Russian National Orchestra,
Mikhail Pletnev, Boris Berezovsky,
Sergey Krylov, Vadim Repin,
Alexander Rudin

The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Of its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, “They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.” The RNO has been described as “a living symbol of the best in Russian art” (Miami Herald) and “as close to perfect as one could hope for” (Trinity Mirror).

Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas, is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms and Festival Napa Valley, and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season. Guest artists performing with the RNO on tour include conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Nicola Luisotti, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert and Carlo Ponti, and soloists Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman, Sir James Galway and Joshua Bell, among many others.

RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed recordings. Notable releases include the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos on Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies for Pentatone, and the RNO Shostakovich project, also on Pentatone, cited as “the most exciting cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies to be put down on disc, and easily the best recorded” (SACD.net).

Their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Beintus’ Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry’s highest honor. Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year’s best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.

Since October 2022, Alexander Rudin has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra.

Pianist, conductor, and composer Mikhail Pletnev was the Gold Medal and First Prize winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition when he was 21, a prize that earned him early recognition worldwide. An invitation to perform at the 1988 superpower summit in Washington led to a friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev and the historic opportunity to make music in artistic freedom. 

In 1990 Pletnev formed the first independent orchestra in Russia’s history. Many of the country’s finest musicians joined Pletnev in launching the Russian National Orchestra. Under his leadership as artistic director and principal conductor, the RNO has achieved great stature among the world’s orchestras. In 2006, he launched the Mikhail Pletnev Fund for the Support of National Culture, a nonprofit that supports major cultural initiatives, including the RNO’s annual Grand Festival that opens the Moscow cultural season each September.

Pletnev’s performances and recordings have shown him to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive repertoire, both as pianist and conductor. The London Telegraph remarked, "from Pletnev's fingers and brain come ideas that vitalise the music and make it teem with freshness and wit. [He] made the music positively leap for joy." The Times describes his playing as "born of a prodigious virtuosity of imagination outrageous in its beauty."

Pletnev’s recordings have earned numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy Award for his own arrangement, for two pianos, of Prokofiev’s Cinderella, with Martha Argerich and Pletnev at the keyboards. He received Grammy nominations for recordings of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes (2004) and the Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Piano Concertos No. 3 with the RNO and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (2003). His critically acclaimed album of Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonatas (Virgin/EMI) received a 1996 Gramophone Award. BBC Music Magazine called the recording "piano playing at its greatest... this performance alone would be enough to secure Pletnev a place among the greatest pianists ever known." His recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos (Deutsche Grammophon) was named “Best of 2007” by The New Yorker.

Pletnev's compositions include works for orchestra, piano, strings and voices. His transcriptions for piano of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty were selected, along with his performance of Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto and The Seasons, for the 1998 anthology Great Pianists of the 20th Century (Philips Classics).

The son of musician parents, Pletnev learned multiple instruments as a young child and entered the Moscow Conservatory as a teenager. Today he is one of Russia's most respected and influential artists. An advisor on Russia’s Cultural Council, Pletnev is a People’s Artist of Russia and frequently acclaimed for his contributions to Russia's artistic life, receiving Russia’s highest civilian honor in 2007 and 2019, and the Platonov Prize in 2014. Pianist, conductor, composer and cultural leader — all are significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev's life as an artist. Yet he considers himself, simply, a musician.

Boris Berezovsky has established a remarkable reputation, both as the most powerful of virtuoso pianists and as a musician of unique insight and sensitivity.

Born in Moscow in 1969, Boris Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatoire with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Following his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, The Times described him as "an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power"; two years later that promise was fulfilled when he won the Gold Medal at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Boris Berezovsky works regularly as concerto soloist with orchestras including the Concertgebouw, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper, Hessischer Rundfunk, Russian National Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alezander Lazarev, Andrew Litton, Mikhail Pletnev, Antonio Pappano etc.

Boris Berezovsky’s recent recordings of the complete Beethoven Concerti with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard have been greeted with high critical acclaim. He has also made a considerable number of records for Teldec including solo discs of works by Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Medtner, Ravel, the complete Liszt Transcendental Studies and concertos by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. His recording of the Rachmaninov Sonata was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and his Ravel disc was specially recommended by Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason, BBC Music Magazine and the Independent on Sunday. He released a live DVD of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies taken from a performance at La Roque d’Antheron for Naive. Mr Berezovsky embarked on a collaboration with Warner Classics with his CD of piano trios with Dmitri Makhtin and Alexander Kniazev, and his most recent recording of the Chopin/Godowsky’s Etudes received high critical acclaim winning the instrumental category of the first BBC Music Magazine Awards.

In recital and as a chamber musician Boris Berezovsky performs regularly in recital series and festivals world-wide. His forthcoming performances include a return to the QEH International Piano Series, the Concertgebouw, La Roque d’Antheron, Ruhr Piano Festival, Les Folles Journées de Nantes, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Megaron, Athens and Symphony Hall, Birmingham amongst others. He has a noted duo partnership with violinist Vadim Repin and Brigitte Engerer, and his piano trio performs throughout Europe at the highest level.

Effervescent musicianship, intense lyricism and beguiling tonal beauty belong to the qualities that have secured Sergej Krylov’s place among today’s most renowned performers. The Russian-born violinist directs breath-taking virtuosity to reveal profound expressive insights into the works in his strikingly broad repertoire.

«Sergej Krylov transfixed the house, fiddling with the kind of effortless lyricism, liquid flow and mercurial tones that distinguish the best violinists» observed THE TIMES, following last year performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko.

A regular guest with several major institutions and world’s leading orchestras, Sergej Krylov has appeared with, among others, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Russian National Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, DSO Berlin, the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NHK Symphony Tokyo, Staatskapelle Dresden.

Among the prominent personalities with whom he has worked, Krylov’s friendship with Mstislav Rostropovich stands among the most important influences on his artistic life. Over the past decade he has collaborated with many leading conductors, from Mikhail Pletnev, Dmitri Kitajenko, Vasily Petrenko, Valery Gergiev, Andrey Boreyko and Vladimir Jurowski to Fabio Luisi, Roberto Abbado, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitry Liss, Yuri Bashmet and Michał Nesterowicz.

Recent and forthcoming highlights of Sergej Krylov’s 2018/19 season include performances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Russian National Orchestra/M. Pletnev and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/M. Alsop, Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/S. Kochanovsky and Qatar Philharmonic/D. Kitajenko, Paganini’s Concerto n. 1 with the St Petersburg Philharmonic/C. Dutoit and Charlotte Symphony/R. Abbado next to concerts with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Zagreb and Belgrade Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Ural Philharmonic/Dmitry Liss and many others.

As Music Director of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra since 2008, Sergej Krylov loves assuming the dual role of soloist and conductor in a wide repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. Major engagements in 2018-19 include an important event at MUPA concert hall in Budapest, live recorded for TV and radio broadcast along with concerts in Italy, Poland, France and Lithuania.

Sergej Krylov devotes much time to chamber music projects, playing in partnership with pianists Denis Matsuev, Nikolai Lugansky, Boris Berezovsky, Itamar Golan, Michail Lifits and in larger chamber groups with artists such as Elena Bashkirova, Yuri Bashmet, Maxim Rysanov, Alexander Kniazev.

Born into a family of musicians in Moscow in 1970, Sergej Krylov began studying the violin at the age of five and completed his training at the Moscow Central School of Music. His international breakthrough came with first prize-winning success at the International Violin Competition “Rodolfo Lipizer”, the Stradivarius International Violin Competition and the Fritz Kreisler Competition.

In addition to early recordings for Melodiya and EMI, Krylov’s discography includes two recent releases on Deutsche Grammophon: the first, a recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in the role of soloist and conductor with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the second, an album devoted to Paganini’s 24 Capricci. Both albums attracted critical plaudits. Last season Sergej Krylov premiered Ezio Bosso’s Violin Concerto with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Fenice, recorded live under the composer’s direction and released by SONY Classical. He recently recorded the Violin Concerto Metamorphosen under Krzysztof Penderecki’s direction as part of a landmark project to record the Polish composer’s complete works.

Vadim Repin is one of the world’s best and most sought-after violinists. Born in Novosibirsk, he won the renowned Wieniawski Competition and gave his first recitals in Moscow and Leningrad aged 11. At 14, he played in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin and Helsinki, and gave his debut at Carnegie Hall a mere year later. At 17 he became the youngest ever winner of the Concours Reine Elisabeth. Since then, he continues to perform at the world’s major concert venues and international festivals. 

The list of his stage partners includes illustrious conductor’s names such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Chung, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gergiev, Jansons, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Temirkanov and Thielemann, as well as of chamber musician partners such as Argerich, Bartoli, Capuçon, Golan, Kissin, Knyazev, Korobeinikov, Lang Lang, Lugansky, Maisky and Matsuev.

Mr Repin recorded the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky for Warner Classics. Deutsche Grammophon released the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, the Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich, as well as the Brahms Double Concerto (with Truls Mørk) and Violin Concerto with the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. His DG recordings of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang won the Echo Prize, a sonata CD with works by Grieg, Janáček and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky the BBC Music Award. 

In 2010 Vadim Repin received the Victoire d’Honneur and the highest French distinction, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, for his services to music. He was named Honorary Professor of Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music in 2014 and awarded the same title by the Shanghai Conservatory in 2015. Apart from holding masterclasses in most countries where he performs, he also serves as a juror, at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London and at the “Concours Reine Elisabeth” in Brussels, amongst others. 

A large portion of Mr Repin’s work is focussed on the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, a large cultural enterprise he founded in 2013/14. With Vadim Repin as artistic director, this festival encourages the building of local, as well as international cultural, social and geographical bridges. Besides its Novosibirsk hub, this festival is now present in most major cities and numerous regional towns in Russia. Moreover, the festival’s roster includes Japan, Korea, Israel, Belgium, France, Germany and both the U.S. states of California and New York. Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall were added for the first time in 2019. The Trans-Siberian Art Festival also commissions at least one new concerto per year. Thus, several violin concertos - Benjamin Yussupov’s “Voices of Violin”, Lera Auerbach’s “De Profundis”, Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Dialogue: You and I”, Alexander Raskatov’s “Ex Oriente Lux”, and a new verion of Arvo Pärt’s “La Sindone” – were premièred by Vadim during his festival in Novosibirsk. 

In recent seasons, the joint programme “Pas de deux for Toes and Fingers” with prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and Vadim Repin was performed in Hong Kong, Muscat, Japan and Korea. Moreover, he played with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic conducted by Sascha Goetzel, at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, in Verbier - most recently with Lahav Shani conducting – and at the Montreal Festival with Kent Nagano. Further highlights include appearances with the RAI Torino Orchestra, a return to the Enescu Festival, to Vienna with Gubaidulina’s new violin concerto, to Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, as well as numerous concerts in Korea, Japan and China. 

Vadim Repin plays the magnificent Rode Stradivari violin from 1733.

Alexander Rudin is an internationally acclaimed cellist, conductor, pianist, harpsichordist, professor at the Moscow Conservatoire, researcher of early scores, author of orchestral versions of chamber works and the mastermind behind unique themed series. The musician’s repertoire includes cello music from four centuries – both pieces that are exceedingly well-known and others that have never been performed before. Thanks to Rudin’s attention to forgotten episodes in the history of music, music-lovers throughout the world have heard many new works for the first time. These include Mikhail Vielgorsky’s Theme and Variations for cello and orchestra, cello concerti by Antonín Kraft, Jean Balthazar Trickler, Johann Heinrich Facius and Robert Volkmann, Dvořák’s First Cello Concerto and original versions of works for cello and orchestra by Tchaikovsky – Variations on a Rococo Theme and Pezzo capriccioso. Much of Rudin’s repertoire features works by contemporary composers including Valentin Silvestrov, Vyacheslav Artyomov, Edison Denisov and Andrei Golovin.

Having received a traditional academic education, Alexander Rudin became interested in the authentic performance of early music, and in time came to a natural synthesis of moth movements. He currently combines performances on a modern cello and a viola da gamba and he performs both music by the Romantic composers and works from the baroque era and early classicism. Rudin’s activities as a pianist and conductor are developing in much a similar manner.Since 1988 the musician has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Musica Viva Moscow chamber orchestra. Together with the ensemble, in Moscow he has presented unique concert programmes, many of which have been held during the subscription series Masterpieces and Premieres and Musical Gatherings at the Tretyakovs’ House, subscription series at the Moscow International House of Music and the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music and the Dedication festival. Since 2022, Alexander Rudin has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra.

The conductor has earned a reputation as a brilliant interpreter of opera scores and major works in the cantata and oratorio genre. In Moscow, he has conducted the Russian premieres of the oratorio Juditha triumphans by Vivaldi and an original version of Degtyarev’s oratorio Minin and Pozharsky, or the Liberation of Moscow. There have been performances of Haydn’s oratorios The Creation and The Seasons, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 (Hymn of Praise) and concert versions of the operas Idomeneo by Mozart and Oberon by Weber.As a guest conductor, Alexander Rudin appears with numerous acclaimed orchestras including Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic (Honoured Ensemble of Russia), Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra and symphony and chamber orchestras in Norway, Finland and Turkey.

Alexander Rudin frequently appears on tour. As a soloist and conductor he has taken part in the international festivals Les Pianos folies (France) and La Follе Journée (France, Spain, Japan) among others. Rudin performs recitals in such countries as Germany, Finland, The Netherlands, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, Slovenia and Turkey. The musician’s activities as a teacher are linked with the Moscow Conservatoire (where he teaches a chamber ensemble class) and one of Turkey’s most prestigious higher education institutions – Yaşar University in Izmir. The performer gives master-classes around the world and collaborates with Youth Orchestras as a conductor.

Alexander Rudin’s discography includes over thirty discs released on leading Russian and international labels (Naxos, Olympia, Tudor, Melodiya, Cello Classics, Russian Season, Russian Disc, RCD). Particularly well received were his recordings of six suites by Bach (Naxos), cello concerti by Trickler, Myaskovsky’s Cello Concerto, a Grieg Album, works by Alexander Alyabiev and Alexander Cherepnin as well as a live recording of a concert from the Great Hall of the Conservatoire (Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Kraft’s (Cello Concerto).In 1983 Alexander Rudin graduated from the State Gnessin Musical Education Institute (cello class of Lev Yevgrafov and piano class of Yuri Ponizovkin). In 1989 he completed his studies at the Moscow State Conservatoire (conducting class of Dmitri Kitaenko). While still a student he was a prize-winner at the prestigious Bach Competition in Leipzig (1976), the Cassado Competition in Florence (1979) and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1978, 1982).

Alexander Rudin is a People’s Artist of Russia, a recipient of the State Prize of Russia and a recipient of the City of Moscow Government Prize.