The Concert-Closing of the 5th International Cello Festival "Viva Cello"

David Geringas has been a pioneer in introducing contemporary Russian music to the West by composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke and Viktor Suslin, many of whom have dedicated works to him. For his special commitment to contemporary music, Mr. Geringas received the Kultur aktuell Prize in 1992 from the Cultural Association of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1994 he premiered the cello concerto by Gubaidulina, championing the new concerto in 12 countries including Japan, Russia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Belgium; his CD of the Gubaidulina Cello Concerto, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, was issued by the Collegno label. Last May he continued his pioneering efforts with the world premiere of the Cello Concerto by the Estonian composer Lepo Sumera, and this year he will perform a new work by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov.

Mr. Geringas was born in 1946 in Lithuania, and in 1963 entered the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he studied with Mstislav Rostropovich. He won the Gold Medal in the 1970 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and five years later moved to Germany to begin his international career under the sponsorship of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation. He is currently a professor at the Musikhochschule Lьbeck.

He has performed as a soloist with conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Kirill Kondrashin, Ferdinand Leitner, Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Klaus Tennstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Geringas enjoys a career in chamber music. He has appeared in concerts and festivals at the Berlin and Vienna Festwochen, Lockenhaus, Ludwigsburg, and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. With his wife and duo partner, Tatiana Geringas, he has given highly praised recitals in Rome, Paris, New York, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and at the Vienna Musikverein.

Mr. Geringas has recorded over 30 CDs that demonstrate his unusual versatility, ranging from contemporary works to the early Baroque. The Acadйmie Charles Cros awarded him the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of the 12 Boccherini Cello Concerti; his chamber music by Henri Dutilleux received a Diapason d’or; and his recording of Hans Pfitzner’s Cello Concerti was awarded the 1994 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

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.

Boris Andrianov, a renowned Russian cellist, performs in the world's top venues and at most prestigious festivals. While having an extensive touring schedule, the artist is also keen on performing in Russia, whether in big cities, small towns or remote villages that had never seen any concerts at all. He has also participated in many international and national projects aimed at expanding the country’s musical landscapes, especially in Russian provinces. Invariably enjoying great success with the public, those projects bring together internationally renowned performers along with Boris Andrianov himself. 

Boris Andrianov was born in Moscow in 1976. He studied at the Gnessin Music School (class of Vera Birina), Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Professor Natalia Shakhovskaya) and Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (class of Professor David Geringas).

He was the winner of Antonio Janigro international competition in Zagreb as well as competitions in Johannesburg, Hanover (Shostakovich Classiсa Nova Competition, as part of a duo with Alexey Goribol), Paris (Mstislav Rostropovich competition), and South Korea (Isang Yun competition). He was also a prize-winner at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Triumph Youth Award, and was titled Honored Artist of Russia in 2016. 

Boris Andrianov has performed with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Yury Simonov, Pavel Kogan, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alexander Vedernikov, Gianandrea Noseda, Dmitry Liss, Roman Kofman, Vasily Petrenko, Stefan Vladar, Dmitri Jurowski, and Alexander Sladkovsky. In chamber performances, he has played alongside Yury Bashmet, Menahem Pressler, Akiko Suwanai, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Itamar Golan, Denis Matsuev, Sergey Nakaryakov, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Alexey Lyubimov, Tatiana Grindenko, to name a few. 

The musician has participated in the Royal Swedish Festival, as well as in Ludwigsburg and Schleswig-Holstein festivals (Germany), festivals in Edinburgh (Scotland), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Colmar (France), Davos (Switzerland), Irkutsk (Stars on Baikal), Trans-Siberian Art Festival and others. He is also a regular guest of the Homecoming chamber music festival in Moscow. 

Boris Andrianov heads The Generation of Stars, a nation-wide project that has been awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation (2009). He also initiated Vivacello and Vivarte international festivals in Moscow and has been artistic director for both. In addition, he is the artistic director of Musical Expedition festival, that was founded in the Vladimir region and has been expanding every year. In 2021, the festival covered six Russian regions, including Udmurtia, Vologda and Novosibirsk regions, Crimea and Kamchatka. 

Widely collaborating with contemporary composers, Boris Andrianov has repeatedly presented premieres of new works, including those by Giya Kancheli, Krzysztof Penderecki, Efrem Podgaits, Michael Berkeley, Richard Dubugnon, Alexander Rosenblatt, Giovanni Sollima, Vangelis, Alexey Rybnikov, Pavel Karmanov, Samuel Strouk, Alexey Shor and others. 

The artist's discography includes a joint recording with guitarist Dmitry Illarionov, released by Delos (in 2003 the record was included in the long list of Grammy nominees in Chamber Ensemble category); Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with pianist Rem Urasin (named the best chamber disc of the month by Gramophone in September 2007), and sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord by J. S. Bach transcribed for cello and button accordion, recorded with Yuri Medianik (released by Melodiya, 2015). In 2020–2021 he recorded Variations on Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky with the State Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan under Alexander Sladkovsky (Sony Classics), Gabriel Prokofiev's Cello Concerto with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexey Bogorad (world premiere of the recording) as well as the Jazz Reflections of Bach Suites with Leonid and Nick Vintskevich, as well as all cello suites by J.S. Bach (the release is scheduled for 2022). 

Since 2009 Boris Andrianov has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. The artist plays a cello made by Carlo Bergonzi from the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments.

Джованни Соллима — всемирно известный итальянский виолончелист и композитор. Соллима учился в консерватории Палермо, затем совершенствовал свое мастерство в зальцбургском Моцартеуме и Высшей школе музыки и театра Штутгарта.

Своим исполнительским искусством Соллима покорил крупнейшие концертные залы мира, среди его партнёров по сцене – выдающиеся музыканты современности. Не меньшей известностью пользуется композиторское творчество Соллимы: он пишет музыку к спектаклям по заказу известных режиссеров и хореографов.

Соллима — автор сочинений для большого и малого симфонических оркестров, камерных оркестров и ансамблей, а также вокальных, хоровых и фортепианных произведений.

Джованни Соллима активно экспериментирует с музыкой самых разных направлений. В круг его интересов входят джаз, рок, электроника, минимализм, фольклор Сицилии и стран Средиземноморского бассейна. Он увлекается игрой на этнических инструментах Запада и Востока, электрических и электронных, а также исполняет музыку на инструментах собственного изобретения.

Музыкант ведет преподавательскую деятельность в Фонде Романини в городе Брешиа (Италия), а с 2010 года — в Академии «Санта Чечилия» в Риме. В том же году он был избран членом Академии «Санта Чечилия», что является высшей наградой для музыканта в Италии. Также дает мастер-классы в знаменитой виолончельной академии в Кронберге (Германия).

Джованни Соллима играет на виолончели Франческо Руджери (Кремона, 1679).