March 8, 2022 – 18:00 | Zaryadye Concert Hall
Soloist – Alexander Boldachev, harp
Conductor – Arsenty Tkachenko
Bizet. Suite No. 2 from the music to the drama “L'Arlesienne” by Daudet
Glière. Concerto for harp and orchestra in E flat major, Op. 74
Tchaikovsky. Spanish dance from the ballet “Swan Lake”
Rodrigo. “Concierto de Aranjuez” (Adagio – Part II)
Albéniz. “Asturias” from the Spanish Suite No. 1, Op. 47 No. 5
Gershwin - Bennett. “Porgy and Bess” Symphonic Picture
Bernstein - Mason. “West Side Story” Symphonic Fantasy
On March 8, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will perform for the first time with Alexander Boldachev, virtuoso harpist and composer from Saint-Petersburg who got educated at the Special Music School-Lyceum at the St-Petersburg Conservatory and then at the Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste). He has won awards at highly regarded international competitions in Russia, Europe and Japan, and is a former grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation.
Alexander was a musical child prodigy. When he was only six, composer Sergei Slonimsky wrote specially for him “Christmas Chimes” which he performed at the opening concert of the Christmas Festival in Saint-Petersburg. Among famous harpists and teachers who helped to form his mastership there are Catherine Michel, Sarah O'Brien, Jana Boušková, Anna Makarova, Marielle Nordmann, Isabelle Moretti, Natalia Shameyeva, Elizabeth Fontaine-Binoche, Susan McDonald, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Isabelle Perrin and Xavier de Maistre whom Alexander is to substitute in this concert.
Since 2017 on invitation of Tugan Sokhiev, the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, Alexander has been taking part in some Bolshoi productions where his twenty-minute harp solo in the “Nureyev” ballet played on the proscenium was one of the greater moments of the night. In 2019 the musician founded the first harp festival in Zurich, while in 2020 he initiated the World Harp Day which gathered over a hundred of harpists from 50 countries online. He is the official artist for classical as well as electroacustic instruments of Salvi Harps. Along with classical harp repertoire, Alexander plays his own compositions, transcriptions and arrangements.
Alexander Boldachev and the NPR will perform famed works from the treasury of the world music art such as the Concerto for harp and orchestra by Reinhold Glière, the famous Adagio from the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo and not less popular Asturias from the Spanish Suite by Isaac Albéniz (in transcriptions for harp and orchestra). The program also includes symphonic works by Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Bernstein played by the orchestra under the baton of Arsenty Tkachenko.