PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE Russia’s oldest and most revered symphony orchestra play at Edinburgh’s iconic Usher Hall St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov 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 Images available to download here 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 pianist 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 Media enquiries: 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 £35 | £29 | £24 | £18 | £13.50 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 Concessions available **Please note a £1.50 transaction fee applies on the overall booking when purchasing online or over the phone (non-refundable)** 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 conducting 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 Berlin, Munich and Hamburg Philharmonias, the Dublin Concert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London, 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 Mstislav Rostropovich 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 Germany, 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 (Japan) 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 David Oistrakh 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 Mariinsky Theatre) 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.