Beethoven. Violin Sonatas

Mikhail Pochekin was born in 1990 into a musical family, his father being the famous violin maker Yuri Pochekin, and his mother, Elena Pochekina, a violin teacher. From the age of 5 he studied with Galina Turchaninova, then improved his skills under the tutelage of Viktor Tretyakov, Anna Chumachenko and Rainer Schmidt at the Higher Schools of Music in Cologne, Munich and Madrid, Mozarteum University Salzburg and The City of Basel Music Academy. The musician also attended master classes by Christian Tetzlaff. 

Mikhail Pochekin has won awards and special prizes at numerous international competitions, including Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition in Fermo (Italy, 2007), Rodolfo Lipizer Prize International Violin Competition in Gorizia (Italy, 2008), Jascha Heifetz competition in Vilnius (Lithuania, 2009), Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition in Pamplona (Spain, 2009), and Ruggiero Ricci Competition in Salzburg (Austria, 2015). In 2008, he was awarded Pablo Sarasate Prize and was invited by the Madrid Conservatory to appear in a concert playing the famous Boissier violin by Antonio Stradivari, previously owned by Sarasate. 

Touring extensively in Russia, Spain, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Turkey, Ukraine and other countries, Mikhail Pochekin has appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Rachmaninoff Concert Hall (Philharmonic-2), Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, National Music Auditorium in Madrid, Palau de la Música de València, Auditorium in Zaragoza, Munich and Cologne Philharmonic Halls, Gasteig Cultural Center in Munich, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, and Salzburg Mozarteum. The musician has also been a guest of famous festivals, including the Kronberg Academy Festival, AlpenKlassik Festival in Bad Reichenhall (Germany), Schubertíada in Vilabertran (Spain) and Sofia Gubaidulina International Festival of Contemporary Music Concordia in Kazan. A regular participant of Stars of the 21st Century, a joint project of the Moscow Philharmonic Society and the Russian Ministry of Culture, the violinist has toured over 40 Russian cities with the project. 

Mikhail Pochekin has collaborated with the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under Pavel Kogan, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra in Reutlingen, and Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, appearing under renowned conductors including Vassily Sinaisky, Yury Simonov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Sergey Skripka, Valery Polyansky, Alexander Slutsky, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Juozas Domarkas, Heinz Holliger, Ilmar Lapins, Kevin Griffiths, Bojan Suđić, Mikhail Agrest, and Gavriel Heine. 

On the stage, Mikhail Pochekin partners closely with Wen Sinn Yang, Christian Tetzlaff, Kian Soltani, Christian Brembeck, Benedict Kloeckner, Kiveli Dörken, Petrit Çeku, Rainer Schmidt, Anna Chumachenko, Alexander Ramm and other soloists. For years, the violinist has performed in a duo with the pianist Yury Favorin. 

Concerts with his brother, violinist and viola player Ivan Pochekin, are of special importance to Mikhail Pochekin. In 2017, Melodiya released The Unity of Opposites, the Pochekin brothers’ joint album featuring works by Michael Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Reinhold Glière, and Sergey Prokofiev. Two years later, the artist recorded a CD with Bach violin sonatas and partitas for Solo Musica, Germany. 

Looking forward, the musician plans to continue performing with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under Pavel Kogan, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Die Neubrandenburger Philharmonie (Germany) and other orchestras.

Yury Favorin was born in Moscow in 1986. At the age of five he began learning the piano and recorder. He was eight when he entered the Gnesin Specialized Musical Primary School in Moscow, where he learned the piano under Professor Lidiya Grigorieva, the clarinet under Professor Ivan Mozgovenko, and the composition under Professor Vladimir Dovgan. 

In 2004 Yury entered the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory to study the piano under Professor Mikhail Voskresensky. He also studied the composition with Karen Khachaturyan and chamber ensemble with Alexander Rudin. Yury graduated from the Conservatory summa cum laude in 2009. In 2013–2015 Yury was also studying at University Mozarteum in Salzburg (Austria) with Professor Jacques Rouvier.

Yury performed with Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Rudin, Marin Alsop, Eri Klas, Alexander Vedernikov, Andrew Grams, Paul Goodwin, Kazuhiro Koizumi, Dmitry Liss and other leading conductors. Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Rudin, Gérard Caussé, Marc Coppey, David Lively, François Salque, Romain Guyot, Alexander Ghindin are among his partners on the stage. Together with composer Alexey Sysoev (electronics) and Dmitry Schyolkin (percussion) Yury has built the ensemble of free improvisatory music ERROR 404. 

Yury have accomplished several first performances of works by contemporary composers. Among his recordings there are complete Annees de pelerinage (live recording, released on label Melodiya) and Harmonies Poetiques et religieuses by Liszt, pieces by Alkan, russian composers of XX and XXI century (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Medtner, Myaskovsky, Roslavets, Feinberg, Popov and others). 

Yury gives recitals in many countries – Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France, Poland, United States, Japan, China, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan among them – achieving outstanding success everywhere. He also gives charity concerts for sick children (Moscow), war children (Vienna), and the disabled (Vienna). Yury is a member of the Freundes- und Förderkreises des Händel-Hauses zu Halle e.V. (Germany). 

He gives concerts at the most prestigious concert halls – Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Palais des beaux arts and Flagey Studio (Brussels), Cite de la musique (Paris), Tokyo International Forum (Japan), Beijing Concert Hall (China), Frideric Chopin University of Music Hall (Warsaw), Mendelssohn-Haus (Leipzig), Great, Small and Rachmaninoff's Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), Saint-Petersburg Philarmonia Hall, Moscow International Performing Arts Center (House of Music), the House of Composers in Moscow and many others. 

Yury is the winner of the Prize of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation (Vienna, 2003), and is a laureate of many international competitions, among them: the International Olivier Messiaen Competition (piano), Fourth Prize (Yvonne Loriod Prize), and the Prize for the Young Soloist from the Musical Creativity Foundation (Paris, 2007), as well as the International Queen Elisabeth Competition (Piano), Fourth Prize (Brussels, 2010). 

He has taken an active part in numerous musical festivals, such as International Piano Festival in La Roque d'Antheron, Piano aux Jacobins, the Festival La Folle Journée in Nantes and in Tokyo, L'esprit du piano in Bordeaux, Guangzhou und Beijing, International Festival in Saint-Lizier, Musique en Vallée du Tarn, J. S. Bach Festival, Olivier Messiaen Festival, Steinway Parade, Magic of Piano, Art-November, Moscow Forum (International Festival for Contemporary Music), Moscow Autumn, and International Festival-School TERRITORIYA. 

Also he took part in the masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Stephen Kovacevich, Dmitry Bashkirov, Sergey Babayan, Boris Berman, Marios Papadapoulos, Ferenc Rados and Noel Flores. Yury was a participant of the International Summer Academy Praha – Vienna – Budapest (2003), the Academy of the Festival Verbier (Switzerland, 2011), the International Holland Music Sessions (TIHMS) (the Netherlands, 2011), the International Summer Academy in Oxford (2012), and the International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg (2012).