31st Colmar International Music Festival: Tribute to Claudio Abbado
The 31 edition of the International Music Festival in Colmar (France) will take place from July 4 to July 14, 2019. This year the feast of music in Alsace is dedicated to the memory of the great Italian conductor Claudio Abbado (1933–2014). The main events are scheduled again to occur at the Église Saint-Matthieu, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will take part in many of them as usual.
Having closed the concert season, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia is returning to the recording studio. From June 16th to June 22th, Vladimir Spivakov will record with his orchestra the First Symphony by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Requiem by Karl Jenkins, as well as complete the work on the album “Bel Canto Treasures and Rarities” with baritone Vasily Ladyuk. Records will be released under the Maestro's own label – Spivakov Sound.
As previously, Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia are completing the 2018/19 season with tours in Russia, combining 8 concerts into the next edition of the Maestro's traditional Festival. The performances will take place in Omsk on June 1-3 and in Perm on June 5-9. The tour program features musical masterpieces of the 18th - 20th centuries, from Mozart to Artemyev (for detail, see the CONCERTS section).
The “Vladimir Spivakov invites ...” Festival will be hosted in Omsk for the eighth time (since 2012), in Perm - for the tenth (since 2010). The event is produced within the framework of the “All-Russian Philharmonic Seasons” Project supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture, Youth Policy and Mass Communications of Perm Krai and the Government of Omsk Oblast.
At the 2019 Festival Edition, Vladimir Spivakov will again present stars of performing arts, who are at the peak of their artistic form, and talented young musicians, who are gaining their place on the musical Olympus. Andrey Korobeynikov, a piano virtuoso, Ekaterina Morozova (soprano), a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre, Alexey Neklyudov (tenor), a soloist of the Moscow “Novaya Opera” Theatre, jazz trumpeter Vadim Eilenkrig will perform as soloists with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia. Two concerts in Omsk and Perm will present young talented musicians - Alexandra Dovgan, Roman Borisov and Valentin Malinin, award-winners of the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition.
A special gift to Perm citizens will be the 7th June program dedicated to the works by Vivaldi and Mozart, where Vladimir Spivakov will appear not only as a conductor, directing the performance of Cantatas and Oratorios, but also as a soloist in the Violin Concerto. The program will also feature singers from leading Moscow opera houses and the Academic Grand Choir “Masters of Choral Singing” under the direction of Lev Kontorovich.
On May 20 to 23, 2019, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will perform four concerts in Murmansk Oblast as part of the All-Russian Festival “Vladimir Spivakov Invites...”. On May 20-21 the concerts will be given at the Murmansk Philharmonic Society Hall. On May 22, the musicians will be hosted by the Stroitel Culture House in Severomorsk, the deployment centre of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation. The “Polar Tour” of the Orchestra will end on May 23 in Kirovsk, where Vladimir Spivakov's collective will appear for the first time.
The concerts will feature Ivan Bessonov (piano) and Anastasia Kobekina (cello), young virtuoso soloists, winners of international competitions. The programs include works by Mozart, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky (see Events). Vladimir Spivakov will conduct the first three of the concerts, while the fourth one will be led by the NPR's intern-conductor Arsenty Tkachenko.
The Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra first visited the Kola Peninsula in 2005 during an extensive tour dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the WW2 Great Victory. It was the first large symphony orchestra ever playing in Severomorsk. The musicians were invited aboard the “Pyotr Velikiy” battlecruiser, the flagship of the Northern Fleet, met with the commanders and put wreaths at the monument to the “Heroic Defenders of the Polar Region”. The second visit of Vladimir Spivakov and his orchestra to Murmansk Oblast took place in 2008: the musicians played in Severomorsk, Murmansk and in Monchegorsk where no major symphony orchestra had performed before. The concert in Severomorsk was held in the hangar of the “Admiral Kuznetsov” aircraft carrier.
The NPR's current tour to the Kola Peninsula is taken within the “All-Russian Philharmonic Seasons” Project of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, implemented since 2003 together with the Moscow Philharmonic Society.
May 14, 2019 | Tashkent, the “Uzbekistan” Palace of International Forums
Soloist – Ivan Bessonov, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Rachmaninoff. Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra in C minor, Op. 18
Tchaikovsky. Symphony No. 5 in E minor , Op. 64
On May 14, Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will play in Tashkent. The program of the concert follows the classical philharmonic format - Rachmaninoff”s Second Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. The solo part in the Concerto will be played by the young virtuoso Ivan Bessonov, with whom the NPR and Vladimir Spivakov have collaborated a lot during this season, for instance, recently in Tyumen. Ivan Bessonov is a recent winner of such contests as the Astana Riano Passion, the F. Chopin Competition in St. Petersburg, the Blue Bird Competition and the XIX International Eurovision Young Musicians Contest in Edinburgh. The program of the final concert is dedicated to Tchaikovsky's work.
The “Uzbekistan” Palace of International Forums will host the NRR musicians on its stage for the third consecutive year. In 2017, Vladimir Spivakov brought with him stars of Moscow opera houses - Anna Aglatova and Vassily Ladyuk for a brilliant opera gala concert in which tenor Remiz Usmanov also took part. In 2018, the Maestro presented to the Tashkent audience one of his favorite projects - “Chaplin's Hour”, which features Charlie Chaplin’s legendary silent film “City Lights” with the NPR's live accompaniment.
Vladimir Spivakov has visited the capital of Uzbekistan many times and keeps the warmest memories of each meeting. "I really love Tashkent and this country which is a hospitable, generous, peaceful and quiet land," says the Maestro. - “Uzbekistan can be proud of its gifted youth... I got convinced that the people here highly appreciate the national culture, the spiritual heritage, the arts and traditions of each region of Uzbekistan ... all artistic trends are at a high level, in particular, the school of orchestral conducting. The great attention paid to the sphere of musical arts in Uzbekistan bespeaks the concern for the future of the country, the spirituality of the people, the upbringing of the harmoniously developed young generation. I would like to note especially that the Uzbek audience feel the music deeply and intensely, they just venerate arts."
April 30, 2019 | Svetlanov Hall
Soloist – Daniel Lozakovich, violin (Sweden)
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Tchaikovsky. Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major, Op. 35
Tchaikovsky. Valse-Scherzo for violin and orchestra in C major, Op. 34
Tchaikovsky. Meditation for violin and orchestra in D major (from “Souvenir d'un lieu cher”), Op. 42 No. 1
Rachmaninoff. Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
April 25, 2019 | S. V. Rachmaninoff Concert Hall, “Philharmonia-2”
Subscription Series No. 99: Romantic Concerts
Concert of the members of the NPR's Trainee-Group
Ravel. Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in G major
Soloist – Zlata Chochieva; conductor – Dmitry Matvienko
De Falla. “El sombrero de tres picos” (The Three-Cornered Hat), Suite No.2
Conductor – Sergey Akimov
Marquez. Danzón No. 2
Conductor – Pyotr Gladysh
Navarro. Concerto No.2 for clarinet and orchestra
Soloist – Artur Naziullin; conductor– Arsenty Tkachenko
Ravel. Boléro
Conductor – Anna Rakitina
A concert of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under the baton of French conductor Michel Plasson was held on the stage of the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow Intermational Performing Arts Center on April 12. The Maestro had directed previously the Russian collective only in France - at the International Music Festival in Colmar. The first joint performance took place on July 14, 2006 (that year edition of the Festival was dedicated to Emil Gilels), and the program of the concert was compiled exclusively of works by Maurice Ravel - one of Plasson's most treasured composers. Ravel's music (Ma mère l'Oye, the First Piano Concerto with Philipp Kopachevsky as soloist) was also played in Part 1 of the Moscow concert.
From April 14 to April 16 the concert halls of the Tyumen Philharmonic Society will host the “Vladimir Spivakov Invites...” Festival, organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation within the frame of the “All-Russian Philharmonic Seasons” Project. The three-day edition of the Vladimir Spivakov Festival was first presented in Tyumen in March 2018 with the NPR, the Maestro and Timofey Vladimirov, Vassily Ladyuk and Vadim Eilenkrig as soloists.
This year, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia led by Vladimir Spivakov will become again the main participant of the Festival programs. Tyumen admirers of the musical art will also hear the Stradivarius violin played by the Maestro. At the Festival opening, Vladimir Spivakov together with the NPR's soloists Pyotr Gladysh (cello) and Zoya Abolits (piano) will perform chamber works by Schubert, Brahms and Shostakovich.
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April 12, 2019 | The Moscow International Performing Arts Center, Svetlanov Hall
Soloist – Philipp Kopachevsky, piano
Conductor – Michel Plasson (France)
Ravel. “Ma mère l'Oye” (My Mother-Goose), Suite
Ravel. Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in G major
Berlioz. “Symphonie Fantastique”