���غ���

Reaching the highest level of prominence as both pianist and conductor, Mikhail Pletnev is a major figure on the contemporary Russian musical scene. He is also a prolific composer and a competent amateur violinist.

Pletnev was born on April 14, 1957, in Archangelsk in the far north of what was then the Soviet Union. His family was musical; his father played and taught the bayan button accordion, and his mother was a pianist. When the family moved to Kazan in Russia's Tatarstan region, Pletnev began piano studies with Julia Shaskin. He moved to Moscow at 13 to study at the Moscow Central Music School with Evgeny Timakin, and a Grand Prix at the Jeunesses Musicales International in 1945 proved to be the first in a long series of prizes for the young pianist. At 15, Pletnev moved to the Moscow Conservatory for studies with Yakov Flier, whose teaching propelled him to gold medals in two of the Soviet Union's toughest events, the All-Union Competition in 1977 and the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978. Pletnev launched a touring career that went fully international as restrictions on Soviet musicians loosened in the 1980s. His fluent, elegant style was sometimes likened to those of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and even Vladimir Horowitz. He made his recording debut in 1988 on the Virgin Classics label with Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1, and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In the late '80s, Pletnev struck up an acquaintance with Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev, who aided him in founding the Russian National Orchestra in 1990; it was the first privately funded orchestra in Russia since 1917. The new orchestra, with Pletnev as conductor and artistic director, was successful from the start. It toured the U.S. in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, he moved to Deutsche Grammophon, recording Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, as conductor of the Russian National Orchestra. His repertory runs from Scarlatti to Rachmaninov, with whom he is especially identified; he is a superb Mozartian and a strong interpreter of a variety of Russian works, but he rarely performs contemporary music.

From the early '90s forward, Pletnev performed somewhat less often as a pianist, although he continued to record both as a pianist and conductor. He stepped down as the Russian National Orchestra's conductor in 1999 but continues (as of 2022) to hold the position of artistic director and to conduct the group occasionally. In the 2010s, he and the Russian National Orchestra often recorded for PentaTone Classics, and in 2022, he moved to Profil, leading the Russian National Orchestra and violinist Ivan Pochekin in violin concertos by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. By that time, his recording catalog numbered well over 100 items. ~ James Manheim

Franz Joseph Haydn is the composer who, more than any other, epitomizes the aims and achievements of the Classical era. Perhaps his most important achievement was that he developed and evolved the most influential structural principle in the history of music: his perfection of the set of expectations known as sonata form made an epochal impact. In hundreds of instrumental sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies, Haydn both broke new ground and provided durable models; indeed, he was among the creators of these fundamental genres of classical music. He also wrote several masterful oratorios and masses, especially in his later years. His operas, too, have finally come to be regarded as well-crafted and deserving of far greater attention than they had historically received in the 20th century. His influence upon later composers is immeasurable; Haydn's most illustrious pupil, Beethoven, was the direct beneficiary of the elder master's musical imagination, and Haydn's shadow lurks within (and sometimes looms over) the music of composers like Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Part and parcel of Haydn's formal mastery was his famous sense of humor, his feeling for the unpredictable, elegant twist. By one estimate, Haydn produced some 340 hours of music, more than Bach or Handel, Mozart or Beethoven. Few of them lack some unexpected detail or clever solution to a formal problem. Haydn was prolific not just because he was a tireless worker with an inexhaustible musical imagination, but also because of the circumstances of his musical career: he was the last prominent beneficiary of the system of noble patronage that had nourished European musical composition since the Renaissance.

Born in the small Austrian village of Rohrau, he became a choirboy at St. Stephen's cathedral in Vienna when he was eight, later joined by his younger brother, Michael Haydn, also destined to be a composer. After Haydn's voice broke and he was turned out of the choir, he eked out a precarious living as a teenage freelance musician in Vienna. His fortunes began to turn in the late 1750s as members of Vienna's noble families became aware of his music, and on May 1, 1761, he went to work for the Esterházy family. He remained in their employ for the next 30 years, writing many of his instrumental compositions, which included dozens of keyboard sonatas and trios for the now forgotten instrument, the baryton, and operas for performance at their vast summer palace, Esterháza. Musical creativity may often, it is true, meet a tragic end, but Haydn lived long enough to reap the rewards of his own imagination and toil. The Esterházys curtailed their musical activities in 1790, but by that time Haydn was known all over Europe and widely considered the greatest living composer. (He himself deferred to Mozart in that regard, and the friendly competition between the two composers deepened the music of both.) Two trips to London during the 1790s resulted in two sets of six symphonies each (among them the "Surprise" symphony) that remain centerpieces of the orchestral repertoire. Five sets of string quartets were also published between 1790 and 1799. Haydn's final masterpieces included powerful and pictorial choral works: The Creation and The Seasons oratorios and a group of six masses. He stopped composing in 1803, after which he prefaced his correspondence with a little musical quotation (from one of his part-songs) bearing the text "Gone is all my strength; I am old and weak." He died in Vienna on May 31, 1809. ~ TiVo Staff

The Verbier Festival Orchestra is the resident ensemble at Switzerland's Verbier Festival, one of classical music's top summer events. The group consists of 95 musicians from ages 18 to 28.

The Verbier Festival was founded in 1994 in the mountainous resort town of Verbier, Switzerland, by music promoter Martin Engström. The Verbier Festival Orchestra was founded in 2000 as a training ensemble and is regarded as one of the top such groups in the world, with highly competitive admission standards. Each summer, the orchestra players are coached by top orchestral musicians from around the world, including members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. The Verbier Festival Orchestra is one of three groups associated with the festival; others include the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, made up of alumni of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, originally called the Verbier Festival Music Camp Orchestra. In 2006, the group made its recording debut on the album UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra Highlights, and it has continued to appear on similar albums throughout its existence.

The website of the Verbier Festival Orchestra lists conductor Valery Gergiev as the orchestra's music director, and he spent considerable time in Verbier each summer until Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Now some documents refer to conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy as the music director, and he has conducted several concerts and given chamber music master classes. The Verbier Festival Orchestra has backed numerous top international soloists in concert, including pianists Lang Lang, Daniil Trifonov, and Yuja Wang, bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and sitar player Anoushka Shankar. The Verbier Festival Orchestra has been featured on several albums other than compilations, including Michael Tilson Thomas in Verbier and a recording of Stravinsky's Les Noces and Le sacre du printemps in 2023; both appeared on the major Deutsche Grammophon label. ~ James Manheim

One of the most prominent conductors of his generation, Iván Fischer has established a reputation in both Hungarian and Baroque music. His interpretations of works by Liszt, Bartók, and Kodály have achieved international acclaim, and his readings of Hungarian-inspired works, like the Brahms Hungarian Dances (in Fischer's own orchestration), have also received high praise. Yet Fischer's choice of repertory is fairly broad, taking in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and many others out of the Hungarian sphere. In the Baroque realm, Fischer has garnered international plaudits for his Bach interpretations: the 2006 Budapest Festival performances of the Mass in B minor (BWV 232) and 2008 concerts with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw of the St. Matthew Passion were both unqualified successes. He has conducted some of the world's leading orchestras and led many opera performances at major venues. Fischer is the founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, leading that group on the recording Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"; Coriolan Overture in 2024.

Fischer was born in Budapest, Hungary, on January 20, 1951. His brother, Ádám, is also a renowned conductor. In his youth, Iván studied piano, violin, and cello, though when he enrolled at the Bela Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, it was for the study of the cello and conducting. Fischer took further lessons in conducting, first in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky, then in Salzburg with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who instructed him in Baroque music interpretation. After a first prize in conducting at the 1976 Rupert Foundation Competition in London, Fischer appeared regularly in England conducting major orchestras, including the London and BBC Symphony Orchestras. He also made his debut in 1976 at the Zurich Opera. Fischer, conducting the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, made his recording debut in 1979, backing pianist Ádám Fellegi in piano concertos by Stravinsky and Schönberg. From 1979 until 1982, Fischer was the chief conductor of the Northern Sinfonia of England.

In 1983, he made his American debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. That year, he founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra, an ensemble for which he still serves as music director. He served as the principal guest conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1988 until 1996. In 1995, Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra signed an exclusive contract with the Philips label that brought international acclaim. From 2000 to 2003, he was music director of the National Opera of Lyon. In 2003, Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra signed with the Channel Classics label, continuing to record there in the mid-2020s. From 2008 until 2010, he was the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. Fischer was then named the principal conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, where he served from 2012 until 2018.

Fischer's recordings, especially those with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, have earned a number of awards, including several Gramophone Awards and the 2009 Diapason d'Or de l'Année (Mahler: Symphony No. 4); he has also earned two Grammy nominations. In 2022, Channel Classics issued the Brahms: Complete Symphonies box set from earlier releases by Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. These forces returned in 2024 with a recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") and Coriolan Overture. Fischer is married to flutist Gabriella Pivon, and he has four children: two from his first marriage to Anneke Boeke, including Nora Fischer (a soprano with a growing international career), and two with Pivon. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke

Given the impact of his career upon music, it seems incredible that Kent Nagano almost became a lawyer. Nagano has proven himself a powerhouse in the operatic and orchestral realms, championing the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is best known for his long association with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra National de Lyon, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, as well as a critically acclaimed recording career.

Nagano was born in Berkeley, California, on November 22, 1951. Despite thorough musical training beginning at age six and obvious talent, Nagano simultaneously worked toward degrees at the University of California, Santa Cruz in sociology and music in 1974 before moving on to San Francisco State University in 1976 to study law. There, composition courses with Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon turned him toward music, and an encounter with Laszlo Varga -- former first cellist of the New York Philharmonic under Walter, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein -- prompted him toward conducting. Though he no longer composes, Nagano has said, "While I seemed to be quite able from the point of view of craftsmanship, I was not very good at the creative aspects! However, having the skills of composition only increases the admiration that one can have for the exceptionally talented who have composed great works." His apprenticeship was spent under Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston from 1977 to 1979, where he eventually became an assistant conductor.

In 1978, Nagano was named music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 2009. It was with the Berkeley Symphony in 1982 where he led the first American performance of Pfitzner's opera Palestrina. As assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he stood in, without rehearsal, to conduct Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in 1984. An adventurous spirit and a major interpretive grasp were clearly at work. These traits were confirmed when Olivier Messiaen tapped Nagano to assist Seiji Ozawa in preparing the world premiere of his sprawling, luminous opera Saint François d'Assise in 1984, a work Nagano later recorded. His years as musical director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988 to 1998) were marked by a number of distinguished premieres (including Peter Eötvös' opera Three Sisters, which he commissioned) and recordings, including Debussy's abandoned opera Rodrigue et Chimène, John Adams' Death of Klinghoffer, Busoni's comic opera double bill of Arlecchino and Turandot, and his testament, the unfinished Doktor Faust (with alternate completions by Philipp Jarnach and Antony Beaumont). As music director of the Hallé Orchestra from 1991 until 2000, he recorded John Adams' El Niño and the four-act version of Britten's Billy Budd.

Nagano was named the principal conductor and music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000. The following year, he took up the role of principal conductor of the Los Angeles Opera and transitioned to become the company's first-ever music director in 2003. In 2006, Nagano stepped down from his positions with the Los Angeles Opera and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester to take up the post of music director for both the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera. He still maintains a relationship with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, whose members named him Honorary Conductor. He exited his Bavarian State Opera at the end of his contract in 2013, taking up the general music director and chief conductor posts for the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, with a contract extension through 2025. Nagano left the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2020, which named him conductor emeritus in 2021.

Nagano is married to pianist Mari Kodama, and together they issued a complete recording of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra. ~ Adrian Corleonis & Keith Finke