© Diago Mariotta Mendez, Evgeny Evtyukhov

About the production

Start

7:30 p.m.

End

9:30 p.m.

Maxim Vengerov is one of the best-known violin virtuosos of our time, who scales the summits of violin mastery with technical brilliance and musical insight. He has appeared as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony. He is also increasingly active as a conductor and teacher. He will come to the Lausitz with his piano partner Polina Osetinskaya. Together they will present a program spanning the centuries from Clara and Robert Schumann to Johannes Brahms and Sergei Prokofiev.

Participants: Maxim Vengerov (violin), Polina Osetinskaya (piano)

Violinist

Maxim Vengerov

Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and often referred to as the greatest living string player in the world today, Grammy award winner Maxim Vengerov also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor and is one of the most in-demand soloists. Born in 1974, he began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, studied with Galina Tourchaninova and Zakhar Bron, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels including Melodia, Teldec and EMI, earning among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist of the year awards.

In 2007 he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Mstislav Rostropovich, and turned his attention to conducting and in 2010 was appointed the first chief conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. June 2014 saw Mr Vengerov graduate with a Diploma of Excellence from the Moscow Institute of Ippolitov-Ivanov with professor Yuri Simonov and he has since finished a further 2-year program of opera conducting.

Highlights of recent seasons saw Mr Vengerov opening the season of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala with Maestro Chailly, a Residence with Monte Carlo Philharmonic and the Philharmonie in Paris as well as a world wide recital tours. Highlights of the 22/23 season will see him in an extensive US and Canadian recital tour including Berkeley, Kansas City, New York and Toronto, and an 11 concerts tour in the UK. Other orchestral performances as a soloist include Montreal, Vienna, London, Paris and Taiwan and chamber music concerts with Evgeny Kissin and Stephen Isserliss at Carngie Hall, in Switzerland with Simon Trpcesky and Stephen Isserliss and with Misha Maisky in Hamburg and Germany. He will also join Aspen and Bravo Vale Festival in the States this summer in Recital, Masterclasses and Concerto performance with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas SO as well as Nick McGegan.

Two years ago Maxim Vengerov became Classic FM’s first solo Artist in Residence and released a new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with conductor Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, coupled with works by Saint-Säens and Ravel as well as a live recital from Carnegie Hall. Further recordings will follow to coincide with Maxim Vengerov’s celebration of 40 years on stage at the Royal Albert Hall April 2023. He will be joined by Sandra Lied-Haga, an exciting young cellist, the Oxford Philharmonic with its Music Director Marios Papadopoulos and students from the Royal College of Music London.

As one of Mr Vengerov’s greatest passions is the teaching and encouraging of young talent, he has held various teaching positions around the world. He currently holds the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Stiftungsprofessor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and since September 2016 he is also the Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018 Maxim Vengerov became the Goodwill Ambassador of the Musica Mundi School - a unique institution, which supports young talents. With the vision of democratising the access of music learning, he launched his own online platform in January 2021:www.maximvengerov.com and created an impact across 170 countries and over 190 million reach. His first year programs include partnerships with musical institutions from around the world, the Lottery Ticket program, guest artist series inaugurated with Brett Yang from TwoSet Violin, as well as his new global community group who’s initiatives include the world leading Mentoring program, rural musical communities initiative and the Musical Pen Pals program for children.

Mr Vengerov has been profiled in a series of documentaries, including Playing by Heart, which was recorded by Channel Four Television and screened at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999, and Living the Dream, which was released worldwide and received the Gramophone Award for Best Documentary in 2008.

Mr Vengerov has received prestigious fellowships and honours from a number of institutions. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Visiting Fellowship at Trinity College Oxford and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and the Order of Cultural Merit from the Palace Monte Carlo.

Mr Vengerov has also received numerous awards including Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) (2003), two Gramophone awards (1994, 1995), a Classical Brit Award (2004), five Edison Classical Music Awards (1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004), two ECHO awards (1997, 2003) and a World Economic Forum Crystal award (2007) - honouring artists who have used their art to improve the state of the world.

He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).

Polina Osetinskaya

Internationally acclaimed pianist Polina Osetinskaya began her career at the age of five and was soon acclaimed as a Wunderkind in the former Soviet Union at the same time as, contemporary Maxim Vengerov. She gave her first concert at the age of six . At the age of seven she entered the Central School of Music of the Moscow Conservatoire and later continued her studies at the Leningrad Conservatoire under the teacher Marina Wolf, and later on at the Moscow Conservatory under the famous Vera Gornostaeva. Ms. Osetinskaya has performed on most major stages, including Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Barbican Centre, Rome’s Teatro Argentina, as well as in Italy, Germany, Poland, The USA, Russia and Israel. Ms. Osetinskaya has appeared with musicAeterna, Mariinsky Orchestra, EvgenySvetlanov Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. This season she will perform with Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova.

Polina Osetinskaya has worked with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Andrei Boreyko, Tugan Sokhiev, Laurent Petijerar, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Alexander Sladkovsky.

In Recital Polina Osetinskaya is known for her experimental programs, including works by contemporary composers and juxtaposing them with traditional classical works. She is also very much at home with the post-avant-garde composers such as Valentin Silvestrov,Leonid Desyatnikov and Arvo Part to name but a few, and presented a few project as an actress and pianist at the same time.

She has collaborated with many recording companies including Quartz, Naxos, Sony Music, Bel Air, Melodiya.

Polina Osetinskaya has been awarded the Maly Triumph prize, and wrote her autobiography “Farewell, Sadness” an account of her Wunderkind years - which became a bestseller.

In the season 2023/2024 Polina Osetinskaya makes a number of solo debuts. At the Berlin Philharmonic, the National Gallery London and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg in unaccompanied Bach. She will also perform in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Cyprus, the USA and South America, and returns to Carnegie Hall in duo recital with Maxim Vengerov.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Polina has repeatedly expressed her pacifist position. The Russian government cancelled all her engagements there as a result.

354 words

August 2023

Reviews:

“Her tone is deep and rich, her articulation faultless and her feeling for the pulse of the music she is playing is as natural as breathing – that’s something that cannot be taught.”

Review by Martin Anderson

“Polina Osetinskaya is a terrific pianist. More importantly, she is a magnificently endowed musician. Her performances always explore new facets of even the most familiar scores... She is a musical treasure!”

Review by Lawrence Budmen

“Polina Osetinskaya herself is an excellent pianist. Her personality and amazing skill made her an audience favorite and showed her extreme virtuosity.”

Review by Harry Rolnick