Brilliant Russian Vadim Repin performs at Strathmore
admin-g4a on February 2, 2012 with 0 CommentsVadim Repin performs Janáček, Ravel, Grieg and Chausson
with Itamar Golan at the Music Center at Strathmore on March 16
Washington, D.C. –Russian violinist Vadim Repin, who consistently receives high critical praise for his live and recorded performances, appears at the Music Center at Strathmore on March 16 for a recital of late 19th and early 20th-century works. The Guardian has described “his big, open Russian tone” as “wonderfully authentic.” ‘The glamour and majesty of his playing leap out at you from every phrase.” Said a review of his CD of sonatas, “ There’s a superb grasp of Janáček’s rugged lyricism: the propulsive cells that make up much of the work’s musical argument are driven along with rhythmic energy that is combined with a magnificent sense of musical line . . . without ever resorting to exaggeration.”
Born in Siberia in 1971, Repin started to play violin when he was five. At 11 he won the gold medal in all age categories in the Wienawski Competition and gave his recital debuts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He made his debuts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki at age 14 and debuted a year later in Carnegie Hall. Two years later, at age 16, Repin became the youngest winner of the Reine Elisabeth Concours, considered to be the world’s most prestigious and demanding violin competition.
Since then he has performed with world’s greatest orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony and St. Petersburg Philharmonic, working with leading conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Dohnanyi, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gergiev, Jansons, Jurowski, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Levine, Masur, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Rattle, Temirkanov and numerous others.
Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Gstaad and Verbier. He regularly collaborates with Nikolai Lugansky and Itamar Golan in recital. Other chamber music partners include Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Mischa Maisky.
Recent highlights have included tours with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; collaborations with Christian Thielemann in Tokyo, with Riccardo Muti in New York and with Riccardo Chailly in Leipzig; a tour of Australia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, and unanimously acclaimed premières in London, Philadelphia and at New York’s Carnegie Hall of a violin concerto written for him by James MacMillan. Other appearances during the last season included concerts in Rome with Temirkanov, in Israel with Kurt Masur, a tour of China and three concerts to open the new Esterházy Palace Festival in Austria.
Vadim Repin’s many CDs include prize-winning recordings of the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics. His first recording for Deutsche Grammophon featured the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, coupled with Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich; the second, the Brahms Violin Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto (with cellist Truls Mørk) with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig and Riccardo Chailly. His recording of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang received the Echo Classic Award.
In February 2010 he was awarded the Victoire d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious musical award for a lifetime’s dedication to music, and in December 2010 he became Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
Repin plays on the 1743 Bonjour violin by Guarneri del Gesù.
Itamar Golan was born in Vilnius but emigrated to Israel when he was one. He studied piano with Lara Vodovoz and Emmanuel Krazovsky and gave his first recital at the age of seven.
A scholarship awarded by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation enabled him to continue his education in the United States at the New England Conservatory from 1985-89.
He is in high demand as a chamber musician, performing with Maxim Vengerov, Barbara Hendricks, Shlomo Mintz, Mischa Maisky, Matt Haimovitz, Tabea Zimmermann and Ida Haendel, among others. He is regularly invited to perform at the world’s great concert halls and festivals, including those at Ravenna, Chicago, Tanglewood, Salzburg, Edinburgh, Verbier, and Lucerne. He also plays as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic under conductor Zubin Mehta.
Golan taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 1991 to 1994. He is a professor of chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire.
