Alexander Izrailevich Rudin |

Alexander Rudin

Today, cellist Alexander Rudin is one of the undisputed leaders of the Russian performing school. His artistic style is distinguished by a uniquely natural and charming manner of playing, and the immeasurable depth of interpretations and the delicate taste of the musician turn each of his performances into an exquisite masterpiece. Having crossed the symbolic milestone of half a century, Alexander Rudin acquired the status of a legendary virtuoso, opening unknown but beautiful pages of the world’s musical heritage for thousands of listeners. In the anniversary concert in November 2010, which became a milestone in his work, the maestro set a kind of record – in one evening he performed six Concertos for cello and orchestra, including works by Haydn, Dvorak and Shostakovich!

The cellist’s creative credo is based on a careful and meaningful attitude to a musical text: whether it is a work of the Baroque era or a traditional romantic repertoire, Alexander Rudin strives to see it with an unbiased eye. Removing superficial layers of age-old performing tradition from music, the maestro seeks to open the work the way it was originally created, with all the freshness and unclouded sincerity of the author’s statement. This is where the musician’s interest in authentic performance originates. One of the few Russian soloists, Alexander Rudin, in his concert practice, activates the entire arsenal of currently existing performing styles (he plays both in the traditional style of composing romantics, and in the authentic manner of a piece of baroque and classicism), moreover, he alternates playing the modern cello with viola da gamba. His activity as a pianist and conductor develops in the same direction.

Alexander Rudin belongs to a rare type of universal musicians who do not limit themselves to one performing incarnation. Cellist, conductor and pianist, researcher of old scores and author of orchestral editions of chamber works, Alexander Rudin, in addition to his solo career, acts as artistic director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra “Musica viva” and the annual International Music Festival “Dedication”. The author’s cycles of the maestro, realized within the walls of the Moscow Philharmonic and the State Tretyakov Gallery (“Masterpieces and Premieres”, “Musical Meetings in the Tretyakov House”, “Silver Classics”, etc.), were warmly received by the Moscow public. In many of his programs, Alexander Rudin performs both as a soloist and conductor.

As a conductor, Alexander Rudin carried out a number of projects in Moscow that were among the top events of the Moscow seasons. Under his leadership, the following took place: the Russian premiere of W. A. ​​Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo”, the rarest performance of Haydn’s oratorios “The Seasons” and “The Creation of the World” and other monumental projects related to baroque and classic music, in November 2011 the oratorio ” Triumphant Judith” Vivaldi. The maestro had a great influence on the creative strategy of the Musica viva orchestra, which inherited from his boss a love for rare music and mastery of many performing styles. The orchestra is also indebted to Alexander Rudin for the idea of ​​presenting the historical environment of great composers, which has become one of the orchestra’s priorities. Thanks to Alexander Rudin, for the first time in our country, many scores by old masters (Davydov, Kozlovsky, Pashkevich, Alyabyev, C.F.E. Bach, Salieri, Pleyel, Dussek, etc.) were performed. At the invitation of the maestro, the legendary masters of historically informed performance, cult British conductors Christopher Hogwood and Roger Norrington, performed in Moscow (the latter is planning his fourth visit to Moscow, and all three previous ones were associated with performances in the programs of the Musica Viva orchestra). The maestro’s conducting work involves not only directing the Musica Viva orchestra, but also collaborating with other musical groups: as a guest conductor, Alexander Rudin performs with the Honored Ensemble of Russia Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the P.I. .Tchaikovsky, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra named after E.F. Svetlanov, symphony and chamber orchestras of Norway, Finland, Turkey.

Alexander Rudin also pays great attention to the performance of modern music: with his participation, world and Russian premieres of works by V. Silvestrov, V. Artyomov, A. Pyart, A. Golovin took place. In the field of sound recording, the performer has released several dozen CDs for the labels Naxos, Russian Season, Olympia, Hyperion, Tudor, Melodiya, Fuga libera. The latest album of cello concertos by composers of the Baroque era, released by Chandos in 2016, received enthusiastic responses from leading Western European critics.

The musician actively performs not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also tours in other cities of Russia. His international career includes solo engagements in many countries around the world and tours with the Musica Viva orchestra.

People’s Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prize and the Prize of the Moscow City Hall, Alexander Rudin is a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Graduate of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music with a degree in cello and piano (1983) and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with a degree in symphony orchestra conductor (1989), laureate of several international competitions.

“A magnificent musician, one of the most respected masters and virtuosos, an ensemble player of the rarest class and an intelligent conductor, a connoisseur of instrumental styles and composer eras, he has never been known as either a destroyer of foundations or an Atlantean guardian on pathos cothurnis … Meanwhile, it was Alexander Rudin for a huge number of his peers and younger musicians are something like a talisman, a guarantee of the possibility of a healthy and honest relationship with art and partners. Opportunities to love their work, without losing over the years neither critical ability, nor performance skills, nor professionalism, nor liveliness, nor sincerity ”(“ Vremya Novostei ”, 24.11.2010/XNUMX/XNUMX).

“He always manages to combine absolute classicism, clarity and spirituality of interpretations with an up-to-date performing approach. But at the same time, his interpretations are always kept in a historically correct tone. Rudin knows how to capture those vibrations that connect, rather than separate, as if following the postulate of Augustine the Blessed, who believed that there is neither past nor future, there is only the present. That is why he does not cut the history of music into parts, does not specialize in eras. He plays everything” (“Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, November 25.11.2010, XNUMX).

«Alexander Rudin is a most impressive advocate for the enduring qualities of these three deeply moving works. Rudin offers the most refined and eloquent reading of the Concerto since Rostropovich’s early classic from 1956 (EMI), with more control than Mischa Maisky’s rather self-indulgent take on the piece (DG) but much greater warmth than Truls Mørk shows in his somewhat noncommittal account for Virgin» (BBC Music Magazine, CD «Myaskovsky Cello Sonatas, Cello Concerto»)

Information provided by the press service of the orchestra “Musica Viva”