Arkady Arkadyevich Volodos |

Arcadi Volodos

Arkady Volodos belongs to those musicians who confirm that the Russian piano school is still breathing, although they are already beginning to doubt it in their homeland – too few truly talented and thoughtful performers appear on the horizon.

Volodos, the same age as Kisin, was not a child prodigy and thundered not in Russia – after the so-called Merzlyakovka (school at the Moscow Conservatory), he went to the West, where he studied with famous teachers, including Dmitry Bashkirov, in Madrid. Without winning or even taking part in any competition, he nevertheless won the fame of a pianist who continues the traditions of Rachmaninov and Horowitz. Volodos gained popularity probably for his fantastic technique, which, it seems, has no equal in the world: his album with his own transcriptions of Liszt’s works became a real sensation.

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But Volodos “made himself respected” precisely by his musical qualities, since brilliant skills are combined in his playing with a phenomenal culture of sound and hearing. Therefore, the interest of recent years is rather quiet and slow music than fast and loud. An example of this is the last disc of Volodos, which presents rarely played works by Liszt, mostly late opuses written by the composer during the period of immersion in religion.

Arkady Volodos gives solo concerts at the most famous concert venues in the world (including Carnegie Hall in 1998). Since 1997 he has been performing with the world’s leading orchestras: the Boston Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia, the Royal Orchestra Concertgebouw (in the Master Pianists series), etc. His recordings on Sony Classical have been repeatedly awarded by critics, one of them was nominated for a Grammy award in 2001 .

M. Haikovich