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9/3/2008 | Marek Janowski, Nikolai ...

Marek Janowski

Marek Janowski was born in Warsaw, grew up and studied in Germany and has spent much of his life in France. Shortly after completing his studies with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Rolf Liebermann engaged him at the Hamburg Opera House, and this was followed by an appointment as General Music Director in Freiburg (1973 - 1975) and Dortmund (1975 - 1979). Dortmund set the foundation for his rapidly rising international reputation. Today there is not one world-renowned opera house where he has not been a regular guest since the late 1970s. He has been a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, in Chicago, San Francisco, Hamburg, Vienna, Berlin and Paris.

Marek Janowski stepped back from the opera scene in the early 1990s in order to concentrate on symphonic works. He now enjoys an outstanding reputation amongst the great orchestras of Europe and North America. He is recognised for his ability to create orchestras of international standing as well as for his innovative programmes and bringing an original, fresh interpretation to familiar repertoire.

Between 1984 and 2000 he was the musical director of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also the chief conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne from 1986 to 1990, and the first guest conductor of the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin between 1997 and 1999. From 2000 to 2005 Janowski served as music director of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2001 to 2003 he also held the position of chief conductor with the Dresdner Philharmonic. Since 2002 he has been principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and since 2005 has served as one of the conductors in a "triumvirate" of conductor leadership with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, together with Sir Andrew Davis and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Starting in the 2005/06 season he started a five-year appointment as the artistic and musical director of the Suisse Romande Orchestra.

Over the course of his career, Mr Janowski has made many opera and symphony recordings, many of which have been awarded prestigious prizes - such as Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen) with the Saxon State Orchestra in Dresden, Strauss' Die Schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) and Weber's Euryanthe. With the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra he recorded Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 and 6 and four symphonies by Albert Roussel which were awarded the Diapason D'Or in 1996. He recorded a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Gerhard Oppitz, and Weber's Die Freischütz and Oberon or The Elf King's Oath with the German Symphony Orchestra. His recording work with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra is also intense. Their recordings of Hindemith's operas The Long Christmas Dinner and Die Harmonie der Welt (The Harmony of the World) received Gold Records in 2002 and 2006. In 2007, the orchestra and Marek Janowski received two ECHO Klassik awards for their recordings of Ernst Krenek's opera Sardakai and a world premiere of Hans Werner Henze's Aristaeus - drama in musica per voce recitante e orchestra. In cooperation with German Radio and the recording company Wergo, Mr Janowski and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra are planning on recording Henze's complete works by 2010.

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Nikolai Lugansky

Nikolai Lugansky is considered one of the greatest pianists of his generation. He regularly works with renowned conductors (Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Kurt Masur, Mikhail Pletnev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Simonov, Leonard Slatkin and Vladimir Spivakov). He performs chamber music at recitals (with Vadim Repin, Alexander Kniazev, Joshua Bell, Yuri Bashmet a Mischa Maisky) and as a concert soloist throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Born in Moscow in 1972, Nikolai Lugansky studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory; his teachers were Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky. In the course of the 1980s and in the early 90s, we won awards at a number of competitions: silver medal at the Eighth International Bach Competition in Leipzig (1988), second prize at the Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow (1990), and in 1994 he won the Tenth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In 1992 he was named "Best Pianist" at the International Summer Academy "Mozarteum" in Salzburg.

At the same time, he started to play recordings for the companies Melodie (USSR) and Vanguard Classics (Netherlands). Mr Lugansky also records for Warner Classics (United Kingdom), PentaTone Classics SACD (Netherlands) and Erato Disques (France). A number of his recordings have received prestigious awards.

In 2000, he won the Diapason d'Or de l'Annee for his recording of the complete Chopin Etudes. His subsequent recordings of Rachmaninov's Preludes and Moments Musicaux and Chopin's Preludes won him another Diapason d'Or. His disc of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos No. 1 & No. 3 was awarded the German critics' "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik" award in 2003. His recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 for Pentatone Classics was selected as Gramophone Editor's Choice (February 2004). Together with cellist Alexander Kniazev, he received the German music industry's ECHO Klassik award for their recording of Chopin's Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65 and Rachmaninov's Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19 and Songs (14), Op. 34/14, Vocalise (Warner Classics).

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Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra was established in Germany in 1923. The orchestra's principal conductors have been Bruno Seidler-Winkler (1926 - 1932), Eugen Jochum (1932 - 1934), Sergiu Celibidache (1945 - 1946), Hermann Abendroth (1953 - 1956), Rolf Kleinert (1959 - 1973), Heinz Rögner (1973 - 1993), Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1994 - 2000) and since 2002 the principal conductor has been Marek Janowski. The orchestra has also worked with renowned conductors Otta Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, Herbert von Karajan and George Szell.

The orchestra's repertoire covers over three centuries, from Classicism to Modernism and with special regard for contemporary music. Many great composers of the 20th Century have personally presented their compositions with the orchestra, whether as conductors or soloists: these include Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Sergei Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, Alexander von Zemlinsky and recently Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Berthold Goldschmidt and Udo Zimmermann.

International tours occupy a major role in the orchestra's activities. Since 1956 the orchestra has performed in 20 countries around the world, travelling as far as South America, China and Japan (in February 200 the orchestra completed its eighth tour of Japan). It performs at major festivals in Berlin and around Germany (Musikfest Berlin, Dresdner Musikfestspielen, Rheingau-Musikfestival, Choriner Musiksommer, Brandenburgischen Sommerkonzerte, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspielen and Europäischen Wochen Passau), Switzerland (Festival Septembre Musicale Montreux/Vevey) and other countries.

In the 2007/08 season, Marek Janowski and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra played at festivals in Lugano, Madrid, Valencia, Pamplona, Salle Playel in Paris, in Dijon, Vaduz and other cities; in the 2008/2009 it will perform at the Megaron in Athens, the Arena in Verona and at the Brucknerfest festival in Linz.

The orchestra has also made numerous recordings for Deutschlandradio. Recordings of Paul Hindemith's operas The Long Christmas Dinner and Die Harmonie der Welt, both of which were conducted by Marek Janowski, received prestigious Gold Record awards. In 2007, the orchestra and Marek Janowski received two ECHO Klassik awards for their recording of Ernst Krenek's opera Sardakai and the world premiere recording of Hans Werner Henze's Aristaeus - dramma in musica per voce recitante e orchestra. In co-operation with Deutchlandradio and the recording company Wergo, the orchestra plans to record all of Henze's works by 2010.

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