Yuri Bashmet and his Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble

Programme:

J. S. Bach. Brandenburg Concerto No 3

G. P Telemann. Viola Concerto (Yuri Bashmet - soloist)

W. A. Mozart. Eine kleine Nachtmusik Serenade

M. Bruch. Kol Nidrei (Yuri Bashmet - soloist)

P. Tchaikovsky. Serenade for Strings

Conductor: Yuri Bashmet

General Partner of the Ensemble
Partner of the Ensemble
Official Partner of the Ensemble

Grammy 2007 prize-winner

The ensemble´s debut came on 19 May 1992 at the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and, two days later, on 21 May in France at Paris´ Salle Pleyel when Yuri Bashmet assembled the best graduates, students and post-graduates of the age from the Moscow Conservatoire to create music together.

Over sixteen years the musicians have performed over one thousand two hundred concerts, or almost two thousand three hundred hours of music.

In "trains, planes and automobiles" they have spent over four thousand three hundred and fifty hours, covering some one million three hundred and sixty thousand kilometres, akin to thirty-four trips around the Earth´s equator.

Performances by the Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble have been met with rapturous receptions from audiences in over forty countries on five continents. Over two hundred masterpieces of classical music and rarely performed works by composers from past and present are included in its repertoire. Its concerts have often been broadcast and recorded by leading radio stations such as the BBC, Bavarian Radio, Radio France and Japan´s NHK. The Moscow Soloists´ programmes are notable for their vivacity, variety and interesting premieres. Among those who have appeared as soloists with the ensemble are Svyatoslav Richter (piano), Gidon Kremer (violin), Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Viktor Tretyakov (violin), Maxim Vengerov (violin), Vadim Repin (violin), Sarah Chang (violin, USA), Barbara Hendricks (soprano, USA), James Galway (flute, USA), Natalia Gutman (cello), Lynne Harrell (cello, USA), Mario Brunello (cello, Italy) and Thomas Quasthoff (bass, Germany) and many more besides.

Today the world press sees the ensemble as "one of the best of its kind in the world" (Israel´s Davar). One Italian newspaper has referred to the ensemble as "the voice of its country".

In 1994 the Moscow Soloists together with Gidon Kremer and Mstislav Rostropovich recorded a CD for EMI, and a disc with works by Shostakovich and Brahms issued by Sony Classics was noted by critics of The Strad magazine as "best recording of the year" and nominated for a Grammy. The ensemble received a repeat Grammy nomination in 2006 for a disc of chamber symphonies by Shostakovich, Sviridov and Vainberg, and in 2007 won the prestigious award for its recording of works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

The ensemble has often taken part in many prestigious music festivals such as the Rostropovich Festival in Evian (France), the Montreux Festival (Switzerland), Sydney Music Festival, Bathe Music Festival (UK), the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Prestige de le Musique at Paris´ Salle Pleyel, the Semaines Musicales de Tours (France) and the December Nights in Moscow among others.