Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra,
Andrey Boreiko, Nemanja Radulović

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra) is one of the oldest symphony ensembles in the country: in 2021 it has celebrated its 85th anniversary. The first performance of the orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk and Erich Kleiber, took place on October 5th, 1936 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Over the years, the State Orchestra was directed by outstanding musicians: Alexander Gauk (1936–1941), Natan Rakhlin (1941–1945), Konstantin Ivanov (1946–1965) and Yevgeny Svetlanov (1965–2000). In 2005, the ensemble was named after Yevgeny Svetlanov. In 2000–2002, the orchestra was headed by Vasily Sinaisky, in 2002–2011 – by Mark Gorenstein, in 2011–2021 – by Vladimir Jurowski, in 2021–2022  by Vasily Petrenko. Since 2024, Philipp Chizhevsky has been Artistic Director of the orchestra.

The orchestra’s concerts were held at the most famous concert venues in the world including the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the Column Hall of the House of Unions, the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Pleyel in Paris, the Colon National Opera in Buenos Aires, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In 2013, the orchestra for the first time performed in the Red Square in Moscow.

Herman Abendroth, Ernest Ansermet, Leo Blech, Nikolai Golovanov, Kurt Sanderling, Otto Klemperer, Kirill Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Mazur, Nikolai Malko, Igor Markevich, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Charles Munch, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Saulus Sondeckis, Igor Stravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Andrey Boreyko, Alexander Vedernikov, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Thomas Zehetmair, Mikhail Jurowski, Neeme Jarvi and other outstanding conductors directed at the conductor's desk of the orchestra.

Famous musicians and ensembles performed with the orchestra including singers Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Montserrat Caballé, Sergei Lemeshev, Elena Obraztsova, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Maria Guleghina, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Sergei Leiferkus, pianists Emil Gilels, Van Cliburn, Heinrich Neuhaus, Nikolai Petrov, Sviatoslav Richter, Maria Yudina, Valery Afanassiev, Boris Berezovsky, Elisso Virsaladze, Yevgeny Kissin, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev and Grigory Sokolov, violinists LeonidKogan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Boris Belkin, Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Victor Pikaysen, Vadim Repin, Vladimir Spivakov and Victor Tretyakov, violist Yuri Bashmet , cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Knyazev and Alexander Rudin, as well as Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir and Yurlov State Academic Choir Capella of Russia.

In recent years, the list of soloists collaborating with the ensemble has been recruited with the names of such singers as Ildar Abdrazakov, Dinara Alieva, Aida Garifullina, Khibla Gerzmava, Dmitry Korchak, Elisabeth Kulman, Jose Kura, Vasily Ladyuk, Julia Lezhneva, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko and Rene Pape, pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin, Leif Ove Andsnes, Rudolf Buchbinder, Simon Trpceski, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Mitsuko Uchida, violinists Kristof Barati, Ilya Gringolts, Alina Ibragimova, Leonidas Kavakos, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Sergei Krylov, Julian Rakhlin, Julia Fischer, Thomas Zehetmair, Nikolai Znaider and Pinchas Zuckerman, violist Maxim Rysanov. Considerable attention is also paid to joint work with young musicians, including conductors Maxim Emelyanychev, Dmitry Matvienko, Marius Stravinsky, Valentin Uryupin and Philipp Chizhevsky, pianists Andrei Gugnin, Lucas Debargue, Philipp Kopachevsky and Dmitry Masleyev, violinists Alena Baeva, Pavel Milyukov and Aylen Pritchin, cellist Alexander Ramm.

Having visited abroad for the first time in 1956, the orchestra has since represented Russian art in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Denmark, Italy, Canada, China, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, USA, Thailand, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and many other countries.

The discography of the ensemble includes hundreds of LP records and CDs released by leading recording companies in Russia and abroad (Melodiya, Bomba-Peter, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, BMG, Naxos, Chandos, Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, BelAir, ICA Classics, Pentatone, Toccata Classics, Fancymusic and others). A special place in this collection belongs to the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, which includes audio recordings of works by Russian composers from Glinka to Stravinsky (conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov). The TV channels such as Mezzo, medici.tv, Russia-1 and Kultura, radio Orpheus made recordings of the orchestra’s concerts.

Recently, the State Orchestra performed at the G. Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Another Space, Universe is Svetlanov! festivals and the XIV Guitar Virtuosos Moscow International Festival, Summer. Music. Museum  Festival in Istra; performed world premieres of works by Alexander Vustin, Victor Yekimovsky, Efrem Podgaits, Sergei Slonimsky, Vladimir Nikolaev, Alexei Retinsky, as well as Russian premieres of works by John Adams, Brett Dean, Gerard Grisey, Victor Kissin, Gyorgy Kurtag, Valentin Silvestrov, Olivier Messiaen, Rodion Shchedrin, Carl Orff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen; took part in the  International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Grand Piano Competition for young pianists; presented the annual cycle of Stories with Orchestra educational concerts eight times; visited the cities of Russia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Germany, Spain, Romania, Turkey, China, Japan. Chamber evenings with the participation of soloists of the orchestra are also regularly held.

Since 2016, the State Orchestra has been implementing a special project to support professional composer creativity involving close cooperation of the ensemble with contemporary Russian authors. The first in the history composer in residence was Alexander Vustin. For outstanding creative achievements, the collective has been bearing the honorary title of “academic” since 1972; in 1986 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, in 2006, 2011 and 2017 it dignified the gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation.

Now in his sixth season as Music Director of Artis—Naples, Andrey Boreyko’s inspiring leadership has raised the artistic standard and brought a new intensity to the Naples Philharmonic. The driving force behind the continued creative growth of this multidisciplinary organization, Boreyko continues to explore connections between art forms through interdisciplinary thematic programming. During the 2018/19 season, Boreyko paired the Ballet Russes-inspired contemporary visual artworks of Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave with performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Firebird — elaborating upon the meaning, style and influence of art and artists upon one another. A strong proponent of modern artistic voices, Boreyko has recently commissioned several new works by composers including Fazil Say, Giya Kancheli and D. J. Sparr.

This season marks the start of Andrey Boreyko’s tenure as Music and Artistic Director of Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to their regular collaborations at home, this season Andrey Boreyko and the orchestra will perform at the Chopin and his Europe Festival, the Beethoven Easter Festival, and across Japan. 

A popular guest conductor with major orchestras across the globe, Andrey Boreyko’s highlights this season include a substantial tour of Europe with The State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (including Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich),  engagements with NAC Ottawa, Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, Prague Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Dresden Philharmonie and Monte Carlo Philharmonic. Last season, Andrey toured to the Ljubljana, Rheingau, Gstaad, and Grafenegg festivals with the Filarmonica della Scalla. He also worked with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, Sinfonia Varsovia (with whom he appeared in the Budapest Palace of Arts’ Bridging Europe Festival with Piotr Anderszewski), Frankfurt Museumsgesellschaft, as well as the Seattle, Minnesota, Toronto, San Francisco, Sydney Symphony orchestras, and he ended the season with Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival.

Over the past few seasons, orchestras with whom Andrey Boreyko has worked have included Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gothenburg Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Wiener Symphoniker, Filharmonica della Scala, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, London Symphony, Philharmonia, and Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America, he has conducted New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras.

A passionate advocate for lesser-known works, Boreyko championed compositions by Victoria Borisova-Ollas in an extensive concert and recording project with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra last season. As part of the Prague Spring Festival 2018, Boreyko conducted the Prague Symphony Orchestra in a rendition of Jan Novak’s Dido and this season conducts Zdeněk Fibich’s rarely performed Vodnik. He returned to Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Berlin in February 2018 with a performance of Valentin Silvestrov’s Requiem for Larissa.

Notable amongst Boreyko’s discography with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR (of whom he was Principal Guest Conductor), are Arvo Pärt's Lamentate and Valentin Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 6 (both for ECM records), the premiere recording of his original version of the Suite from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Shostakovich symphonies No. 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 15, both on Hänssler Classics. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and Lutosławski’s Chain 2 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Yarling Records. Nonesuch released a recording of the Górecki’s Symphony No. 4 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, shortly after Andrey Boreyko conducted the work in concert with them, subsequently performing the American premiere with Los Angeles Philharmonic. Of his (recently released) live recording with Poznan Philharmonic from 1995, Ivan Moody in the August 2018 Gramophone magazine writes "Boreyko is masterly in sustaining the tension throughout the movement, right to the almost motionless final chords. Boreyko knows exactly what he is doing – again, the tension never flags and the pacing is exactly right – and Iżykowska is simply superb, perfectly at one with the orchestra.  If you have not already guessed, I was in tears almost throughout the disc. Even if you have every other recording of this work in the catalogue, you should still buy this one. It is a masterly performance of a masterpiece".

From 2012 Andrey Boreyko was Music Director of the Orchestre National de Belgique, a post he held with great commitment for five years, expanding the Orchestra’s activities nationally and internationally, including an annual performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. His first position in Europe was as Chief Conductor of Poznan Philharmonic. He has also held the positions of Chief Conductor of the Jenaer Philharmonie (of whom he is now Honorary Conductor and with whom he received awards for the most innovative concert programming in three consecutive seasons from the Deutscher Musikverleger-Verband), Hamburger Symphoniker, Winnipeg Symphony, Berner Sinfonieorchester, and Music Director of the Düsseldorf Symphoniker. 

Winner of the 2015 Echo Klassik Award for Newcomer of the Year, Serbian-French violinist Nemanja Radulović has taken the classical music world by storm with his thrilling virtuosity, depth of expression, and adventurous programming, both in the recording studio and on the concert stage. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, his most recent album, Baïka, features his evocative interpretations of Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto as well as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, arranged for solo violin and chamber orchestra.

Fresh off a hotly-anticipated, ‘magical’ (Barry Creasy, musicOMH) BBC Proms debut featuring the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits, and a Barber Violin Concerto whose ‘lyric delicacy and last-movement super-virtuosity were caught to near perfection’ (The Times), Radulović ’s recent and forthcoming highlights include an extensive European tour with the Russian State Academic Symphony and Andrey Boreyko; debut engagements with the Gothenburg Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony, Dusseldorf Symphony, RTE National Symphony Dublin, Orquesta Sinfonica de Valencia, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg; the season opening of the Jeunesse Musicale series at the Vienna Konzerthaus; a play/direct performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra (resulting in an immediate re-invitation and on-going relationship with the ensemble); and a special collaboration with clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, and pianist Laure Favre-Kahn, performing to audiences at festivals across Germany, Switzerland and France. 

An artist who seeks to broaden the boundaries of classical music, Radulović champions the power of music to bring people together with his unique energy and candour. He has amassed a legion of loyal fans around the world who have enjoyed his performances with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orquesta Nacional de España, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Salzburg Camerata, NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hanover, WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, Orchestra della Toscana, Tampere Philharmonic, Gävle Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Copenhagen Phil, Geneva Camerata, Queensland Symphony, Macao Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Cadaqués Orchestra, and the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. 

Radulović has an equal passion for the intimacy of chamber music, and is an increasingly active recitalist on the international circuit. He has performed at such notable venues as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, both the Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Athens Megaron, Tokyo's Suntory Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia. His many recital partners include Marielle Nordmann, Laure Favre-Kahn, and Susan Manoff, the latter with whom he has also recorded a disc of Beethoven Sonatas released on the Decca/Universal Music label.

Radulović also regularly undertakes a play/direct role with his infectious, high-energy ensemble The Devil’s Trills – noted for their ‘immense purity, artistic force, passion, intimacy, and exquisite dynamic choices, leaving the audience in complete astonishment’ (Johannes Seifert, Augsburger Allgemeine) – and his chamber orchestra, Double Sens, which was recently celebrated for their recordings of Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as The 5 Seasons, a piece that combines Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with a new composition, Spring in Japan, by Aleksandar Sedlar and dedicated to the Japanese tsunami victims in 2011. Their other recent recordings include Paganini Fantasy (2013), Journey East (2014), BACH (2016), Tchaikovsky (2017), and most recently Baïka (2018). 

Radulović’s recognition for his work in classical music includes International Revelation of the Year by the Victoires de la musique classique in 2005, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Arts in Niš, Serbia, and an ELLE Style Award for Musician of the Year in 2015. He is the winner of several international violin competitions, such as Joseph Joachim in Hanover, George Enescu in Bucharest, and Stradivarius in Cremona. 

Born in Serbia in 1985, Nemanja Radulović studied at the Faculty of Arts and Music in Belgrade, the Saarlandes Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Saarbrücken, the Stauffer Academy in Cremona with Salvatore Accardo, and the world-renowned Conservatoire de Paris with Patrice Fontanarosa.