Berlin Philharmonic – Neeme Järvi, cond. – Arcadi Volodos, Piano – Recorded December 15, 2010 – Radio France Musique-
Over to Berlin (by way of Paris) this week for a concert featuring the Berlin Philharmonic, led by Neeve Järvi with Russian wunderkind Arcadi Volodos as piano solo.
Starting the concert with the Suite from Mlada by Rimsky Korsakov. And then the orchestra is joined by Arcadi Volodos in a performance of the Piano Concerto Number 1 by Tchaikovsky. And concluding with Alexander Taneyev’s Symphony Number 4.
The concert was recorded on December 15, 2020 at Philharmonie Hall in Berlin.
Arcadi Volodos was born in Leningrad in 1972, he began his musical training studying voice, following the example of his parents, who were singers, and later shifted his emphasis to conducting while a student at the Glinka Chapel School and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Though he had played the piano from the age of eight, he did not devote himself to serious study of the instrument until 1987. His formal piano training took place at the Moscow Conservatory Music College with Galina Eguiazarova. Volodos also studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jacques Rouvier. In Madrid, he studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music with Dimitri Bashkirov and Galina Eguiazarova.
Despite the relative brevity of his formal studies, Volodos has rapidly moved into the elite pantheon of the world’s most distinguished pianists. Thomas Frost, the producer of many of Horowitz’s recordings, and producer of Volodos’ recordings for Sony Classical, has said that Volodos “has everything: imagination, colour, passion and a phenomenal technique to carry out his ideas.”
Volodos received the German award Echo Klassik as the best instrumentalist of 2003; he received the Gramophone Award for best instrumental recording in 1999 for Arcadi Volodos Live at Carnegie Hall, in 2010 for Volodos in Vienna, in 2014 for Volodos plays Mompou, and in 2018 for Volodos plays Brahms.
Definitely qualifies for Anti Road-Rage Wednesday – crank it up and relax – and for god’s sake, turn off the TV!
