Stravinsky x 6: III Pulcinella

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.

Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the legendary artists of our time. His piano playing is an unparalleled fusion of the authority of a career spanning more than sixty years with spirit and spontaneity.

His renditions of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works are considered to be exemplary. He has performed the thirty-two piano sonatas sixty times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. He was the first pianist to play all Beethoven sonatas at the Salzburg Festival during a festival summer. A live recording is available on DVD.

In the 2019/20 season, for the first time in its 150-year history, the Musikverein Vienna was granting a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honour of performing all five Beethoven piano concertos with five world class orchestras and conductors in a specially edited cycle. Buchbinder’s partners in this unprecedented constellation were the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Dresden under their chief conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann.

Together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, Rudolf Buchbinder also returned to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Carnegie Hall New York as part of a tour.

A première was at the core of the Beethoven Year 2020. Based on Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations op. 120, Rudolf Buchbinder initiated a new cycle of Diabelli Variations written for him by eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and backgrounds. The New Diabelli Variations were commissioned by eleven concert promoters worldwide and with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The world first recording of the New Diabelli Variations marked the beginning of Rudolf Buchbinder’s exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophon. The album “The Diabelli Project” was released in March 2020.

Rudolf Buchbinder is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Buchbinder attaches great importance to source research. His private music collection comprises 39 complete editions of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas as well as an extensive archive of first prints. Numerous award-winning recordings document his career.

Ina Kancheva was born in Sofia.

She has been dedicated to the arts since the age of six, and has already toured the world as a soloist with the famous children’s choir of the Bulgarian National Radio. She graduated from the High School for Theatre and Fine Arts. From the age of 19 she studied opera singing at the State Academy of Music in Sofia.
Ina Kancheva was a member of the ensemble of the Stuttgart State Opera.
She has also been invited to perform at opera houses such as Covent Garden (London), La Scala (Milan), The Royal Danish Opera (Copenhagen) and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia). She is a regular guest at international music festivals such as the Festival de musique Baroque d’Ambronay (France), Rossini Opera Festival (Italy) and the Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czech Republic).
Ina Kancheva works with renowned orchestras and conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Vasily Petrenko, Cornelius Meister, Enrique Mazzola, Manfred Honeck, Alberto Zedda, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Jiri Belohlavek, Julia Jones and René Jacobs.
In 2016 she released her CD “Pauline Viardot” on Toccata Classics with pianist Ludmil Angelov. As part of Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s programme “Die besondere Aufnahme” (The Special Recording), Ina Kancheva took on the role of Madame Landru in the unknown chamber opera “Madame Landru” by Roberto Hazon and started a collaboration with the Rundfunk-Sinfonie Orchester Berlin and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Praised for his romantic Italianate sound, Mexican-American tenor Galeano Salas is currently in his third season as an ensemble member of the Bayerische Staatsoper. Recent engagements at the Staatsoper include Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore alongside Pretty Yende, Fenton in Mateja Koležnik’s new production of Verdi’s Falstaff and the Italian tenor in Barrie Kosky’s premiere of Der Rosenkavalier under the direction of maestro Vladimir Jurowski.

Last season’s highlights include the Duke of Mantua with the Hungarian State Opera’s production of Rigoletto and Rodolfo in Cape Town Opera’s La bohème – a critically acclaimed co-production with Theater Basel.

Prior Staatsoper engagements include a role debut of Rinuccio in the Bayerische Staatsoper’s new production of Puccini’s Il trittico after a last minute jump-in for the Livestream performance under Maestro Petrenko. Mr. Salas has also performed many supporting roles bowing as Lord Arturo Bucklaw in Lucia di Lammermoor, Gastone in La traviata, Roderigo in Otello, Pong in Turandot and many others.

Other performed roles include the Italian Singer in R. Strauss’ Capriccio, Alfredo in La traviata, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Vaudemont in Iolanta and Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

Mr. Salas most recently performed Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Opera National de Bordeaux, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. Past oratorio works include Haydn’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Mozart Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah.

Returning to the US this summer, Mr. Salas will be seen as Il Duca di Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Central City Opera. Upcoming engagements include Fenton in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Falstaff with Komische Oper Berlin, Italian Singer in the Bayerische Staatsoper’s new production of Capriccio, and Rodolfo in Robert Carsen’s production of La bohème with Vlaamse Oper.

Mr. Salas has garnered a number of awards notably winning the Grand Prix and Audience Choice Awards at the III Éva Marton International Singing Competition in Budapest. He also received the top prizes at the Stella Maris International Voice Competition, the 28ème Concours de Chant de Marmande, the VI Concurso Internacional de Canto, Alfredo Kraus, and the Top Prize of the 2016 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Voice Competition.

Mr. Salas holds degrees from the University of Houston, Yale University, and the Academy of Vocal Arts. He also completed two years as a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio, and was an apprentice with Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera and Wolf Trap Opera Company in the United States.