© LGT Young Soloists
Founded in 2013 by Alexander Gilman, the LGT Young Soloists are young musicians aged 14 to 23 from more than 15 nations. Consisting of string players only, the ensemble dedicates itself to offering the highly talented musicians additional professional guidance and attractive performance opportunities. During the past seasons the ensemble has appeared at Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Victoria Hall in Singapore and at renowned festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival, the Dresden Music Festival and Abu Dhabi Classics. The LGT Young Soloists are the first youth orchestra worldwide to release four albums on Sony Music/RCA Red Seal: Souvenir (2019), Nordic Dream (2018), Russian Soul (2017) and Italian Journey (2015). The name LGT points to the support the ensemble receives from the private bank LGT, owned by the house of Liechtenstein.
Konzerthaus, Berlin
© Maurice Haas
The violinist Alexander Gilman, born in Bamberg in 1982, grew up in a family of musicians and made his debut at Munich’s Gasteig at the age of only six. At 16, he moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School with the legendary teacher Dorothy DeLay; later Gilman graduated with distinction from the Cologne Academy of Music, where Zakhar Bron was his teacher. In the meantime, he has been teaching at the Royal College of Music in London since 2019 and at the Kalaidos Music Academy in Switzerland. As a soloist, the 39-year-old has worked with renowned conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, David Zinman, Bernard Haitink, Mario Venzago and Michael Sanderling. His chamber music partners include cellist Maximilian Hornung and violist Nils Mönkemeyer. Apart from his teaching, his special interest in pedagogy is manifested in his work with the ensemble LGT Young Soloists, which Gilman founded in 2013.
© Paul Marc Mitchell
The young British pianist Martin James Bartlett, born in 1996, made his first career step in 2014 by winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year distinction. In 2015 he first appeared at the BBC Proms, performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; one year later he was featured in the gala concert celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He has been invited to perform with renowned orchestras such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and to the festivals in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Verbier. In 2019 his debut CD Love and Death was released by Warner Classics, featuring piano works by Bach, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt and Prokofiev. At the moment, Bartlett is in his final year at the Royal College of Music in London.
© Airat Ichmouratov
Born in Kazan, Russia in 1973, the composer Airat Ichmouratov originally studied clarinet. At the age of only 20, he already served as Associate Principal Clarinet at the Tatar State Opera & Ballet Theatre and Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he began an international career as a soloist, settling in Canada in 1998. In 2000 he founded the Muczynski Trio of clarinet, cello, and piano which received the First Prize at the 8th International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition in Krakow, Poland. In the same year, he also joined the award-winning klezmer group Kleztory, with which he gave over 1000 concerts around the globe. Ever since, he has developed an intense career as a composer as well, producing symphonies, overtures, numerous concertos for soloists and orchestra as well as chamber music, music for children, and Klezmer music. “Airat is a communicator in the best sense of the word. His music immediately grabs the listener, and a journey starts: storytelling, landscapes, emotions…” – thus the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Concerto Grosso No. 3 “Liechtenstein” op. 68 (World Premiere)
“Estaciones Porteñas” (1965-1970, arr. Leonid Desyatnikov)
Piano Concerto No. 1 “Tirol Concerto” (2000)
PROGRAMME
This is a programme for those curious Young Euro Classic fans! And an homage to Astor Piazzolla too, the inventor of Tango Nuevo, who would have turned 100 this year. It is also the festival debut of a young and highly ambitious string ensemble, the LGT Young Soloists, headquartered in Switzerland, whose members represent 15 nations. After causing a stir last year with their CD Beethoven Recomposed, they now focus on Piazzolla’s racy recreation of the Four Seasons. Two novelties of the 21st century bookend this cycle: the First Piano Concerto of the American composer Philip Glass, dated 2000, who was inspired by Tyrolean folk music in this creation, and the world premiere of a Concerto grosso by the Russian composer Airat Ichmouratov, who lives in Canada today. Plenty of discoveries await!
Broadcast
The concert will be broadcasted by rbb Kultur (USW 92.4 and Cable 95.35) in Berlin and Brandenburg on September 4, 2021 at 18:03.