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Notes from the road, upcoming performances, thoughts on classical music
Обозреватель "Российской газеты" о недавно завершившихся гастролях с оркестром Мариинского театра в США.
“У нас потрясающе прошли все концерты при полных залах. В гастролях принял участие мой замечательный коллега Игнат Солженицын, который выступал с оркестром в университетских залах с программами Мусоргского, Рахманинова, Шостаковича. ”
A review of my recent performance with the Mariinsky Orchestra on tour at Princeton University.
“Solzhenitsyn’s best qualities were much in evidence on Tuesday, not competing with Gergiev on his own terms, but acting as a temperamentally cooler counterbalance.
The Rachmaninoff piece told its story more clearly than usual, aided by the orchestra’s excellent, dark brass section, and did so with masterfully escalating tension, giving the piece a solid air of inevitability.
Solzhenitsyn laid solid metrical groundwork in Shostakovich’s first movement, exerting subtle influence on how the music moves and building any given movement with a meticulousness that, if anything, put the expressive content into higher relief.
The orchestra seemed unfazed by the touring, playing with great commitment for Solzhenitsyn, who could be healthy for this orchestra if he becomes a frequent-enough guest.”
A review of my recent performance with the Mariinsky Orchestra on tour at Cornell University.
“Guest conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn held the podium like a controlled tempest, injecting just the sort of energy expected of the all-Russian program. The palette at his disposal was accordingly rich with contrast. Smooth yet sometimes-rustic strings meshed with a superb wind section (the true litmus test of any such orchestra), while clarion brass mediated between the two with equal shares of rough and smooth.”
A review of Anne-Sophie Mutter and myself in "double début" with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at their season-opening gala.
“Solzhenitsyn is an elegant conductor, who led with fluid gestures throughout the evening. He opened with a rare performance of English Baroque composer Henry Purcell’s Chacony in G Minor. It was a refreshing choice, and the conductor elicited wonderful dark sound in the strings.”
What a thrill to perform the Dvořák violin concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter last night at the Cincinnati Symphony gala. She is a true star.
backstage at Music Hall
Review of Schumann Piano Quartet at Eastern Music Festival.
“Solzhenitsyn demonstrated a supreme and clearly Russian technique, with amazing clarity of articulation, particularly in repeated notes. ”
Review of Shostakovich concerto at Eastern Music Festival.
“This was a perch-on-the-edge-of-your-seat performance like few others in a lifetime of concert-going – and like no others in recent memory.”
Пару недель назад я зашел в студию "Главной роли" и побеседовал с неизменно интересным и тонким Юлианом Макаровым. Просмотреть передачу можно здесь.
Review of Shostakovich First Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and Seattle Symphony.
“Ignat Solzhenitsyn, himself no mean Shostakovich exponent as a conductor, accomplished miracles of prestidigitation in the composer’s First Piano Concerto.”
A review of a recent performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that I conducted as a part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.
“Solzhenitsyn broke with conventional practice and placed the four soloists with the chorus, in the balcony behind the orchestra. The soloists all possessed voices that could penetrate Verizon Hall from that position, so the placement enhanced their relationship with the chorus.
When the chorus responded to the tenor, it sounded like a true reply. When the soloists launched into a quartet interlude, they sounded like they really were leading a group celebration.
The presence of Philadelphia’s oldest volunteer chorus added to the symbolism of the event. What could be more appropriate than 100 of Philadelphia’s best singers voluntarily coming together to raise their voices in Beethoven’s great expression of universal joy? ”
