Orchestra:
FVG Orchestra
Conductor:
Smbatyan (Armenia)
Soloist:
Kozhukhin piano (Russia)
Programme:
Alexey Shor
Travel Notebook
Piano Concerto
for Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.7
Alexey Shor
Travel Notebook
Piano Concerto
for Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.7
Sergey Smbatyan
Acclaimed as a cultural leader in his native Armenia and increasingly in demand on the international stage, Sergey Smbatyan is founder, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. In September 2019 he became Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra following highly successful tours of Germany, Austria and the United States, including performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein and Carnegie Hall.
Music’s power to unite, heal and inspire has driven and sustained Smbatyan since childhood. His mature artistic vision combines lessons learned from the best traditions of Russian music-making and a profound personal commitment to transforming lives through the shared experience of performing and listening. The charismatic conductor’s reputation with fellow musicians and critics alike flows from his technical command, the intensity with which he shapes and communicates musical ideas, the intelligence of his programming, and the spiritual richness and depth of his interpretations.
Sergey Smbatyan was eighteen when he founded the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra in 2006. He has overseen its transformation since from youth ensemble into one of Armenia’s finest professional orchestras. They began 2020 with a landmark European tour, complete with debut appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus, the Barbican Hall in London, Moscow’s Zaryadye Concert Hall, the Gasteig Munich, Stuttgart’s Beethoven Hall and Prague’s Rudolfinum.
Smbatyan’s guest conducting career has flourished in recent seasons, leading to concerts with Sinfonia Varsovia, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and, among others, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin. He returns to the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2020-21 season for a European tour comprising concerts at Wiesbaden’s Kurhaus and the Vienna Musikverein. His schedule also includes dates with the Malta Philharmonic, Russian National, Jerusalem Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras as part of the 2021 Malta International Music Festival. Smbatyan will conduct the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra on its first UK tour in September 2021, presenting ten concerts at leading venues in company with Maxim Vengerov as soloist
Known for his imaginative programming, Smbatyan is a determined champion of new music and supporter of emerging talent. He is founder and artistic director of four music festivals in Armenia, Artistic Director of the Aram Khachaturian International Competition and, in October 2019, conducted the WTIC World Orchestra in the first ever concert of music composed by artificial intelligence (AI). His repertoire embraces everything from masterworks of the western symphonic literature to compelling scores by Armenian and other Eastern European composers, many of them commissioned by or specially written for him.
Born in Yerevan in 1987, Sergey Smbatyan showed exceptional musical promise as a child. He received his first violin lessons from his grandmother, Tatiana Hayrapetyan, and continued his training at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Zakhar Bron. He refined his conducting skills while studying for a PhD in fine arts at the Institute of Arts of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and as a postgraduate student at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he gained invaluable insights into the conductor’s art from Sir Colin Davis.
Sergey Smbatyan’s list of awards and prizes includes the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia, presented by the President of the Republic of Armenia in recognition for his promotion of Armenian music and culture. In 2014 he became the youngest ever worker in the field of the arts and the first Armenian to be appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Denis Kozhukhin
piano
Winner of the First Prize in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels at the age of 23, Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the greatest pianists of his generation.
Kozhukhin’s performances have been praised by critics as “spellbinding”, “imperious” and “mesmerizing”. Technically flawless, Kozhukhin combines wisely the brilliance and power of his playing with a masterful sense of form, maturity, and a very unique sensitivity.
Kozhukhin frequently appears with many of the leading international orchestras, such as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, HR-Sinfonieorchester, NDR Radiophilharmonie, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Bamberg Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Mariinsky Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra National du Capitole de Toulouse and NHK Symphony, among others. In 2018 he debuted at the BBC Proms, performing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2 with the Aurora Orchestra.
The 19/20 season brings the debuts with the Orchestre National de France under C. Meister, Rotterdam Philharmonic with V. Petrenko, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with J. Martin, Nuremberg Symphony under K. Wong, Würth Phillharmonic under K. Järvi, Kristiansand Symphony and Turku Philharmonic under J. Rachlin. Kozhukhin will return to the National Symphony Orchestra (USA) with G. Gimeno, Oslo Philharmonic with V. Petrenko, Vienna Symphony with R. Trevino, Philharmonia Orchestra with Heras-Casado, RTE National Symphony with J. Martin, BBC Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig and MUPA/Hungarian National Philharmonic. He will also appear in solo recital at the Boulez Saal, International Piano Series at Southbank Centre, Aix-en- Provence Festival, Lille Piano Festival, Chicago Symphony Hall, and will tour with Janine Jansen, appearing in duo recital at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Opera, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Taiwan National Concert Hall, among others venues.
Denis Kozhukhin will be guest artist in such festivals as the Enescu International Music Festival, Schleswig- Holstein,Trans-Siberian Arts Festival, Tivoli, Evian, Jurmala, Tsinandali, Lockenhaus, Pietrasanta, Grand Teton and Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
“[Kozhukhin’s] dazzling performance ... must have lifted Orchestra Hall a few feet off its foundation. It was hard, in fact, to imagine any pianist seizing this formidably difficult concerto in a mightier grip than this Russian firebrand... Even in a day when keyboard virtuosos are thick on the ground, Kozhukhin is special.”
Chicago Tribune
FVG Orchestra
FVG Orchestra is a recently born symphony orchestra, founded at the behest of the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia in order to gather the musical inheritance of the many realities belonging to this border area - rich in musical traditions. Betting against the Italian standard, the foundation of FVG Orchestra represented the choice to invest in the musical values by forming a new orchestra defined to be talented and artistically kind.
Even immediately after its foundation, FVG Orchestra gave concerts in Budapest – in the astounding room which used to be the seat of the Hungarian Parliament, and in many theaters among Friuli Venezia Giulia.
The Principal Guest Conductor is M° Paolo Paroni, already Principal Guest Conductor of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and guest conductor in plenty of Symphonic Institutions in Italy and abroad. The orchestra has also worked with other conductors of the highest repute, aiming to an exponential artistic growth.
While progressively developing in this, FVG Orchestra has regularly hosted many Concertmasters arriving from some of the most prestigious Italian and international realities – such as Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro La Scala Orchestra in Milan, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai in Turin, and other symphonic orchestras known for their undiscussed musical quality.
FVG Orchestra is one of the promoters of the rebirth of the longtime Festival Internazionale dell’Operetta in Trieste, century-old seat of the Light Opera genre – attempting to push its tradition even outside the regional borders.
In late 2020, while facing the national closure of theaters due to the pandemic emergency caused by COVID-19, FVG Orchestra has been one of the first institutions in Italy to program and give a short, online-streamed concert season – involving several top-class soloists and conductors in the major theaters of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
FVG Orchestra musicians are first-prize winners in both competitions and international prizes and have played with orchestras such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart in Bologna, Teatro La Scala Orchestra in Milan, Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai in Turin, Orchestra Haydn in Trento and Bozen, Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, Orchestra del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and Orchestra del Teatro Verdi in Trieste.