Live-Concert on the radio: Distorted cheerfulness

Born in Moscow in 1945, Michail Jurowski is the son of the composer Wladimir Jurowski and grandson of the conductor David Block. His sons Vladimir and Dmitri are also internationally renowned conductors. Michail Jurowski grew up in a circle of internationally acclaimed artists of the former Soviet Union such as Ojstrach, Rostropovitch, Kogan, Gilels, and Khachaturian. Dmitri Shostakovich was a close family friend and he and Michail not only spoke often but would also play four-hand piano pieces together. Such experiences had a huge influence on the young musician and it is therefore no coincidence that today Michail Jurowski is one of the leading interpreters of Shostakovich’s music. In 2012 Michail Jurowski was awarded the third International Shostakovich Prize by the Shostakovich Gohrisch Foundation.
Michail Jurowski was educated at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he studied conducting under Leo Ginsburg and music science under Alexei Kandinsky. During his studies he assisted Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. While still a resident in Russia, he conducted the Music Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko in Moscow and during his last years in the Soviet Union frequently conducted performances at the Bolshoi Theatre.
From 1978 Michail Jurowski was regular guest conductor at the Komische Oper Berlin and in 1989 he left the USSR with his family after accepting a permanent post with the Dresden Semperoper. Other titled positions have included: General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra; Chief Conductor of Leipzig Opera; Chief Conductor of WDR Rundfunkorchester in Cologne; Principal Conductor of Deutsche Oper Berlin; Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; and Principal Guest Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Sinfonia Iuventus and Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria.
As a guest conductor Michail Jurowski has led the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Det Kongelige Kapel Copenhagen, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porta Casa da Música, and São Paulo Symphony, among others.
Besides televised concerts and radio recordings in Stuttgart, Cologne, Dresden, Oslo, Norrköping, Hannover and Berlin, Maestro Jurowski has recorded with orchestras including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His discography includes Shostakovich’s opera “The Gamblers”, Shostakovich’s entire vocal symphonic pieces, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Christmas Eve”, as well as orchestral pieces by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Reznicek, Meyerbeer, Lehár, Kálmán, Nicolai, Rangström, Pettersen-Berger, Grieg, Svensen, Kantcheli and many others.
In 1992 and 1996 Jurowski won the German Record Critics’ Prize and in 2001 he received a Grammy nomination for 3 CD productions of Orchestral Music by Rimsky-Korsakov with the RSB. He was most recently awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize again in 2017, for his disc of music by Shostakovich, Pӓrt and Weinberg, recorded live with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch.

Whoever witnesses Anna Vinnitskaya in concert is inevitably enthralled by the aura of this artist. Audiences and critics alike celebrate her ability to paint grand canvases, aside from sparking spectacular fireworks. Her technical splendor is not a virtuosic means in itself, but blends with a natural, always colorful sound. Anna Vinnitskaya is a major pianist of our time who tells stories with her music.

The first prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels in 2007 marked the beginning of Anna Vinnitskaya’s international career. She is a valued partner of the great orchestras and conductors such as Marek Janowski, Krzysztof Urbański, Kirill Petrenko, Andris Nelsons, Alan Gilbert or Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

The 2019/2020 season saw her debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Dresden – with immediate reinvitations to both orchestras. As the „Artist in Residence“ at the Philharmonie Dresden, Vinnitskaya performed in a series of solo, chamber and orchestral concerts. In 2020/2021, BOZAR Brussels will dedicate her an Artist Portrait and stage five concerts with Anna in manifold constellations. Invitations to the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart and to the recital series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic underline her excellence and outstanding reputation.

Anna Vinnitskaya’s recordings have been recognised with numerous awards, such as the Diapason d’Or, the Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the ECHO Klassik. On her latest albums she presents works by Rachmaninov with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański and Bach’s piano concertos with Evgeni Koroliov, Ljupka Hadzi Georgieva and the Kammerakademie Potsdam (Alpha Classics/Outhere Music).

Anna Vinnitskaya was born in the Russian city of Novorossijsk. She was a student of Sergei Ossipienko in Rostov and Evgenyi Koroliov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Since 2009 she has been a professor there herself – that is, when she is not touring the stages of the wide musical world.