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Concert cycles

The Latvian National Symphony orchestra. Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

 

Thursday, August 18th, 7 PM

The Latvian National Symphony orchestra

Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Soloists Victoria Postnikova (piano), Aleksandrs Rozhdestvensky (violin)

Program Sibelius, Shostakovich.

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky is the son of two famous musicians. He received his musical education at the Moscow Conservatoire, studying conducting with his father and piano with Lev Oborin. While still a student there, he made his debut at the age of twenty in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty at the Bolshoi Theatre. By the time he graduated he was already well known as a conductor both in the USSR and abroad.

From 1951 - 1961 he was staff conductor and then from 1964 - 70, Principal Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. There, he conducted among others, the Russian premieres of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Khatchaturian's Spartacus and the Bolshoi Premiere of Prokofiev's War and Peace. It was on a tour of the Bolshoi Ballet that he made his British debut in 1956, the first of over eighty visits to this country to date.

Other principal conductorships included the All-Union Radio and TV Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Opera of which he was also a founder.

He is a regular guest with major orchestras in Europe, North America and Japan, also occasionally conducting opera in leading houses. His repertoire gives a new meaning to the word 'broad' and his wider knowledge of art and cultural history is reflected in the more than 500 recordings he has made for numerous companies.

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky also appears as a pianist in four-hand recitals with Viktoria Postnikova, researches, arranges, edits and orchestrates works of a wide range of composers, has taught conducting for many years at the Moscow Conservatoire, commissions, advises and promotes contemporary composers.

He has received awards from the Swedish Academy and in 1996 was presented with a Russian award by President Boris Yeltsin.

For the 2000/2001 season he was Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre (both the Ballet and Opera companies), the first such appointment in the theatre’s history. His period there culminated with the world premiere of the original version of Prokofiev’s opera ‘The Gambler’. Last season he conducted the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. This season he has conducted the Montreux Festival Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra,  La Scala Philharmonic, Shostakovich’s The Nose for the Netherlands Opera, the orchestra of the Teatro la Fenice Venice, concerts to mark the 50th  anniversary of Prokofiev’s death with Symphonic Capella in Moscow, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Oprichnik in Cagliari. Future plans include a new production of Janacek’s Makropoulos Case in Moscow, appearances with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and a tour of Japan with the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, a return to the Boston Symphony Orchestra among others.


Sasha Rozhdestvensky, violoniste 

Sasha Rozhdestvensky is one of Russia’s finest young violinists. He has appeared internationally earning high critical acclaim as soloist with leading orchestras such as The Soviet Philharmonic Orchestra, The Leningrad Philharmonic, The Philharmonia, L.S.O., R.P.O., Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Ensemble de Paris, The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Het Residentie Orkest, Bamberger Symphoniker, The Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, The Bayerische Staatsorchester, The Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Orquesta de la Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orquesta Filarmonica della Scala, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra to name a few.

Sasha has recorded numerous works for Thesis and Chandos including the Schnittke Concerto Grosso No. 6 with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

He made his debut tour outside Russia performing the Glazunov Violin Concerto in Germany with the Soviet Philharmonic in 1989. He has also appeared in several international music festivals including Proms, Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein, Flanders, Gstaad, Istanbul, Colmar, Ravinia, Florida, Mozart (La Coruña), Taormina, Sienna, Lockenhaus and Montreux. Sasha performs regularly in recitals and concertos worldwide, notably in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Moscow, Vienna, Stockholm, Tokyo, Tel-Aviv and many others.

In 1992, he made his debut at the Carnegie Hall, New York on a world tour by the Russian State Symphonic Kapelle with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. A year later, he made his London debut at the Barbican Hall with the Royal Philharmonic performing the Bruch Concerto No.1. In 1994, he premiered a Double Concerto (Concerto Grosso No.6) written by Alfred Schnittke especially for him and Viktoria Postnikova. In 1995, he has appeared with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performing concerti by Haydn and Schnittke, made his debut in Berlin Philharmonie performing the Richard Strauss Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester and played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at the Festival Hall in London withthe Philharmonia. In 1996, he played Shostakovich Concerto No.1 with the Bayerische Staatsorchester in the München Opera. In 1997, he made his debut at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with the Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest performing the Busoni Violin Concerto, then made a tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra playing the Beethoven and Glazunov concerti. In 1998, he made his debuts at the PROMS with Prokofiev Concerto No.2 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 1999, he played Glazunov Concerto with the Orquesta de la Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, made his debut in Paris with the recital at the Théâtre du Châtelet and toured with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra in England performing Shostakovich Concerto No.1. In 2000, he has appeared with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonie performing Prokofiev Concerto No.2, Hamburg Musikhalle, Stuttgart Lieder Halle etc., a series of concerts in Japan with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, in Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra and gave a recital at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. In 2001, he played the Dvorák Violin Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Kancheli “ And Farewell Goes Out Sighing...” with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. In 2002, he has appeared with the Bamberger Symphoniker, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, gave recitals in the Salle Gaveau, Paris and at the Philharmonia of St. Petersburg. In 2003 he made his debuts with the Filarmonica della Scala performing Prokofiev Second Concerto, in Lisbon with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and in Boston with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing Sibelius Six Humoresques.

Sasha Rozhdestvensky comes from one of Russia’s leading musical families. He was born in Moscow and began playing the violin at the age of seven. Remarkable early progress lead to his first public performance at the age of eleven with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. His studies took place at the Central Music School in Moscow, the Moscow Conservatory, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music in London. He studied with Zinaida Gilels, Maya Glezarova, Gérard Poulet and Dr. Felix Andrievsky.

Sasha plays the violin of Guarneri del Gesu 1734 "Haddock" loaned to him by the Stradivari Society.


Viktoria Postnikova

Born into a family of musicians, Viktoria Postnikova entered the Moscow Central Music School at the age of six, studied with E. B. Musaelian and made her public debut at the age of seven in a Mozart concerto. At the Moscow conservatoire she joined the class of Jakob Flier. While still a student she won prizes at the Warsaw, Lisbon, Leeds and Tchaikovsky competitions.

Her repertoire is extremely broad, covering works by composers such as Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninov and from more contemporary periods, music by Busoni, Ives, Britten, Shostakovich and Schnittke.

Ms Postnikova has performed with many conductors, including Adrian Boult, Kurt Masur, Kirill Kondrashin, Sir Colin Davis and her husband, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. Among the many orchestras she has worked with in Europe are the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and the London orchestras, and in America she has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. In addition to numerous tours to Europe and Japan, she has appeared with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in South America and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Australia and the Far East.

She has recorded all three Tchaikovsky Concerti for Decca, the Busoni Piano Concerto as well as the complete piano music of Tchaikovsky, Janacek and Glinka for Erato, violin sonatas by R. Strauss and Busoni for Chandos and the complete piano concerti of Brahms, Chopin and Prokofiev among many other recordings for Melodia.

She is also an accomplished chamber musician, having given concerts in the CIS and France with Yehudi Menuhin featuring the complete Brahms violin and piano sonatas along with sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Bartok.


Concert takes place:

Date, time, place

Concert

Ticket prices

18.08.2005  19:00
Dzintari Concert Hall

The Latvian National Symphony orchestra. Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
The First International musical festival SUMMERTIME - Inessa Galant & Friends. Soloists Victoria Postnikova (piano), Aleksandrs Rozhdestvensky (violin). Program Sibelius, Shostakovich.

 

© Herman Braun Foundation & Nordik IT, 2002-2003