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Gianandrea Noseda has developed a well-deserved reputation as a conductor who has mastered a wide range of both symphonic and stage music. He has conducted operas at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as at other major operatic venues across the globe, and he is one of the most prolific conductors of the 21st century.

Noseda was born in Milan on April 23, 1964. He first studied piano, then later focused on composition and conducting. His teachers included Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, and Donato Renzetti. In 1994, Noseda won two prestigious conducting competitions, the first in Douai, France, and the latter in Cadaques, Spain. Following his win in Cadaques, he was named the principal conductor of the Cadaqués Orchestra. His official debut followed shortly when he led the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. With this ensemble, he made his first recording (1995), a disc of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and other guitar works with soloist Emanuele Segre for the Claves label.

In 1997, upon the initiative of Gergiev, Noseda was made principal guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theater, the first foreigner to be given this honor. In 2002, Noseda made his debut at the Met conducting Prokofiev's War and Peace and was appointed principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. One of his early recordings, featuring Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, came the same year with that group. He held this position until 2006 when his title was changed to chief conductor, a post he held until 2011. That year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Noseda emerged as one of the top operatic conductors on the British scene and beyond, with muscular, often hyper-dramatic interpretations that drew audiences. His work was amply captured on recordings, with a video of Gounod's Faust appearing in 2016, with the Orchestra e Coro Teatro Regio Torino, and one of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers at the Met in 2017. Noseda made a series of high-profile appearances conducting vocal recitals by four of the world's top singers: Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko, and Diana Damrau. In 2016, Noseda was named the principal guest conductor of the London Symphony, and the following year, he was named the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In 2018, he was named the general music director of the Zurich Opera House, beginning with the 2021-2022 season.

Noseda has made numerous recordings for a variety of labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Philips, and Chandos. His most popular recordings include the best-selling 2003 solo debut of soprano arias by Netrebko with the Vienna Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon. Most of his symphonic recordings have been made for the Chandos label and include a complete cycle of the Liszt symphonic poems (finished in 2007) and a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies with the BBC Symphony. In 2020, Noseda issued several albums, including Dvorák's New World Symphony and Copland's Billy the Kid with the National Symphony, Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 1 with the London Symphony, and Luigi Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero with the Danish National Symphony. Recordings in his Shostakovich cycle with the London Symphony continued to appear through the COVID-19 pandemic; an album combining the Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54, and Symphony No. 15 in A minor, Op. 141, appeared on the LSO Live label in 2023. By that time, his recording catalog comprised more than 80 items. ~ Robert Cummings & James Manheim

The Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov has been called "one of the most exciting Russian singers to emerge on the international scene..." by Opera News.

Abdrazakov is Russian by nationality, but not by ethnicity: he is three-quarters Bashkirian (an ethnic group in southern Russia with its own language and political subdivision) and one-quarter Tatar. He was born in Ufa, then the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan (or Bashkiria) in the Soviet Union, on September 26, 1976. His father was a theater director, his mother an artist, and Abdrazakov followed their choices of career, enrolling at the Ufa State Institute of the Arts. His stage debut came at age four in one of his father's productions. He won several major operatic prizes in Russia in the late '90s, including the international Rimsky-Korsakov Competition and the Obraztsova Competition, and a major breakthrough came in 1998 when he appeared as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at St. Petersburg's famed Mariinsky Theatre.

He went on to play the role of Figaro more than 100 times, telling Vanity Fair that "There are many aspects of the role," he says. "Comedy, drama, some lyric tones." Abdrazakov made his first impact in the West singing Italian-language roles, turning to Russian parts only later. A win at Parma's Maria Callas International Television Competition in 2000 brought him to the attention of Italian talent spotters, and he gave a recital at the La Scala opera house in 2001. Abdrazakov made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004 in Mozart's Don Giovanni, an opera in which both the title role and that of Leporello are part of his repertoire. He has also taken major bass roles in operas by Verdi (Attila, Macbeth, Luisa Miller, and Oberto), Rossini (Il Turco in Italia, Semiramide, Moïse et Pharaon), Gounod (Mephistophélès in Faust), Donizetti (Anna Bolena), and Bellini (Norma), among others. Among his major appearances in Russian opera are those in Borodin's Prince Igor at the Metropolitan Opera, where he has been a regular in the 2000s and 2010s.

Abdrazakov's first CD appearance as a soloist came in 2006 on a recording of Shostakovich's Words of Michelangelo on the Chandos label. His solo recital, Power Players, appeared on Delos in 2014, and he recorded the Shostakovich work once again in 2016 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, along with Schoenberg's Kol Nidre. He also appeared on a Grammy-winning recording of Verdi's Requiem with the CSO. In 2017, Deutsche Grammophon issued Duets, a collection of tenor-bass (or baritone) scenes featuring Abdrazakov and tenor Rolando Villazón. ~ James Manheim

The BBC Philharmonic, based in the city of Salford in northern England's Greater Manchester county, is one of the most important orchestras in the United Kingdom, distinguishing itself by its sheer visibility and solid commitment to contemporary British music that has included the establishment of a composer/conductor position. Its home concert venue is Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. The people of the Manchester area and the north of England are rightly proud of their radio orchestra. With so much British culture and finance administered in London, there is an independent spirit driving the culture of the north. The BBC Philharmonic has not only survived, but it has thrived. It has developed a character distinct from that of the larger BBC Symphony Orchestra, based in London: more populist, perhaps, but also more adventurous and -- with the orchestra's large recording catalog, generous outreach programs, and international tours -- more entrepreneurial.

The BBC Philharmonic's history is rather checkered, for it has had to endure numerous crises. In 1922, prior to the official establishment of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Manchester had a radio station known as 2YZ, housed on the premises of the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company. Early on, a small orchestra was established for broadcasts; it concentrated mainly on light music but expanded on occasion for performances of symphonic repertoire and opera. The station gained a reputation for broadcasting British music, including the first radio performances of music by Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and William Walton. When the BBC was established in 1927, the 2YZ orchestra was renamed the Northern Wireless Orchestra; later, it became the BBC Northern Orchestra. Its existence was always precarious, but the group's size and repertoire increased. During World War II, the orchestra gave concerts in various communities around the region, bringing it to a wider public. The BBC Northern Orchestra continued to gain a strong reputation for performing and broadcasting British music, particularly works by living composers who were often invited to conduct the orchestra.

In 1961, the BBC Northern Orchestra made its first appearance at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts under the direction of George Hurst. The regional identity of the ensemble began from that point to evolve into a national and international one. After a difficult strike in 1980, the BBC committed to supporting a full orchestra in Manchester, and in 1982, the ensemble was given its current name. Its principal conductor at that time was Edward Downes, who was succeeded in 1991 by Yan Pascal Tortelier. The ensemble's reputation for adventurous programming has expanded to an international scope as well, as composers from various countries have come to conduct the orchestra.

In 1991, the post of composer/conductor was created, with Peter Maxwell Davies being the first appointment. Davies composed several works for the orchestra, including several symphonies culminating with Symphony No. 7, which premiered in 2000. Along the way, he has also recorded a number of his orchestral works for release. Composer James MacMillan was named his successor in 2001. The following year, Gianandrea Noseda was named principal conductor (the title changed to chief conductor in 2006). HK Gruber followed MacMillan as composer/conductor in 2009. In 2011, Noseda was named conductor laureate, and Juanjo Mena became the chief conductor. In 2015, the BBC Philharmonic changed the title of the composer/conductor role to composer in association and appointed Mark Simpson to the position. Mena served as chief conductor until 2018, and Omer Meir Wellber, following a successful guest conductor performance, assumed the chief conductor position in 2019. John Storgårds was named the orchestra's new chief conductor in 2023 after serving as chief guest conductor since 2017.

The BBC Philharmonic has a vast recording catalog comprising hundreds of albums, with the majority of them being on the Chandos label. It has also recorded for Naxos and Albany, among many other labels. In 2023, under conductor Rumon Gamba, it was heard on a recording of orchestral music by Malcolm Arnold, which also featured clarinetist Michael Collins, on the Chandos label. ~ James Harley & Keith Finke