Italian Baroque

Musica Viva's origins go back to 1978, when violinist and conductor Viktor Kornachev founded a musical ensemble of nine players – all young and enthusiastic, and recent graduates of Moscow's musical academies. By 1988 the ensemble had grown into a full-fledged orchestra, now led Alexander Rudin who also gave the group its name, Musica Viva. Under his guidance, the orchestra achieved the pinnacles of artistic endeavour, and ranked along Russia's finest orchestras. 

Musica Viva today is an all-round musical ensemble which performs the widest possible range of compositions in all styles and genres with an assured confidence. The highlight of the orchestra's projects has been the cycle named Masterpieces & Premieres at the Moscow Philharmonic Society, featuring musical masterworks in their original splendour alongside musical rarities which are brought once more back to the concert platform. 2011 marked the creation of the Silver Classics series consisting of works that are not part of the so called ‘golden repertoire’ while deserving indeed to be there. The series includes a Young Artists Programme introducing prize-winners of European music competitions to the audience, as well as annual Cello Assemblies to which maestro Rudin invites his fellow cellists.

The performance of neglected masterworks forms a major part of the orchestra's repertoire. Musica Viva has given the first Russian performances of works by C. F. E. Bach, Cimarosa, Dittersdorf, Dussek, Pleyel, Tricklir, Volkmann, Kozlovsky, Fomin, Vielgorsky, Alyabyev, Degtyarev, and many others. The orchestra also makes the audience discover leading contemporary works, with world and Russian premieres of music by Artyomov, Pärt, A. Sallinen, Silvestrov, Manotskov, Akhunov, Andrei Golovin, and other composers. 

Over the last decade, Musica Viva has been increasingly involved in large-scale projects including concert performances of operas and oratorios. Under the baton of Alexander Rudin, the orchestra has performed Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons; Mozart's Idomeneo, Weber's Oberon, Beethoven's Fidelio, Schumann's Requiem, Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, and Degtyarev's Minin & Pozharsky, or Liberation of Moscow. The musicians presented the Russian premieres of Handel's cantata Apollo e Daphne and operatic serenata Aci. Galatea e Polifemo, and of Hasse's serenata Marc Antonio e Cleopatra and oratorio I Pellegrini al Sepolcro di Nostro Signore. In collaboration with the British maestro Christopher Moulds the orchestra has given the Russian premieres of Handel's operas Orlando and Ariodante, as well as his oratorio Hercules. 

Musica Viva regularly invites musicians of world status to join its performances. These have included Christopher Hogwood, Sir Roger Norrington, Vladimir Jurowsky, Andraš Adorian. Robert Levin, Andreas Staier, Eliso Virsaladze, Natalya Gutman, Ivan Monighetti, Nikolai Lugansky, Boris Berezovsky, Alexei Lubimov, Giuliano Carmingola, Isabelle Faust, Roel Dieltiens, Thomas Zettmaier, Christian Tetzlaff , Shlomo Mintz, and leading operatic prima donnas Joyce di Donato, Annick Massis, Vivica Genaux. Deborah York, Susan Graham, Malena Ernman, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Hibla Gerzmava, and Julia Lezhneva. World-famous choirs including Collegium Vocale Gent and Latvia, as well as the Russian vocal ensemble Intrada, have also appeared with the orchestra. 

Musica Viva makes continuous appearances at major international music festivals including world-renowned La folle journee taking place in France, Spain, Japan, Poland, and Russia (Yekaterinburg). The orchestra has toured to Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Japan, Czechia, Slovenia, Poland, Finland, Turkey, India, and Taiwan, while giving regular concerts in many Russian cities. 

The orchestra has recorded over 20 albums for such labels as Russky Sezon, Olympia, Hyperion, Naxos, Chandos, Тudor, Fuga Libera, and Melodiya, among others. Symphonies by Johann Stamitz were released in 2019, while Beethoven's Triple and Violin Concertos with Dmitry Sinkovsky (violin), Alexei Lyubimov (historical piano) and Alexander Rudin (cello, conductor) appeared in 2020. Recordings with maestro Rudin as a soloist are of particular interest and include cello concerts by Tricklir, Myaskovsky, Antonin Kraft, and baroque composers, such as Hasse, C. P. E. Bach, Hertel etc. The Grieg Album introduces Alexander Rudin a master of orchestration, featuring his orchestral versions of chamber works by the Norwegian composer. 

In the 2028/19 season, Musica Viva celebrated its 40th anniversary. Over many years, the orchestra’s activity has been supported by a grant of the Russian President.

Alexander Rudin is known as one of the most prominent musicians of the new generation. He is equally world famous as conductor, working with both symphony and chamber orchestras, music instructor – professor of the Moscow Conservatoire, researcher of the early music scores, and author of his own orchestra arrangements of chamber music, as well as unique thematic cycles. He belongs to the new era of Russian performers whose talent can be applied universally. Rudin stands out in a group of his truly professional colleagues for his extraordinary personality: he is talented in various aspects of musical performance, with all his talents creating a perfect balance. He strictly follows the direction he has chosen for himself, the path of creative ideas and experiments in a purely academic musical tradition. “Music cannot be brought down to simply something you create for entertainment. It does not exist solely for the audiences’ appreciation and applause,” believes Rudin.

Alexander Rudin received his degree in music (cello and piano) at the Gnesins’ Academy of Music (formerly known as the Gnesins’ State Musical and Pedagogical Institute) in Moscow in 1983. Mr. Rudin pursued his advanced conducting studies in the Moscow Conservatoire, and graduated in 1989. He studied music with Lev Evgrafov, Yuri Ponizovkin, and Dmitry Kitaenko.

When a student, he won the most prestigious European music competitions of the time: The J.S. Bach International Music Competition in Leipzig (1976), The Gaspar Cassado International Music Competition in Florence (1979), The Tchaikovsky Music Competition in Moscow (1978, 1982), giving a brilliant start to his artistic career. Today Alexander Rudin is one of the most popular musicians both in Russia and abroad. He performs with the most famous orchestras, and participates in prestigious international festivals.

Mr. Rudin has recorded over 30 CDs (both solo and with the Musica Viva Orchestra) on the leading Russian and foreign labels, such as Naxos, Olympia, Tudor, Melodia, Cello Classics, Russky Sezon, Russky Disk, RCD and others.

Alexander Rudin is the Honored Performer of Russia, Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Laureate of the State Award, the Laureate of the Moscow Government Award, and Artistic Director and Conductor of the “Musica Viva” Chamber Orchestra.

Interest in less famous or even unknown music, and new interpretations of popular works, - is a combination typical for most of his concert programs. Thanks to his interest to the long-forgotten pages of the music history, the Moscow public heard some of the music pieces for the first time, such works as Overture on Russian Themes for the cello with orchestra by Davydov, Cello concertos of Kraft, Triklir, Facius, and Folkman. Together with the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra he has been Artistic Director for since 1988, Rudin was the first who introduced the works of V.S. Bach, Salieri, Dussek, Dittersdorf, Kozlovsky and Pashkevich, Alyabyev, and others to the Moscow audience of the modern Russia.

A musician who received a very traditional education, Alexander Rudin was initially interested in authentic performances of ancient music, and gradually reached a perfect balance of different styles. In his present day performances, he combines modern instruments and viola da gamba, performs both in a traditional way, as well as uses his own, yet “historically-correct" interpretations of the classical pieces. This tradition of keeping the “authentic line” when working with the orchestra, resulted in cooperation with many world-known experts in this field. At Mr. Rudin’s invitation, the orchestra performed under the outstanding British conductors Christopher Hogwood and Roger Norrington (Sir Roger came to Musica viva twice in Russia).

Musica Viva is an orchestra with the highest level of performance, which is famous for its universal style, attracting the famous traditional musicians: Eliso Virsaladze, Nikolay Petrov, Natalia Gutman, Sergey Stadler, Alexander Melnikov have been working with conductor Rudin and his orchestra for a long time. The majority of Rudin’s repertoire is the works of modern composers Golovin, Silvestrov and Artemov. Mr. Rudin premiered several music works written for him, namely Schubert variations by Edison Denisov (he taught orchestration to Rudin) and “Eight Poems of Count Vasily Komarovsky” which he presented together with a soprano Mlada Khudoley, conducting the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (the concert program also included rarely played Myaskovsky’s Third Symphony and Three Melodeclamations by Anton Arensky).

Alexander Rudin organized a series of chamber music performances “Musical Assemblies.” These concerts started to take place in late 80s in different halls of the State Tretyakov Gallery. This tradition developed into the international chamber music festival, which closes the Gallery’s music season.

Rudin’s career as an instructor is closely connected with the Moscow Conservatoire. A professor of the Conservatoire, he teaches the Chamber Ensemble class, as he believes that this way he will give his students more knowledge and skills, than simply instructing them in their specialization. Additionally, Mr. Rudin gives master classes all over the world, and collaborates with youth orchestras as a conductor (student orchestra of the Moscow Conservatoire, Yekaterinburg youth orchestra, etc.)

The musician has recorded over 30 CDs, among those are the recordings of Bach’s suites (Naxos label) and the cello concerto by N. Myaskovsky. His “Grieg Album” presents him to the audience not only as cellist and conductor, but as true master of orchestration. The CD includes the chamber music compositions arranged by Rudin in a very unique way. Among Rudin’s latest works are the CDs featuring the works by Alyabyev, Cherepnin, as well as a live performance – the recording of Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Kraft’s cello concerto from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.

Violinist 

The voice is our first instrument, so it’s not uncommon for violinists and conductors to find inspiration in a vocalist’s turn of phrase. Likewise, many vocalists harness a certain instrumental virtuosity in their performances. But to find a musician who can seamlessly blend all three together? That is unheard of — unless you’ve heard of Dmitry Sinkovsky. 

The charismatic and atypical musician Dmitry Sinkovsky expresses his art through a rare combination of three different aspects: as a violinist, as a conductor and as a countertenor. In his many musical appearances, Sinkovsky effectively reflects one of the main ideas of the Baroque period: using the instrument as if it were the voice of a singer and using the voice as if it were a perfect instrument.

Dmitry Sinkovsky was groomed for an international career by the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin with Alexander Kirov, and at the Zagreb Music Academy in Croatia where he studied conducting with Tomislav Facini. While a student in Moscow, Sinkovsky’s curiosity led him to earlier repertoire. As a member of the chamber ensemble Musica Petropolitana, he met Baroque violinist and Early Music pioneer Maria Leonhardt, who convinced him to change his course and concentrate on historical performance practice. 

He has since taken innumerable prizes in major competitions from the Premio Bonporti in Italy (2005) to the Bach Competition in Leipzig (2006), the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges (first prize, audience prize and critics’ prize, 2008) to the Romanus Weichlein prize at the Biber competition in Austria in 2009 for his ‘extraordinary interpretation of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas’ and first prize at the Telemann Competition in Magdeburg (2011). As a laureate of the Jumpstart Jr. Competition in the Netherlands, Dmitry Sinkovsky has been loaned a superb violin by Francesco Ruggeri (1675). 

Critics and audiences alike praise his ability to “play from the heart” while interpreting with ease music of dazzling difficulty. Though he spends much time with Baroque repertoire and emphasizes it in his career Dmitry maintains his profile as a classical violinist performing a large range of music written for this instrument and breaking boarders between the Baroque and Modern worlds. Among his partners are Alexei Lubimov, Alexander Rudin, Theodor Currentzis, Martina Filjak, Andreas Scholl, Christoph Coin, Luca Pianca, Aapo Häkkinen and Skip Sempe. 

Conductor 

It is hard to find more multi-tasking conductor than Dmitry Sinkovsky. His vision and concept of music making is based on deep study as both a professional instrumentalist and a singer. Musicians love to work with him as they understand each other. Dmitry has the ability to clearly show and explain every tiny detail, to either a singer or to a player, as he fully understands both subjects due to his activity in both fields. “I love to conduct both orchestra and a choir, as singing and playing are like yin and yang, bringing harmony through making music together,” says Dmitry. 

During the 2012-13 season Dmitry served as guest conductor of Il Complesso Barocco, accompanying distinguished mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in her ‘Drama Queens’ concert tour with 30 performances in major concert halls throughout Europe, the USA and Asia. That was the first time Dmitry was introduced as a conductor to the large audience, following the example of his teacher and colleague the great musicologist Alan Curtis. 

Dmitry Sinkovsky continues to be much in demand as a conductor, performing extensively in Europe, Russia, Canada, Asia, Australia and the USA. He heads the ensemble La Voce Strumentale, which he founded in Moscow in 2011. 

In 2017-18, Dmitry is a resident Baroque conductor at Seattle Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Dubrovnik Symphony, Il Pomod`oro and Brock Orchestra. In addition, he is collaborating with the National Spanish Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Il Giardino armonico Sinfonietta Riga, musicAeterna orchestra, Klaipeda chamber orchestra and Musica Viva orchestra. 

Singer 

In 2007, after having already begun a notable career as a violinist, Dmitry Sinkovsky decided to seriously pursue his talent as a countertenor as well. To this end he worked with vocal coaches Michael Chance, Marie Daveluy and finally Jana Ivanilova with whom he studied for seven years in Moscow. His vocal repertoire currently includes roles from Handel operas (Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Silla, Arsace, Disinganno, Bertarido, Polinesso), as well as Handel’s solo cantatas and oratorios, to Gluck’s Orfeo, J.S. Bach’s Passions and cantatas and serenatas and the cantatas of Vivaldi, Leo and Scarlatti. Mr. Sinkovsky’s countertenor voice is distinguished by its wide range of timbral colors, lightness, rich overtones and agility. He has an exceptionally natural high voice with a magical sound quality. In 2014 and 2017 he was invited to Australia with the Brandenburg Orchestra, from that country, performing ten highly acclaimed recitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Since 2014 he has been an invited soloist of the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow. He often performs as a duo with Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva. This year, Dmitry will sing the title role in "Lucio Silla" at Ludwigsburg festival accompanied by Ensemble 1700 and conducted by Dorothee Oberlinger. 

Dmitry has an exclusive contract with French label Naïve. His recording of “Per Pisendel,” together with "Il Pomod`oro orchestra,” on which he is both soloist and conductor, was released in 2013 in Naive’s Vivaldi Edition series and was awarded a Diapason d’Or.