Over to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw this week for a concert by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky and featuring Pekka Kuusisto, violin – the concert was recorded at the Concertgebouw Summer series, June 29, 2012.
The concert begins with Sir Edward Elgar’s In The South – and they are then joined by Pekka Kuusisto in a performance of the Sibelius Violin concerto and the concert concludes with a performance of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet, by Tchaikovsky and arranged by Vassily Sinaisky.
Pekka Kuusisto began studying the violin at the age of three. His first violin teacher was Geza Szilvay at the East Helsinki Music Institute in East Helsinki. In 1983 he enrolled in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and he began to study with Tuomas Haapanen there in 1985. From 1992 to 1996 he studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music.
In 1995, Pekka Kuusisto became the first Finn to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of the Sibelius violin concerto. He has won other prizes, concertised widely, and recorded works for the Ondine label. Kuusisto plays a Golden Period Antonio Stradivari violin, made in Cremona c.1709 and known as the ‘Scotta’, loaned by a patron through Tarisio Auctions.
Pekka Kuusisto has enjoyed a number of prestigious residencies, including at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Concertgebouw’s Robeco Zomerconcerten, and as a ‘Junge Wilde’ artist at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. He oversaw the programming for the 2011 Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival and continues to work regularly with Tapiola Sinfonietta, where he was formerly Artistic Partner (2006-2013).
Vassily Sinaisky has been active throughout his career in the operatic realm, achieving many critical successes: besides his Lady Macbeth, he scored notable triumphs with Carmen (2001), Der Rosenkavalier (2003), and Iolanta (2005), all at the English National Opera. In 2007, Sinaisky assumed duties as the principal conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and in 2010 was named the chief conductor and music director of the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow, just before the Theater’s reopening after a major refurbishment effort. After leaving that position in 2013, Sinaisky guest conducted several orchestras. In 2020, he became the principal conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In 2023, Sinaisky returned to the recording studio, leading the Brussels Philharmonic as it backed pianist Boris Giltburg on a Naxos recording of music by Rachmaninov. By that time, his recording catalog comprised more than 50 items.
Enjoy the concert.
