London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, Vadim Repin /violin/

 

 

At the heart of the final weekend of the RĪGA JŪRMALA Music Festival is an orchestra which could be called the bravest and wittiest of the world’s orchestras. The concept of “boundaries” doesn’t seem to apply to the London Symphony Orchestra - since its founding in 1904, the ensemble has always been avant garde, introducing or approving the trends of the time. The orchestra was the first make records, film music, found its own record label, play at the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games and take contemporary music to new heights.

 

Performing along with the LSO, under the baton of its Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda, will be Russian violinist Vadim Repin. Fiery passion with impeccable technique, poetry and sensitivity are his trademarks. He entered the world music arena almost as a child prodigy, winning gold at the Wienawski Competition at the age of 11. Since then, he has performed in the most famous concert halls of Europe, America and Asia. At the age of seventeen, he became the youngest ever winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

 

Concert programme:
Benjamin BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes op. 33a and Passacaglia op. 33b from “Peter Grimes”
Max BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor op. 26
Piotr TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor op. 64

 

From its first days the London Symphony Orchestra has been defiantly different and proudly pioneering – so says the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) on its website.

 

The orchestra, founded in 1904, was the first British orchestra owned by its players, and its fiercely independent ethos has never waned. The LSO was one of the very first orchestras to record albums and film scores; nowadays, its discography contains more recordings than any other orchestra in the world.

 

The LSO was first in another significant field. In 1999, they founded their own record label, LSO Live. At the time, it represented an almost revolutionary approach to recording concerts and distributing recordings. It was one of the very first record labels to once again belong to the musicians. The LSO was the first to make use of digital filming, Blu-Ray Audio, and download and streaming opportunities. Their playing can also be heard on hundreds of film soundtracks, from Star Wars to The King’s Speech, The Shape of Water to Indiana Jones.

 

In 1912, the LSO became the first British orchestra to tour to America. A last-minute change in schedule saved them from travelling on the Titanic – the orchestra sailed a few days earlier on the Baltic.

The orchestra had its largest audience – 900 million – in 2012 when they performed with Sir Simon Rattle at the London Olympic Opening Ceremony alongside Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson).

With concerts taking place in the historic cities of Riga and Jurmala, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival features four weekends throughout the summer. A leading international orchestra and conductor anchor each weekend, offering a range of symphonic concerts and recitals that feature leading stars and young up-and-coming talent.

 

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda (1964) was born in Milan and studied conducting with Donato Renzetti, Myung-whun Chung and Valery Gergiev. He also studied piano and composition. He has been awarded the title of Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for his services to Italian art. In 2015, he was named Conductor of the Year by Musical America magazine, and in 2016 he won Best Conductor at the International Opera Awards.

 

He is currently Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, Catalonia, and the Stresa Festival in Italy. In July 2018, the Zurich Opera House announced that he would be the next General Music Director as of the 2021/2022 season, and it is already known that the main event of this season will be a new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

 

Meanwhile, when Noseda was confirmed as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Head Conductor Simon Rattle said: “I am delighted that Gianandrea will become an even closer member of the LSO family. I have long admired his music-making, with its unusual marriage of lyricism and drama”.

 

Other orchestral musicians value Noseda’s exacting work and ability to perform characterful, inspiring music.

 

Violinist Vadim Repin (1971) began playing the violin in his native Novosibirsk, Russia, studying with the excellent teacher Zakhar Bron, who also counts Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Gluzman, Daniel Hope and others among his students. Repin won gold at the Wienawski Competition at the age of 11, and he then performed in his first solo concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. At the age of fourteen, he was already giving concerts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki and New York’s Carnegie Hall. At the age of seventeen, he became the youngest ever winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since then, he has performed in Europe, America and Asia’s most famous concert halls.

 

He has been invited to collaborate with the world’s best orchestras: the Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Symphony Orchestras of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra of Hamburg, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the La Scala Orchestra.

 

Fiery passion with impeccable technique, poetry and sensitivity are Vadim Repin’s trademarks.

 

With concerts taking place in the historic cities of Riga and Jurmala, the Riga Jurmala Music Festival features four weekends throughout the summer. A leading international orchestra and conductor anchor each weekend, offering a range of symphonic concerts and recitals that feature leading stars and young up-and-coming talent.

 

More information: www.riga-jurmala.com