A Pianist’s Travel Notebook
RUSSIAN NATIONAL
ORCHESTRA
ORCHESTRA
Dubai, UAE
Ludwig van Beethoven had already created a short ballet for the 1791 carnival season, while still living in his German home town Bonn. When, ten years later, the famous choreographer, dancer and composer Salvatore Viganò chose Beethoven to write the music for his new production Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), Beethoven was already an accomplished composer. Unfortunately, both the choreography and the exact plot of the sole full length ballet Beethoven ever wrote were lost. However, contemporary critiques give an idea of the allegoric story that Ludwig van Beethoven’s music tells with a joy for colouristic effects that he would never use again, neither in his symphonies nor in his dramatic overtures.
Alexey Shor’s Travel Notebook follows the example of many compositions inspired by travelling. In our modern time, with our planet reduced to the size of the much-quoted ‘global village’, Shor does not confront the audience with unheard exoticisms or influences from unreachably far countries. Instead, he evokes the excitement of travelling and the impressions that everybody nowadays is able to make by simply taking a flight. In different movements, Shor takes the audience to well-known tourist attractions like Les Rambles in Barcelona, the ancient heritage in Rome, the famous Ascot Racecourse, the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris or the decadent beauty of Venice – now threatened by the downside of mass tourism. The young Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin, praised both as a soloist and a chamber musician, is an ideal interpreter for this work by the contemporary composer.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 can be considered one of the composer’s most subjective and intimate works. After the première that had taken place only nine days before Tchaikovsky’s death under the composer’s baton, he was convinced that he had just conducted the best work he had ever created. Those who knew Tchaikovsky immediately understood that the composer had crossed the formal borders of his time in order to radically express his inner feelings, and compared the music to a requiem. In fact, the slow final movement – a venture within the conventions of the time – ends with a chorale and fades away as if the sound was disappearing into annihilation, as if to describe a farewell to life.
In the 2019/20 season Gergely Madaras begins his tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. As well as curating several series in Liège and at the Bozar in Brussels, his inaugural season includes three CD recordings, a continued collaboration with Mezzo HD as well as a tour to the Bucharest Enescu Festival. Gergely also continues as Chief Conductor of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra in his native Hungary, a post he occupies since 2014. He was previously music Director of the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne from 2013-2019.
Having forged strong professional relationships throughout Europe, Gergely regularly appears as a guest conductor with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Filarmonica della Scala, Maggio Muiscale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Hungarian National Philharmonic and Hungarian Radio orchestras, the Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen, Luxembourg and Warsaw National philharmonic orchestras as well as with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester and Academy of Ancient Music. Further afield, he has appeared with the Melbourne, Queensland and Houston Symphony orchestras.
Highlights of the 2019/20 season include Gergely’s debut with Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw, where he will also make a second appearance for his Netherlands Radio Philharmonic debut in August 2020. Gergely has further debuts with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the chamber orchestras of Lausanne and Geneva. Gergely returns once more to the Hallé for several UK appearances throughout the season. Other re-invitations include Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de Montpellier, BBC Scottish Symphony and the BBC Singers.
The previous season saw Gergely opening the 2018 Milano Musica Festival at La Scala, his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, his debuts at the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall in London as well as Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
While Gergely is grounded in the core classical and romantic repertoire, he maintains a close relationship with new music. He has collaborated closely with composers Geroge Benjamin, Péter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Tristan Murail, Luca Francesconi and Pierre Boulez, for whom he served as assistant conductor at the Lucerne Festival Academy between 2011- 2013. He conducted over 100 works written after 1970, including many world premieres.
Gergely has also established a fine reputation as an opera conductor. In 2012 he was the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at the English National Opera. The fellowship culminated in his debut with the company, where he conducted Simon McBurney’s new production of Magic Flute at the London Coliseum. Since then he has conducted highly praised productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, La traviata, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor at such houses as the Dutch National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève (with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) and Hungarian State Opera, among others. Prompted by a keen interest in re-discovering rarely performed works, Gergely has also conducted productions of Goldmark’s Ein Wintermärchen, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Barber’s Vanessa, Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma and Offenbach’s Fantasio.
Born in Budapest in 1984, Gergely first began studying folk music with the last generation of authentic Hungarian Gipsy and peasant musicians at the age of five. He then went on to study classical flute, violin and composition, graduating from the flute faculty of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, as well as the conducting faculty of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Besides his varied musical activities, Gergely retains a deep passion for Magyar music, and is an ambitious advocate of Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi, both at home and abroad, having conducted nearly the complete orchestral repertoire of these composers.
A pianist of exceptional technique, emotional depth, and sophistication, Denis Kozhukhin has gained significant recognition through his powerful performances, establishing himself as one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation.
Highlights of the last two seasons include performances with the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Frankfurt’s hr-Sinfonieorchester, BBC Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, Danish National Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and WDR Sinfonieorchester. He has worked with conductors such as Rafael Payare, Alain Altintoglu, Cristian Macelaru, Hannu Lintu, Dalia Stasevska, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, among others.
Kozhukhin’s 2023/24 season includes returns to the Oslo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony, and Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona, alongside debuts with the Dallas Symphony, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and Melbourne Symphony. Denis will also perform recitals and chamber music at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Zurich’s Tonhalle. Since winning the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2010, Denis has performed with the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Berlin. A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Kozhukhin regularly appears at prominent music festivals including Verbier, Gstaad, Grafenegg, Dresden, Intonations Festival, Tsinandali, Klavier Ruhr, Lanaudiere, and Jerusalem Music Festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.
As a Pentatone recording artist, his discography spans works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel, and Gershwin.
A graduate of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid under the guidance of Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Kozhukhin further honed his skills at the Piano Academy at Lake Como, where he received advice from notable pianists such as Fou Ts'ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier, and Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.
The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Of its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, 'They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.' The RNO has been described as 'a living symbol of the best in Russian art' (Miami Herald) and 'as close to perfect as one could hope for' (Trinity Mirror).
Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas, is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms and Festival Napa Valley, and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season.
RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed recordings. Notable releases include the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos on Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies for Pentatone, and the RNO Shostakovich project, also on Pentatone, cited as “the most exciting cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies to be put down on disc, and easily the best recorded” (SACD.net).
Their recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus' Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry's highest honor. Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year's best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.
