The Moscow Virtuosi - Vladimir Spivakov and Laurent Korcia, violins
- Date
- 30 October 2015 – 8:30pm
- Place
- Auditorium
- Duration
- 1h30
The music schedule at the Fondation Louis Vuitton regularly intends to host some of the world’s most prominent chamber orchestras. The debut concert of the 2015-2016 season features the Moscow Virtuosi conducted by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov in an exceptional evening dedicated to Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich. To open the programme Vladimir Spivakov has invited Laurent Korcia to join him in J. S. Bach’s sublime concerto for two violins.
the artists
Laurent Korcia
Promoted while in his youth by Pierre Barbizet and studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris under Michèle Auclair, herself a disciple of Jacques Thibaud and George Enesco, Laurent Korcia has risen to become one of the foremost violinists of his generation.
Soloist of the year at the Victoires de la Musique and Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters, he has been awarded the Prix Georges Enesco by the SACEM, as well as the Grand Prix of the Académie du Disque Charles Cros. Laurent Korcia has played as a guest soloist under some of the greatest conductors of the age: Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Semyon Bychkov, Emmanuel Krivine, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Daniele Gatti, Yuri Ahronovich, Michel Plasson, Tugan Sokhiev, Manuel Rosenthal, Yutaka Sado, Vladimir Spivakov, John Nelson, Walter Weller, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Heinz Wallberg… He is one of the few violinists to perform solo recitals, with programmes ranging from Bach to contemporary compositions, in addition to the complete sonatas by Ysaÿe, to which his debut disc is dedicated.
Since releasing Ysaÿe’s Sonatas and the disc BartóKorcia (Concerto no. 2 with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo, Sonata for solo violin, Contrasts, Sonata no. 1), now acknowledged as benchmark recordings, Laurent Korcia’s discs have met with wide acclaim (Danses, Doubles Jeux, with Michel Portal, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Tatjana Vassilieva, Michael Wendeberg… as well as Bruno Coulais’ Stabat Mater with Guillaume Depardieu). Devoted to Paganini, Kreisler, and Ysaÿe, his most recent CD has just been issued on the Naïve label.
Laurent Korcia plays on the “Zahn” Stradivarius (1719), lent him by the LVMH Louis Vuitton-Moët-Hennessy Group.
Les Virtuoses de Moscou
In 1979 Vladimir Spivakov, an outstanding virtuoso violinist, with a group of his friends and artistic associates, mostly winners of international music competitions, as well as soloists and section leaders of the best Moscow symphonic and chamber orchestras, founded the "Moscow Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra. Thus, the highest performance standard was set up from the very moment of the orchestra’s establishment, which justified its claim for a rather ambitious, at first glance, title of "Moscow Virtuosi".
The years witnessed an arduous, but joyful consolidation of virtuosi musicians, each being a bright personality, into a world-class, finely-organized musical ensemble with its own performance style and a huge repertoire comprising pieces by a large number of composers from Bach to Schnittke. The process is not completed up to now, but even in the mid 1980s the main performance and artistic features of the orchestra became evident.
Every year the "Moscow Virtuosi" give over 100 concerts, mostly on tours. The geography of the tours is very extensive: it includes all regions of Russia, the former Soviet Union territory, European countries, the United States of America, Canada, Turkey, Israel, China, Japan etc. In all the countries the Virtuosi give their concerts not only in the best and most prestigious concert halls, such as “Concertgebouw” in Amsterdam, “Musikverrein” in Vienna, “Royal Festival Hall” and “Albert Hall” in London, “Pleyel” and “Champs Elysees Theatre” in Paris, “Carnegie Hall” and “Avery Fisher Hall” in New York, “Santory Hall” in Tokyo, but also in ordinary venues of small towns.
A truly European manner of ensemble performance, concern for tiny details and nuances, solicitous and creative interpretation of author's concepts, bright artistic talent and love both for the pieces performed and for the audience make the "Moscow Virtuosi" so different from many other chamber orchestras. To excite the audience emotionally and to enthrall every listener, even an ignorant one, intellectually, to endow him with the pleasure of enjoining music masterpieces, to evoke the desire to come to chamber music concerts again are considered by the "Moscow Virtuosi" the most important goals.
Since the foundation of the orchestra, Vladimir Spivakov, an outstanding violinist and conductor, benefactor and prominent social figure, has been its artistic director, conductor and soloist. Thanks to Maestro Spivakov and the three and a half decades of his activities for the sake of the orchestra, the "Moscow Virtuosi" is now undoubtedly within the best chamber orchestras of the world with their own grateful audiences everywhere and is enjoying the high reputation that has been acquired by years of persistent and hard work.
Since 2003 the “Moscow Virtuosi” Chamber Orchestra is permanently located and rehearses at the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre.
© Fondation Louis Vuitton / Puzzle Eventainment Photo © Fondation Louis Vuitton / Gaël Cornier
The programme
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Concerto for two violins
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Divertimento No. 3 KV 138b
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Serenade for Strings Op. 48
- Dimitri Shostakovich
- Prelude and Scherzo
