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| | Arts Calendar / December 8 / Concerts |
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19:00 | Kristof Barati (Hungary) |
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The Hungarian violinist Kristof Barati performs compositions by Paganini, Ysaye, Bach, Bartok. Kristof Barati has received several further prizes in the recent years such as the Elba Festival's Best Performer, the Prima Prize for classical music in Hungary, and the First Prize of the VI International Paganini Violin Competition in Moscow, considered one of the most prestigious violin competitions in the world. Kristof Barati plays on the 1703 "Lady Harmsworth" made by Antonio Stradivarius, kindly offered by the Stradivarius Society of Chicago. "Kristof Barati is the most talented violinist of his and many generations. He is a true soloist!" - Ida Haendel. Mr. Barati was born in Budapest, but a large part of his childhood was spent in Venezuela. He began his violin studies at the age of five and already from the age of eight he made his first solo performances with the leading Venezuelan orchestras. At the age of eleven he was invited to do a recital in Montpellier in the frame of the prestigious "Festival de Radio France". His studies continued in Budapest with Miklos Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tatrai in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. During this period he won the Lipizer Competition in Italy and got second prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. In 1997 his career takes a new turn after getting third prize and the audience prize on the highly prestigious "Queen Elisabeth" competition in Brussels, being the youngest finalist. After this success he redefines his violin technique with Eduard Wulfson, whose knowledge was influenced by great violinists of the 20th century such as Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Henryk Szeryng. Kristof Barati performs in important concert halls around the world with major orchestras and conductors.
Moscow Conservatoire Rachmaninov Zal  |
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19:00 | Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra |
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Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra's concert will be dedicated to the memory of Christophe de Margerie, a French businessman who has served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of French oil corporation Total S.A. Christophe de Margerie died in an aircraft crash in Moscow on October 20, 2014. The aircraft hit a snowplow on take-off from the Vnukovo International Airport, the plane itself used was the Dassault Falcon 50. Conducted by Valery Gergiev. Under the leadership of Maestro Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Theatre has forged important relationships with the worlds' greatest opera houses, among them the Metropolitan Opera House, London's Royal Opera House, the San Francisco Opera, the Theatre Chatelet in Paris La Scala in Milan just to name a few. Besides extensive touring of the opera and the ballet company, the Kirov Orchestra has performed throughout world and has become one of the outstanding orchestras. The success of the orchestra's continual travelling has lead to the reputation of, what a journalist called, "the world's first global orchestra." The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra has played a role in countless Russian premieres as well as the first Russian performances of European operas and ballets including works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, operas by Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Alexander Serov, Anton Rubinstein, Modest Musorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - the list is endless. In 2008, according to results of a survey of leading music critics from major publications in America, Asia and Europe, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra was one of the top twenty orchestras in the world, beating two other Russian orchestras also listed in the ratings. In program: Debussy, Mussorgsky.
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall |
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 London's eclectic one-man band Tom Vek combines electronic music with indie rock, punk with dance, and influences like new wave and garage (and also made most of his early recordings in his parents' garage, too). However, as a teen in the mid-'90s, Vek was inspired by grunge and began making rock along the lines of Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam; before that, he backed his guitarist father on bass and drums in their practice space/garage. When his family acquired a reel-to-reel tape recorder when he was 14, Vek began recording his music, which evolved from grungy rock to Warp- and Ninja Tune-influenced electronica as the '90s came to a close. Vek had been sending his music to a friend of the family (who happened to be Alex Cooper, the longtime drummer for Katrina & the Waves), who in turn sent Vek's latest, electronica-inspired music to his cousin (who happened to be Tim "Love" Lee, the head of quirky electronic label Tummy Touch). Lee signed Vek to the label, and in 2001 the 7" "There's Only One Thing Left Now" became Vek's first officially released work. Tummy Touch agreed to release a full-length from Vek, which he began working on in between his graphic design studies at St. Martins. However, Vek's music had morphed again, moving from delicate electronica to something sharper-edged and more rock-based. Singles such as "If You Want" heralded this new direction, as did gigs (with a full backing band) supporting acts like Bloc Party and Engineers. Vek's debut album, We Have Sound, was released in the U.K. in spring 2005 via Tummy Touch, and then sublicensed by Island/Universal. Startime International released the album in the U.S. that fall. After touring in support of the album, Vek took his time making further music. He found a recording space in East London and established PALLET Recording Studios, taking three years to fill it with custom gear and teach himself new production techniques, and another two years to write and record music. Vek resurfaced early in 2011 with the single "A Chore," the first taste of his second album, Leisure Seizure, which was released digitally in June of that year and physically that September. When Vek was evicted from PALLET to make way for more housing, he took an even more independent approach to 2014's Luck, recording the album entirely on his own. On the self-produced Luck, Vek perfects his sing-talk lyrical delivery and his unique brand of driving experimental sounds, a marriage of cacophonous production and twenty-tens attitude. Over the album's 11 tracks, Vek explores the commonly felt emotions of someone who has largely grown up in the new millennium: anxiety, anger, loneliness, and perhaps most of all, confusion. But instead of attacking these feelings from the perspective of a rebellious youth, the 33-year-old Vek brings his years of life and musical experience to the songs. A press release for the record says, "As ever, Vek delivers an album that eludes straightforward definition. The "garage rock for the Pro Tools generation," as he puts it, is alive and well, only now it is met with the most ostentatious production and some of the biggest beats of Vek's career." More info
B2 Club |
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