Musical monuments

Vladimir Jurowski has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since autumn 2017. The conductor, pianist and musicologist Vladimir Jurowski takes on all challenges whether they be stylistic, technical or music-historical.
After receiving training at the Moscow Conservatory Vladimir Jurowski emigrated to Germany in 1990. Here he continued his studies at the music conservatories in Dresden and Berlin – conducting with Rolf Reuter; correpetition and song accompaniment with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the British Wexford Festival with Rimski-Korsakov’s “Mainacht” and in the same year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with “Nabucco”. Subsequently he was, among other things, First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997- 2001) and Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013). In 2003 Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and has been its Principal Conductor since 2007 and will stay on until summer 2021. He is also Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Yevgeny Svetlanov of the Russian Federation until summer 2021, Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain. He works regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the ensemble unitedberlin. With the start of the 2021/2022 season, Vladimir Jurowski will take on one of the most prestigious roles in German musical life in addition to his engagement with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, by becoming General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, a position for which he signed a contract in 2018.
Vladimir Jurowski is in high demand around the world as a guest conductor. He has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, 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 Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Vladimir Jurowski conducted Prokofiev’s “Semyon Kotko” with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest of the Netherlands in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, made his debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Staatskapelle Dresden, debuted with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, performed with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival and conducted a unique project with the London Sinfonietta in Moscow to mark the UK-Russian Year of Culture. Together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin he performed in Japan in spring 2019 and at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest in autumn 2019.
The first joint CD by Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin from 2015 immediately marked a milestone. Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3 was followed in 2017 by a Strauss/Mahler recording and a CD of violin concertos by Britten and Hindemith with soloist Arabella Steinbacher. In 2020, a critically acclaimed recording of Gustav Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” was released.
Vladimir Jurowski has been the recipient of numerous awards for his achievements, including various international record prizes. In 2018, the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards named him Conductor of the Year. In 2016, he was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Prince Charles at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2020, Jurowski will be awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Romanian President in recognition of his work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival.

Performing music from baroque to new commissions on both modern and period instruments, Alina Ibragimova has established a reputation as one of the most accomplished and intriguing violinists of her generation. This is illustrated by her prominent presence at the BBC Proms since 2015: aside from concerto performances from the standard repertoire, her Proms appearances have included a concert with a baroque ensemble and two late-night Royal Albert Hall recitals featuring the complete Bach partitas and sonatas, for which The Guardian commented “The immediacy and honesty of Ibragimova’s playing has the curious ability to collapse any sense of distance between performer and listener”. In the 2018 Proms, Alina will give the World Premiere of the Rolf Wallin Violin Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner.

Over the next season, Alina will have a strong focus on Shostakovich Concerto’s No. 1 and No.2, which she will record with Vladimir Jurowski for Hyperion Records. She looks forward to debut engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Gardiner), the Toronto Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras, and will return to the London Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Haitink), Swedish Radio Symphony (Harding), Seattle Symphony (Ludovic Morlot) and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Jurowski). Highlights among recent concerto engagements include debuts with the Boston Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and returns with the London Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Alina has also toured extensively in Australia with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmania symphony orchestras as well as with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Her long-standing duo partnership with pianist Cédric Tiberghien has featured highly successful cycles of the Beethoven and Mozart violin sonatas at the Wigmore Hall. Highlights among recent engagements included a three-week tour of Japan and Korea, extensive touring of North America and a Berlin debut recital at the Pierre Boulez Saal. In 18/19, the duo looks forward to debuts at the Konzerthaus Vienna and a return tour of Japan and Korea.
Alina is a founding member of the Chiaroscuro Quartet. Together they have toured extensively since 2005 and have become one of the most sought-after period ensembles.

Alina’s discography on Hyperion Records includes 15 albums ranging from Bach to Szymanowski and Ysaye. Her latest release featuring the complete Mozart Violin Sonata cycle with Cedric Tiberghien was referred to as “…A set that will become the modern reference recording…” by Gramaphone Magazine. The next release with Franck and Vierne’s Violin Sontatas is expected in Autumn 2018.

Born in Russia in 1985 Alina studied at the Moscow Gnesin School before moving with her family to the UK in 1995 where she studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal College of Music. She was also a member of the Kronberg Academy Masters programme. Alina’s teachers have included Natasha Boyarsky, Gordan Nikolitch and Christian Tetzlaff. Alina has been the recipient of awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2010, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2008, the Classical BRIT Young Performer of the Year Award 2009 and was a member of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme 2005-7. She was made an MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours List.

Alina records for Hyperion Records and performs on a c.1775 Anselmo Bellosio violin kindly provided by Georg von Opel.