performing in 2008 in Moscow's renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle presented outstanding performances of works by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Bruch, whose Violin Concerto featured one of today’s most fascinating artists, the Russian violinist Vadim Repin.

Based on Alexander Pushkin’s renowned but rather grim short story about human avarice and obsession this concert performance of The Queen of Spades brings the work to life. Renowned as a concert orchestra the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks has relished the opportunity of giving opera performances under conductors such as Rafael Kubelik and Leonard Bernstein. Thankfully chief conductor Mariss Jansons is upholding that tradition. In recent years it has become customary for many orchestras include a concert performance of an opera or an oratorio in its programme each season; a trend that I hope continues.

After Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Prokofiev, Vadym Kholodenko continues his exploration of the Russian repertory with a pair of rarely recorded works: Tchaikovsky’s two solo piano sonatas. Imaginative, colourful and dreamy, capable of an infinite range of emotions, he reveals both the masterly architecture and the subtleties of the writing that are often sacrificed to mere demonstration of virtuosity.

Considered today to be one of Russia’s leading orchestras, the Moscow RTSO was formed in 1978 by the composer Alexander Mikyailov, who became its resident conductor. Its eighty members, with numerous international prizewinners among them, ensure a high standard of performance. The orchestra’s first successes came with performances and recordings of the works of twentieth-century Russian composers, such as Sofia Gubaidulina and Dmitry Shostakovich. Its richly varied repertoire which also embraces operatic music includes the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi alongside those of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Lera Auerbach is a prodigiously talented Russian pianist and composer who was born in the city of Chelyabinsk, located to the east of the Ural mountain range, near the Siberian border. Auerbach's promise at the keyboard was discovered early, and she made her debut as a pianist with an orchestra at the age of 8. At the age of 11, Auerbach composed an opera that proved a cause celèbre when it was staged in Russia, and a touring version of the work was seen throughout the Soviet Union. When Auerbach was 17, she was sent to the United States on a concert tour, but decided to defect to the West; she was one of the last Soviet artists to do so. Auerbach continued at Juilliard, where she studied composition with Milton Babbitt and piano with Joseph Kalichstein.
In 2000, Auerbach served the first of two artist residencies at the Baden-Baden home of Johannes Brahms at the behest …….
From AllMusic

Lera Auerbach is a prodigiously talented Russian pianist and composer who was born in the city of Chelyabinsk, located to the east of the Ural mountain range, near the Siberian border. Auerbach's promise at the keyboard was discovered early, and she made her debut as a pianist with an orchestra at the age of 8. At the age of 11, Auerbach composed an opera that proved a cause celèbre when it was staged in Russia, and a touring version of the work was seen throughout the Soviet Union. When Auerbach was 17, she was sent to the United States on a concert tour, but decided to defect to the West; she was one of the last Soviet artists to do so. Auerbach continued at Juilliard, where she studied composition with Milton Babbitt and piano with Joseph Kalichstein.
In 2000, Auerbach served the first of two artist residencies at the Baden-Baden home of Johannes Brahms at the behest …….
From AllMusic