A look at the dark side of the moon

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2027,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).

Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.

He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.

The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

Alice Lackner’s voice has been described by the press as “beguilingly secure, with astral heights and penetrating power” (Oper!) and as “utterly enchanting” (Tagesspiegel). She regularly appears with orchestras such as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Essener Philharmoniker, Russian State Orchestra Kaliningrad, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, lautten compagney Berlin, Ensemble 1700 and Concerto Theresia, under the direction of renowned conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Wolfgang Katschner, Dorothee Oberlinger, Tomáš Netopil, Andrea Marchiol and Andreas Reize.
Highlights of recent seasons have included the soprano solo in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 at the Konzerthaus Berlin, “Martha” in the world premiere of Gordon Kampe’s “Dogville” at the Aalto Theater Essen, “Ruggiero” in Handel’s “Alcina” in a production by lautten compagney Berlin, and “Negiorea” in Andrea Bernasconi’s “L’Huomo” at the Margravial Opera House Bayreuth and at the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival. Other engagements have taken her to the Berlin Philharmony, the Berlin Music Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, the Days of Early Music in Herne and the Mosel Music Festival.
Alice Lackner’s core concert repertoire includes the alto roles in cantatas and oratorios by J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart and Mendelssohn. However, the mezzo-soprano’s repertoire also includes less frequently performed works such as the masses for the dead by Duruflé or Suppè, the “Membra Jesu Nostri” (Buxtehude) and “Der Sieg des Glaubens” (Ries). Recently, she has also appeared in concert as a soprano, for example in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, in Mozart’s “Great Mass in C minor”, in Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solenelle” and in Stravinsky’s “Les Noces”.
A major focus of her work is lieder singing. In 2021, Alice Lackner released her debut CD “Ernsthaft?!” with the GENUIN label, together with her lied accompanist Imke Lichtwark. In addition to songs by Schönberg and Zemlinsky, this CD also includes first recordings of songs by the composer Sven Daigger. In October 2023, Alice Lackner recorded a first edition of all songs by George Antheil for Deutschlandfunk together with pianist Philip Mayers. Further recordings for cpo, BR-Klassik and ARTE Concert testify to her artistic work.
Alice Lackner was born in Munich, studied singing with Prof. Kunz-Eisenlohr at the HfMT Cologne/Aachen and is currently receiving further training from Sami Kustaloglu in Berlin. She holds a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation and has won prizes from “cantatebach!”, the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera, and the “Podium junger Gesangssolisten”. With a degree in sociology, she works as a researcher at ZOiS Berlin. From 2025 onwards, she will take over the artistic direction of the “Güldener Herbst” festival in Thuringia.