Review: Rachmaninoff with the Florida Orchestra

Tampa Bay Times review of last week’s subscription concerts with the Florida Orchestra.

“Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 begins as if in mid-thought, without the kind of thesis statement Rachmaninoff would later establish in Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 2, which resurrected his career. But the earmarks of genius are there — the effusive melodious idiom, the cinematic sweep and the raw power, driven home as Solzhenitsyn slashed the air like a knife blade in a fierce coda.”
— Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times

Review Roundup: La Clemenza di Tito at Moscow Chamber Opera

Last month’s new production première of La Clemenza di Tito at the Moscow Chamber Opera garnered many favourable notices.  In Vedomosti, Pyotr Pospelov writes that “Ignat Solzhenitsyn has brought the troupe to a new level… To create this new production of La Clemenza di Tito, Music Director Gennady Rozhdestvensky invited Solzhenitsyn, who brought with him from across the ocean a fresh style of Mozart performance, not inclined to the dogma of ‘authentic performance’ and yet built upon the virtues of balance and precision.  From the very first bars of the overture, the orchestra played as if it had been swapped with another—with energy and confidence, and at the same with fine balance and transparency… Such Mozart has never before been heard at the Chamber Opera.  Ignat Solzhenitsyn and his musicians managed to bring to life the architecture, high feeling and ‘current old-fashionedness’ of one of Mozart’s last scores.”

In Wall Magazine, Maria Tarasova praises the interplay between conductor, orchestra, and choir, adding that “Ignat Solzhenitsyn led the orchestra sensitively while showing needed details to the soloists, which resulted in a highly precise rendition of this genius score and elicited enraptured delight from the audience”.

In Na Linii, Said Gafurov writes that “as far as the musical side of the production, it was right on: Ignat Solzhenitsyn is a formidable conductor, and the manner in which he brought out certain nuances of orchestration had this reviewer almost hooting with pleasure”.

In Kultura, Aleksandr Matusevich notes the “many successes of the production, first and foremost the elegant and refined orchestral sound under maestro Ignat Solzhenitsyn”.

“Ignat Solzhenitsyn has brought the troupe to a new level… To create this new production of La Clemenza di Tito, Music Director Gennady Rozhdestvensky invited Solzhenitsyn, who brought with him from across the ocean a fresh style of Mozart performance, not inclined to the dogma of ‘authentic performance’ and yet built upon the virtues of balance and precision. ”
— Pyotr Pospelov, Vedomosti

REVIEW 4: премьера Милосердия Тита в театре Покровского

Сергей Бирюков в Музыкальных Сезонах и Саид Гафуров в На Линии о премьере Милосердия Тита.

“С музыкальной стороной все правильно: Игнат Солженицын - крепкий дирижер, а некоторые его оркестровые нюансировки просто заставляли вашего автора ухать от восторга.”
— Саид Гафуров

REVIEW 3: премьера Милосердия Тита в театре Покровского

Александр Матусевич в газете “Культура” о премьере Милосердия Тита.

“Когда на сцене не слишком занимательно, волей-неволей концентрируешься на музыке. Здесь у театра много удач. Прежде всего утонченный, кружевной оркестр под управлением приглашенного маэстро Игната Солженицына.”