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Russia’s oldest and most revered symphony orchestra play at Edinburgh’s iconic Usher Hall

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with and Freddy Kempf Sunday Classics at the Usher hall, Edinburgh 3:00pm, Sunday 27 January 2019

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 Mahler - Symphony No. 4

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The historic and prestigious St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra will take to the stage of Edinburgh’s Usher hall in the first Sunday Classics concert of 2019.

The legendary orchestra will be led by their longstanding Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Yuri Temirkanov. They will also be joined by leading British Freddy Kempf for Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto.

Often described as the greatest piano concerto ever written and adored by millions as the soundtrack to cinematic classic Brief Encounter, Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is musical romance at its finest. Usher Hall audiences will be swept up in the piece’s gorgeous melodies, its heart-on-sleeve emotion, its dazzling orchestral colours.

Few performances of this passionate music can be as authentic as one from the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra – dubbed the crowning glory of Russian culture, and Russia’s oldest and most revered symphony orchestra. With its roots dating back to 1882, it has an illustrious history and has been a constant through revolution and war in Russia. In 1934 it was awarded the title Honoured Ensemble of Russia, the first of the century, and later developed a close relationship with Shostakovich himself, performing five of the great Russian composer’s symphonies for the first time. Under Yuri Temirkanov, Chief Conductor for the past three decades, there are few ensembles that can convey the turbulent soul of Russian music in quite the same way.

Taking the Concerto’s spectacular solo role is British soloist Freddy Kempf, a master of Russian pianism who enjoys enormous popularity in Russia for his piercing intelligence, his pianistic brilliance and his muscular power. Winner of 1992’s BBC Young Musician contest, Kempf is now a pianist with a global reputation.

Temirkanov closes the concert with Gustav Mahler’s lightest, most joyful Symphony – and also his shortest. The Fourth traces a luminous path from experience to innocence, stopping off for a visit to a devilish fiddler, before revealing the wide-eyed wonders of a child’s view of heaven – complete with bread-baking angels and St Peter gone fishing. ‘There is no music on the Earth than can compare with ours,’ sing Mahler’s angels – and little can compare with the radiant glory of his rapturous Symphony.

/ENDS

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Will Moss / The Corner Shop PR / 0131 202 6220 /07443334085

Listings information: St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov and Freddy Kempf Sunday Classics at the Usher hall, Edinburgh 3:00pm, Sunday 27 January 2019

Yuri Temirkanov – Conductor Freddy Kempf – Piano

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 Mahler - Symphony No. 4

Tickets available at www.usherhall.co.uk

Prices

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St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra

The history of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra began with the decree of Alexander III dated 16 July 1882, which initiated the creation of the Court Choir.

Transformed into the Court Orchestra at the beginning of the XX century, for the first time in Russia, the orchestra performed the symphonic poems “Ein Heidenleben“ and “Also sprach Zarathustra“ by Richard Strauss, Mahler's First Symphony and Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy" and Stravinsky’s First Symphony. A.Nikish and R.Strauss conducted the orchestra as well as A.Glazunov, who dedicated the "Festival Overture" to the orchestra. In 1917, the Court Orchestra became the State Orchestra, and was headed by S. Koussevitzky.

In 1921, the orchestra, given the hall of the former Noble Assembly at its disposal, opened the country's first Philharmonia. The unprecedented in scale activities of the orchestra drew a new and sometimes far removed from classical music audience to its Grand Hall. Outstanding Russian musicians underwent a rigorous test of their skills with the orchestra. Such legendary Western conductors as B.Walter, F.Weingartner, G.Abendroth, O.Fried, E.Kleiber, P.Monteux and O.Klemperer; soloists V.Horowitz and S.Prokofiev, performed with the orchestra. The orchestra mastered a vast contemporary repertoire. In 1918, it presented the premiere of Prokofiev’s "Classical Symphony", and in 1926 – Shostakovich’s First Symphony.

In 1934, the orchestra – the first in the country – was awarded the title Honoured Ensemble of Russia. 1938 ushered in a half-century of the "Age of Mravinsky" – years of hard work, which

earned the orchestra a place among the most prominent orchestras of the world. In 1946, the orchestra embarked on its first foreign trip – and gave its first overseas performance in the country’s symphonic performance history. This was followed by regular tours around the world, performing at the most prestigious European festivals. A unique and creative alliance formed between D.Shostakovich and E.Mravinsky, to whom the composer devoted the Eighth Symphony. The conductor and the orchestra performed five Shostakovich's symphonies for the first time. In fact, a tradition of an original interpretation of famous scores was born. Music of the twentieth century as a whole assumed a significant role in the orchestra’s repertoire. Alternating as the second conductor of the orchestra were K.Sanderling, A.Jansons and M.Jansons; at the podium were L.Stokowski, L.Maazel, Z.Mehta, K.Masur, E.Svetlanov, G.Rozhdestvensky and composers B.Britten, A.Copland, Z.Kodaly, W.Lutoslawski, L.Berio, K.Penderecki, and soloists: V.Cliburn, G.Gould, A.Benedetti Michelangeli, I.Stern, S.Richter, E.Gilels, D.Oistrakh, E.Virsaladze, N.Petrov, G.Sokolov, V.Tretyakov, L. Kogan, N.Gutman, V.Krainev, V.Spivakov, and A.Lyubimov.

Since 1988, Yuri Temirkanov has headed the orchestra. The repertoire of the orchestra is constantly being updated with new, including modern works. Over the last few years they have included the Russian premieres of: “Il canto sospeso” by Nono, the First Symphony “The Triumph of Heaven” and the fantasy “Wunderbare Leiden” by Borisova-Ollas, Nocturne “Sur le meme accord” by Dutilleux, and Concerto for piano and orchestra “Century Rolls” by Adams, as well as others.

Just during the 2016/2017 season, the orchestra’s busy touring activities included concerts at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and Musikverein, the Kennedy Center and the San Carlo Theatre, the , Munich and Hamburg Philharmonias, the Dublin Concert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in , Brucknerhaus in Linz, the City Hall of Leeds and the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The orchestra took part in such festivals as: “Stars at Lake Baikal” in Irkutsk, the VIII International Festival in Moscow and the IX Mstislav Rostropovich International Festival in Baku, the summer festivals in Ravenna and Ljubljana, the music festivals “Schleswig-Holstein” and “Grafenegg”. During this season, the orchestra has planned tours in , Austria, Italy, Spain and France.

The orchestra’s St Petersburg poster shows there is an evening dedicated to Rodion Shchedrin, commemorating the composer’s 85th anniversary and monographic concerts with the music of Shostakovich and Beethoven, Verdi’s Requiem and violin concertos by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, Hindemith’s symphony “Mathis der Maler” and Respighi’s “Vetrate di chiesa” (within the framework of the joint cycle of the Grand Hall of the Philharmonia and the State Hermitage), rarely performed Prokofiev’s cantatas “To the 20th Anniversary of October” and “Seven of Them”, as well as Janaček’s “Glagolitic Mass”, Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra and “Hypothetically Murdered” by Shostakovich.

Behind the orchestral podium there will be such invited conductors as: Ch.Dutoit and M.Venzago (Switzerland), I.Metzmacher and M.Jurowski (Germany), A.Wit and J.Kaspszyk (Poland) and I.Marin (Austria), J.-C.Casadesus (France), V.Sinaisky, J.Nelson (USA), J.Hirokami () and J.Domarkas (Lithuania). Performing with the orchestra will be: N.Lugansky, V.Rudenko, M.Kultyshev, J.Rachlin, S.Khachatryan, S.Shoji, S.Dogadin, A.Rudin, A.Buzlov, A.Ramm, F.Meli, R.Vargas and many others.

Yuri Temirkanov

Since 1988 Yuri Temirkanov has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he regularly undertakes major international tours and recordings.

Born in the Caucasus city of Nal’chik, Yuri Temirkanov began his musical studies at the age of nine. When he was thirteen, he attended the Leningrad School for Talented Children where he continued his studies in violin and viola. Upon graduation, he attended the Leningrad Conservatory where he completed his studies in viola and later returned to study conducting, graduating in 1965. After winning the prestigious All-Soviet National Conducting Competition in 1966, Yuri Temirkanov was invited by Kirill Kondrashin to tour Europe and the United States with legendary violinist and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yuri Temirkanov made his debut with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Leningrad Philharmonic) in early 1967 and was then invited to join the orchestra as Assistant Conductor to Yevgeny Mravinsky. In 1968, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra where he remained until his appointment as Music Director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet (now the ) in 1976. He remained in this position until 1988 and his productions of Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades have become legendary in the theatre’s history.

Maestro Temirkanov has appeared with leading European orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome and La Scala, Milan and others.

After making his London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1977, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor in 1979, and then in 1992 named Principal Conductor, a position he held until 1998. From 1992 to 1997 he was also the Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and from 1998 to 2008 Principal Guest Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. A regular visitor to the USA, he conducts the major orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2000 till 2006, and Principal Guest Conductor of the until 2009. In 2010 – 2012, he was Music Director of Teatro Regio di Parma.

His numerous recordings include collaborations with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he recorded the complete Stravinsky ballets and Tchaikovsky symphonies.

For twelve days over the Christmas holiday, Maestro Temirkanov hosts the annual International Winter Festival Arts Square in St Petersburg, Russia. Unique in its concept, the festival gathers artists of the highest caliber, confirming the status of St. Petersburg as one of the cultural capitals of Europe. The 18th festival in December 2017 featured , Pinchas Zukerman, Francesco Meli, among others.

Maestro Temirkanov’s awards include the Order For Merit for the Country in all four degrees; the Abbiati Prize for Best Conductor (2003, 2007); Conductor of the Year (Italy, 2003); Honorary Academician of Santa Cecilia; Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy (2012); the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize (2014); the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan,

2015); Una vita nella musica Prize (Italy) and Honorary Conductor of the Academia Santa Cecilia Choir and Orchestra (2015); Order "Arca d'Oro” (Italy, 2016).

Freddy Kempf

Freddy Kempf is one of today’s most successful performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, Freddy has built a unique reputation as an explosive and physical performer who is not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.

Freddy has collaborated with conductors such as Dutoit, Petrenko, Davis, Sinaisky, Chailly, Tortelier, Sawallisch, Buribayev and Simonov, and has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious musical institutions including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Dresden Philharmonic.

Most recent concerti highlights include appearances with Taiwan National Symphony, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic, in addition to an extensive twelve date tour with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra across the UK for which he received critical acclaim: Kempf is a pianist in a million… the incredible definition of Rachmaninov's inner filigree which emerges all the clearer for a refusal to use the sustaining pedal to blur the sound… his colossal but perfect weight simply stuns. (The Arts Desk)

Building upon successful past play/direct appearances across the globe, Freddy begins the 2017/18 season by opening the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s season with a seven date tour across the country. He also plays Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 at the opening concert of the Romanian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bucharest. Further concerti highlights include Bartok Piano Concerto No 3 with the NOSPR in Katowice and Grieg Piano Concerto with the CBSO.

A committed recitalist, Freddy has appeared on many of the world’s most important stages including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Milan Conservatory, Sala Verdi, London’s Cadogan Hall and Royal Festival Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Sydney’s City Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. This season’s recital highlights include a debut at the Fribourg International Piano Series in Switzerland, a return to the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and recitals across the UK.

A prolific recording artist, Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records. His latest Tchaikovsky CD released in Autumn 2015 was received to great acclaim. In 2013, Freddy released a Schumann recital disc which was warmly received by the critics and, in 2010, his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton was nominated for the prestigious Gramophone Concerto Award, with the associated magazine describing the collaborative duo as “a masterful Prokofievian pair”. This highly successful collaboration was followed by a recording of Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra, released in 2012 and described in the press as “beautiful, stylish, light, and elegant… magnificent”. Meanwhile, Freddy’s solo recital disc of Rachmaninov, Bach/Busoni, Ravel and

Stravinsky, released in 2011, was praised by BBC Music Magazine for its wonderful delicate playing and fine sense of style.

Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 8 and further came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him “the hero of the competition”.

USHER HALL

The Usher Hall is Scotland's only five-star concert hall hosting a range of concerts from rock, pop, classical, jazz, world and folk music. The venue has hosted concerts and events since it opened way back in 1914! A beautiful Edwardian building with a modern twist, which is well loved by performers and audiences all over the world due to its magnificent acoustics.

It is said that Andrew Usher sparked the idea of a ‘concert hall for Edinburgh’ whilst chatting away over the counter of his jewellers in Rose Street. His ‘desire and intention’ was that this Hall ‘should become and remain a centre and attraction to musical artistes and performers and to the citizens of Edinburgh and others who may desire to hear good music...’

On 23 June 1896 it was formally announced that Andrew Usher had gifted £100,000 to The City of Edinburgh. The purpose of the money was to provide a City Hall, to be used for concerts, recitals, or other entertainments or performances of a musical nature, and for civic functions, or such other performances as the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Council saw fit. Above all it was to be about the music. Edinburgh was very much lacking a hall for such musical and civic purposes, as stated in the Scotsman the following day; ‘The necessity for a great hall in Edinburgh under city management has been pressed upon the attention of the public for many years.’ Sadly Andrew Usher died before his dream was realised.

Today

Today, the much praised acoustics make it one of the best concert halls in Europe with many of the world's finest musicians performing here. The Usher Hall is the city's key venue for visiting national and international orchestras and has been the main venue for the Edinburgh International Festival since 1947, hosting legendary artists such as composers and , contralto singer and cellist Jacqueline Du Pre to name but a few.

The venue is a centre of excellence embracing the widest range of music and events, including rock, pop, jazz, world and blues. It is Edinburgh’s go-to venue for today’s mid-large scale rock and pop acts, with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, The National, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, George Ezra and Echo & the Bunnymen having performed on its stage. Usher Hall also hosts a broad spectrum of comedy, talks, school concerts, conferences, sponsorship events, ceremonies, lectures and recording sessions.