Arcadi Volodos Recital
©Marco Borggreve
- Place
- Auditorium
- Hours
- 8.30 p.m.
A virtuoso trained in Moscow, Madrid and Paris, pianist Arcadi Volodos is one of the most gifted of his generation. As a brilliant interpretor of the great romantic repertoire, his talent is acclaimed by both critics and the general public, in concert and in recordings.
The programme that he proposes is consecrated to two great representatives of German romanticism. Firstly, Franz Schubert, to whom he has already dedicated two recordings: the Russian pianist’s radiant, brilliant interpretation of the majestic Sonana No. 17 brings out his full sensibility and virtuosity. Secondly, Robert Schumann, whose contrary inspirations either reflect on the tenderness of early life in the miniatures of Scenes from Childhood, or explore changing atmospheres in Fantasie, Op. 17. The spirit of this extensive fresco shifts from tempestuous to whimsical, heroic to epic, and peaceful to ethereal.
The programme
- Franz Schubert
- Sonate n°17 en ré majeur D.850
- Robert Schumann
- Scènes d’enfants, op.15
- Robert Schumann
- Fantaisie, op.17
L'artiste
Arcadi Volodos
Born in St Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos began his musical studies with lessons in singing and conducting. He did not begin serious training as a pianist until 1987 at the St Petersburg Conservatory before pursuing advanced studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova and in Paris and Madrid.
Since making his New York debut in 1996, Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital and with the most eminent orchestras and conductors. He has worked with, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the Boston and Chicago Symphony orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Paavo Järvi, Christoph Eschenbach, Semyon Bychkov and Riccardo Chailly.
Piano recitals have played a central role in Volodos’s artistic life since he began his career. His repertoire includes major works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Ravel together with less often performed pieces by Mompou, Lecuona and de Falla.
Volodos is a regular guest of the most prestigious concert halls of Europe. In the season 2021 he will appear at the Philharmonie in Paris, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Tonhalle in Zurich, Latvian National Opera in Riga and at Dresden, Granada, Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Verbier and Ljubliana Festivals.
Since his Gramophone Award-winning debut recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, released by Sony Classical in 1999, Arcadi Volodos has recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums. These include revelatory interpretations of Schubert sonatas and Rachmaninoff solo pieces, and live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, conducted by James Levine, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Volodos Plays Liszt, released in 2007, attracted numerous prizes, while his Musikverein recital from 2010 was released on CD and DVD to rapturous international critical acclaim. His 2013 solo album Volodos Plays Mompou, devoted to works by the Spanish composer Frederic Mompou received a Gramophone Award and the Echo-Preis.
Volodos Plays Brahms is the last recording published in April 2017, an album of thirteen piano pieces by Johannes Brahms, including Opus 117 & 118 and a selection of op. 76. Immediately considered a landmark on the music scene, the album has been awarded in November 2017 with the Edison Classical Award and the Diapason d’Or and recently with the prestigious Gramophone Award 2018 as the best instrumental recording of the year. In October 2019 Sony Classical released his latest recording Volodos Plays Schubert including Sonate D959 and Minuets D334, D335 and D600, which received the Edison Classical Award (2020) in the category Solo Instrumental.
