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Barry Douglas joins the Russian State Symphony Orchestra as part of mighty all-Russian programme

Russian State Symphony Orchestra with Barry Douglas Sunday 14 Oct 2018, 3pm Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Suite Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2

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Usher Hall gets its new Sunday Classics season off to a roaring start with some of the finest Russian music from one of the nation’s standout orchestras

Tickets range from £13.50 - £35, £10 student tickets are also available and under 16s can get a free ticket when booked with an adult.

A mighty all-Russian programme from one of Russia’s foremost orchestras kicks off the Usher Hall’s 2018-19 Sunday Classics concerts in spectacular style. The Russian State Symphony Orchestra will take audiences on a spellbinding journey of heart-stopping romance; mischievous wit; and one of the most moving tales in the whole of ballet. They will be joined in part from the world-renowned pianist, Barry Douglas.

The Moscow-based orchestra has a peerless pedigree in the stirring, deeply expressive music of its homeland, with a rich, noble sound that’s matched by the players’ incisive energy. Under conductor Valentin Uryupin, one of the most exciting young talents emerging from Russia’s fiercely competitive classical world, it’s a force to be reckoned with.

Uryupin and his Orchestra open with the unforgettable melancholy of one of the world’s best-loved ballet scores: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The dancers at the ballet’s premiere in 1877 protested at the piece’s difficulty to dance to – it was too rich and extensive to complement their movement. Despite this, today the piece is adored the world-over.

The Orchestra will also be joined by the multi-award-winning Belfast-born pianist Barry Douglas, who famously won the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition back in 1986 and has forged a global career with his remarkable mix of muscular power and exquisite poetry. His musical talents also extend away from the world with his work with Celtic Orbit - a group he set up to play traditional music from Scotland, Ireland and Brittany.

He’s the soloist in Shostakovich’s sunny, funny Second Piano Concerto, a touching birthday present from the composer to his 19-year-old son, which sandwiches a soulful, dreamy slow movement between two movements of sparkling wit and vivacious energy. It’s one of the composer’s standout works, and is a departure from much of his music that is often characterised by angst, fear and defiance in response to the oppression that he experienced under the communist regime. Shostakovich himself visited the Usher Hall in 1962 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, and his music has been welcome addition to any programme in the venue ever since.

The afternoon of music closes with the overwhelming opulence of Rachmaninov’s epic Second Symphony, overflowing with outpourings of ecstatic melody, and charting a passionate journey through breath-taking romance to blazing triumph.

/ENDS

Listings information:

Sunday 14 Oct 2018, 3pm Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

Russian State Symphony Orchestra Valentin Uryupin Conductor Barry Douglas Piano

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Suite Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2

Tickets available at www.usherhall.co.uk

Prices

£35 | £29 | £24 | £18 | £13.50

Concessions available

Full time students are entitled to tickets for £10 which can be booked in advance

Under 16s are entitled to free tickets when booked with a paying adult

**Please note a £1.50 transaction fee applies on the overall booking when purchasing online or over the phone (non-refundable)**

THE MUSICIANS AND THE HALL

Barry Douglas

Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland and the Clandeboye Festival, he continues to celebrate his Irish heritage whilst also maintaining a busy international touring schedule.

Barry opens the 17/18 season performing Tchaikovsky with the Halle Orchestra, after which he begins new collaborations with both the Endellion String Quartet and the Borodin Quartet. He tours in recital in the UK and USA and performs with orchestras across the globe from Canada to Europe to Russia. Last season Barry performed two full Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto cycles in Dublin and Belfast, gave performances of Tchaikovsky’s first Piano Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra, and opened the St. Petersburg Philharmonic’s concert season, all marking the 30th anniversary of his Tchaikovsky International Competition win. He also appeared at Verbier in July 2017.

Barry is an exclusive Chandos recording artist. He recently completed a recording of the full works for solo piano of Brahms, the six albums of which have received much critical praise. International Record Review wrote that “this is indeed Brahms playing of the utmost integrity and authority… this cycle looks set to become a benchmark version.” His current recording projects focus on the solo piano works of Schubert and Tchaikovsky. Also with Chandos Barry is exploring Irish folk music through his own arrangements, working with ancient melodies through to pieces by contemporary song writers. Celtic Reflections (2014) was followed last season by Celtic Airs.

In 1999 Barry Douglas founded the chamber orchestra Camerata Ireland to celebrate and nurture the very best of young musicians from both Northern and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to striving for musical excellence, one of the orchestra’s aims is to further the peace

process in Ireland by promoting dialogue and collaboration through its musical education programmes. Barry regularly tours with Camerata Ireland throughout the world and will visit the US and South America this season. Highlights of past seasons were Camerata Ireland’s debut at the BBC Proms in London and a world premiere of a new cantata commissioned by The Honourable The Irish Society, “At Sixes and Sevens”, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Derry-Londonderry becoming City of Culture 2013.

Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year’s Honours List for services to music.

Russian State Symphony Orchestra

In 2016 the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov", one of the country’s oldest symphonic ensembles, celebrated its 80th anniversary. The State Orchestra debut performance took place eight decades ago, on 5 October 1936, at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. During the years, the orchestra has been led by outstanding musicians such as Alexander Gauk (1936-1941), Natan Rakhlin (1941-1945), Konstantin Ivanov (1946-1965), and Evgeny Svetlanov (1965-2000). On 27 October 2005 the State Academic Symphony Orchestra was officially named after E.F. Svetlanov. From 2000 to 2002 the orchestra was headed by Vasily Sinaisky, and from 2002 to 2011 by Mark Gorenstein.

On 24 October 2011 Vladimir Jurowski, a world-renowned conductor collaborating with many leading opera companies and orchestras, was appointed as the Artistic Director of the State Orchestra. Starting with season 2016/2017 Vasily Petrenko is the Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra.

The orchestra has performed at the most prestigious venues, such as the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Bolshoy Theatre, Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions, the State Kremlin Palace (Moscow), Carnegie Hall (New York), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Musikverein (Vienna), the Royal Albert Hall (London), Salle

Pleyel (), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo). In 2013 the orchestra had a performance at the Moscow Red Square for the first time.

The orchestra was conducted by H.Abendroth, E.Ansermet, L.Blech, N.Golovanov, A.Jansons, O.Klemperer, K.Kondrashin, L.Maazel, N.Malko, I.Markevitch, E.Mravinsky, C.Munch, M.Rostropovich, K.Sanderling, S.Sondeckis, I.Stravinsky, A.Boreiko, C.Dutoit, V.Gergiev, M.Jurowski, A.Lazarev, I.Marin, K.Masur, G.Rozhdestvensky, A.Sladkovsky, L.Slatkin, Y.Temirkanov, A.Vedernikov, and other great musicians.

Among the outstanding soloists who have performed with the orchestra are singers I.Arkhipova, D.Hvorostovsky, S.Lemeshev, E.Obraztsova, G.Vishnevskaya, M.Caballe, P.Domingo, M.Guleghina, and J.Kaufmann; pianists V.Cliburn, E.Gilels, H.Neuhaus, N.Petrov, S.Richter, M.Yudina, V.Afanassiev, B.Berezovsky, E.Kissin, N.Lugansky, D.Matsuev, and G.Sokolov; violinists L.Kogan, Y.Menuhin, D.Oistrakh, V.Pikayzen, G.Kremer, V.Repin, V.Spivakov, V.Tretyakov, and M.Vengerov; violist Y.Bashmet; cellists M.Rostropovich, N.Gutman, A.Kniazev, and A.Rudin. Recently, this roster was expanded to add singers A.Garifullina, M.Diener, W.Meier, A.Netrebko, H.Gerzmava, A.Pendatchanska, I.Abdrazakov, D.Korchak, and V.Ladiuk, R.Pape; pianists L.O.Andsnes, A.Volodin,

J.Y.Thbaudet, M.Uchida and R.Buchbinder; violinists L.Kavakos, P.Kopachinskaja, S.Krylov, J.Rachlin, J.Fischer, D.Hope, and N.Znaider. A lot of attention is also devoted to collaboration with young musicians such as conductors M.Emeljanchev, M.Stravinsky, V.Yryupin and P.Chizhevsky; pianists L.Debargue, P.Kopachevsky, J.Lisiecki, D.Masleev, and A.Romanovsky; violinists A.Bayeva, A.Pritchin, V.Sokolov, and P.Milyukov; and cellist A.Ramm to name a few.

Ever since its first tour abroad in 1956 the orchestra regularly represents Russian culture in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the US, and many other countries.

The orchestra’s discography includes hundreds of vinyl records and CDs released by leading Russian and foreign labels such as Melodiya, Bomba-Piter, Delos, EMI Classics, BMG, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Chandos, Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, Toccata Classics, Fancymusic, and others. The special place in this list belongs to the Anthology of the Russian Symphonic Music encompassing audio recordings of Russian composers from M.Glinka to I.Stravinsky, a Svetlanov’s project, to which he dedicated many years. Mezzo, Rossiya 1, and Kultura television companies, digital channel Medici.tv as well as Radio “Orpheus” also made recordings of a number of the ensemble’s concerts.

Lately the orchestra has performed at the Grafenegg Festival (Austria), Kissinger Sommer in Bad Kissingen (Germany), The Arts’ Square in Saint Petersburg, Another space, Opera Art and the VIII Mstislav Rostropovich Festival in Moscow, the III Symphonic Forum of Russia in Yekaterinburg, Platonov art festival in Voronezh. The orchestra performed world premieres of works by A.Vustin, S.Goss, E.Podgaits, S.Slonimskiy, A.Nikolaev, J.Sherling, and Russian premieres of works by J.Adams, L. van Beethoven – G.Mahler, D.Kurtag, V.Silvestrov, R.Schedrin, J.Tavener, A.Skryabin – A.Nemtin, C.Orff, G.Gladkov, V.Tarnopolskiy, K.Stockhausen. Moreover, the ensemble took part in the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, the I and II International competition for young pianists Grand Piano Competition, presented five annual educational concert cycle “Stories with the Orchestra”. The orchestra visited numerous cities in Russia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, , Turkey and China.

Starting in January 2016, the orchestra has been working on a special project, which is aimed on supporting professional composing, that involves close collaboration with modern Russian authors. Aleksander Vustin is the first composer in residence of the orchestra.

The orchestra was granted the honorary title “academic” for the exceptional creative achievements in 1972 and received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1986. In 2006, 2011 and 2017 the ensemble was rewarded with Presidential commendations.

Valentin Uryupin

The first-prize winner of the 2017 Georg Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt, Valentin Uryupin is a rising star in the Russian classical music world. His career is equally divided between the opera house and the symphonic stage, and he continues to perform as a solo clarinetist.

In 2015 Valentin took part in Kurt Masur’s international masterclass and shortly afterward

won the Russian Conducting Competition in Moscow (formerly the All-Union Conducting Competition). In 2016 he was awarded third prize at the prestigious Mahler Competition in Bamberg. Since 2011 Valentin Uryupin has held the position of permanent conductor at the Perm Opera with the MusicAeterna Orchestra. In 2015 he was named Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rostov-on-Don Symphony Orchestra.

Guest engagements have taken him to the State Academic Symphony Orchestra “Evgeny Svetlanov”, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the RTE Symphony in Dublin, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theates in St. Petersburg, the Jalisco philharmonic Gvadalajara, the Tapiola sinfonietta, the Ostrava Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Transylvanian Philharmonic in Cluj, the Novosibirsk philharmonic and the Ural Philharmonic. He has performed with Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Bashmet, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Joyce DiDonato among others and has worked with Valery Gergiev, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Vladimir Jurowski as an assistant conductor.

In august 2017 Valentin Uryupin leads the State Academic Symphony Orchestra “Evgeny Svetlanov” on a China tour and will also conduct the Orchestra on a 14-concert tour of the UK in 2018. His conducting engagements for upcoming seasons also include invitations from the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Tokyo symphony orchestra, the Bregenz festival, the SWR Orchestra the Frankfurter Opern-und Museumorchester, the Saarbrücken radio orchestra, the Athens Opera, the Enescu Philharmonic, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, the Russian National Orchestra as well as reinvitations from the Tapiola sinfonietta, the Transylvanian philharmonic orchestra, the Novosibirsk symphony orchestra and the Ural philharmonic, in addition to his performances in Perm and Rostov.

Valentin's repertoire includes more than 30 major operas and ballets and a wide range of orchestral music including a large number of contemporary works by composers ranging from John Adams, Giya Kancheli and Henri Dutilleux to Jörg Widmann and Kuzma Bodrov,

He also continues to enjoy an active career as a clarinetist, performing and giving masterclasses extensively in Russia, Europe, the USA, Japan and Singapore. He has been awarded prizes from more than 20 international clarinet competitions, including the most prestigious in Geneva, Munich, Ghent and Beijing.

Valentin Uryupin graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a clarinet player (2009) and conductor (2012). His teachers include conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and clarinetist Evgeny Petrov.

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 Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, contralto singer Kathleen Ferrier 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.