OCTOBER 5, WEDNESDAY
8 p.m.

OFFICIAL CEREMONY
Presentation of Maestro Rodion SHCHEDRIN
with an HONORARY DOCTORAL DIPLOMA FROM ST. PETERSBURG CONSERVATOIRE

RODION SHCHEDRIN
(1932)

CONCERTO LONTANO Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra No. 6
DIALOGUES WITH SCHOSTAKOVICH Symphonic Etudes (2001)
RUSSIAN PREMIERE

Performers:

Ekaterina MECHETINA, piano

St. Petersburg Capella Symphony Orchestra
Conductor — Alexander SLADKOVSKY

RODION SHCHEDRIN

Rodion Schhedrin literally exploded onto the world music stage with his First Piano Concerto (1954), which he wrote as a student at the Moscow State Conservatoire (Y. Shaporin’s composition studio, prepared piano — Y. Fliera). In those same years he was accepted in the Composers’ Union.

From his first steps into the composition field, Shched rin’s works enjoyed performances by K. Kondrashin, N. Anosov, N. Rakhlin, A. Gauk, G. Rozhdestvensky, E. Svetlanov, Y. Temirkanov, L. Bernstein, L. Stokov sky. J. Balancine and L. Jacobsen produced a choreographic version of his first concerto for orchestra “Ozornye Chastushky” (1963). The life of R. Shchedrin, however, was not a “picture of luck”, according to the newspapers and his colleagues because each premiere proved to be a clash of daring, innovative art with conservative views.

R. Shchedrin’s collaboration with the Bolshoi Theatre continued for thirty years. All five of his ballets—“Konyek- gorbunok” 1955, “Carmen Suite” (1967), “Anna Karenina” (1971), “The Sea gull” (1980), “The Lady with a Dog” (1985) — were premiered in the Bolshoi and dedicated to his wife, the brilliant prima ballerina of the theatre, Maya Plisetskoy. The premier performances of two of his operas also took place in the Bolshoi Theatre — “Not Only Love” (1961) and “Dead Souls” (1977).

Today R. Shchedrin continues to write powerfully and fast. The premieres of his compositions follow one after the other: his fifth concerto for orchestra “Four Russian Songs” (1998), third symphony “The Face of Russian Tales” (2000), his fourth and fifth piano concertos (1991, 1999) a triad of string concertos (1994, 1997, 1997), concerto for trumpet (1993), “Parabola concertante” for cello, string orchestra and kettle-drum (2001), and the V. Nabokov opera “Lolita” (1992). For the composer’s 70th birthday Schott Publishers printed a catalogue of R. Shedrin’s works written during the last ten years, in which were listed 36 compositions. His symphonic etudes “Dialogues with Shostakovich” had its world premiere in November of 2002 in Pittsburgh (M. Jansons, conductor).

The geography of R. Shchedrin’s recent premieres encompasses the Old and New Worlds, Europe and Asia. In September 2004 at an international festival in France dedicated to Shedrin’s work, his Double Concerto for Violin and Trumpet with Strings was performed for the first time and in May 2005 in Japan his composition for 1000 cellos “Hamlet-Ballade” premiered.

The world press names R. Shchedrin “one of the most significant Russian composers of the last half-century.” The recording of his concerto for violin and orchestra (London Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist M. Wengerov, conductor M. Rostropovich) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of “best composition in the classical music genre written in the last 25 years.”

Ekaterina Vlasova

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