Nikolai Lvovich Lugansky |

Nikolai Lugansky

Nikolai Lugansky is a musician who is called one of the most “romantic heroes” of modern piano playing. “A pianist of all-consuming sensitivity, who puts forward not himself, but music…”, this is how the authoritative newspaper The Daily Telegraph described Lugansky’s performing art.

Nikolai Lugansky was born in 1972 in Moscow. Has been involved in music since the age of 5. He studied at the Central Music School with T.E. Kestner and at the Moscow Conservatory with professors T.P. Nikolaeva and S.L. Dorensky, from whom he continued his studies in graduate school.

Pianist – winner of the I All-Union Competition for Young Musicians in Tbilisi (1988), laureate of the VIII International Competition named after I.S. Bach in Leipzig (II prize, 1988), the All-Union Competition named after S.V. Rachmaninov in Moscow (1990nd prize, 1992), winner of the special prize of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum (Salzburg, 1994), winner of the 1993nd prize of the X International Competition named after P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow (XNUMX, I prize was not awarded). “There was something Richter in his game,” said the chairman of the jury of the P.I. Tchaikovsky Lev Vlasenko. At the same competition, N. Lugansky won a special prize from the E. Neizvestny Foundation “For the confession of tone and artistic contribution to a new interpretation of Russian music – to the Student and the Teacher”, which was awarded to the pianist and his teacher T.P. Nikolaeva, who died in XNUMX.

Nikolai Lugansky tours a lot. He was applauded by the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Concert Hall named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Barbican Centre, Wigmor Hall, Royal Albert Hall (London), Gaveau, Theater Du Chatelet, Theater des Champs Elysees (Paris), Conservatoria Verdi (Milan), Gasteig (Munich), Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles), Avery Fisher Hall (New York), Auditoria Nacionale (Madrid), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Suntory Hall (Tokyo) and many other famous halls of the world. Lugansky is a regular participant in the most prestigious music festivals in Roque d’Antheron, Colmar, Montpellier and Nantes (France), in the Ruhr and Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), in Verbier and I. Menuhin (Switzerland), the BBC and the Mozart Festival (England), festivals “December Evenings” and “Russian Winter” in Moscow …

The pianist collaborates with the largest symphony orchestras in Russia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the USA and with more than 170 world conductors, including E. Svetlanov, M. Ermler, I. Golovchin, I. Spiller, Y. Simonov, G. Rozhdestvensky, V. Gergiev, Yu. Temirkanov, V. Fedoseev, M. Pletnev, V. Spivakov, A. Lazarev, V. Ziva, V. Ponkin, M. Gorenstein, N. Alekseev, A. Vedernikov, V. Sinaisky, S. Sondeckis, A. Dmitriev, J. Domarkas, F. Bruggen, G. Jenkins, G. Shelley, K. Mazur, R. Chaiy, K. Nagano, M. Janowski, P. Berglund, N. Järvi, Sir C Mackeras, C. Duthoit, L. Slatkin, E. de Waart, E. Krivin, K. Eschenbach, Y. Sado, V. Yurovsky, S. Oramo, Yu.P. Saraste, L. Marquis, M. Minkowski.

Among the partners of Nikolai Lugansky in chamber performance are pianist V. Rudenko, violinists V. Repin, L. Kavakos, I. Faust, cellists A. Rudin, A. Knyazev, M. Maisky, clarinetist E. Petrov, singer A. Netrebko, quartet them. D.D. Shostakovich and other outstanding musicians.

The pianist’s repertoire includes more than 50 piano concertos, works of different styles and eras – from Bach to contemporary composers. Some critics compare N. Lugansky with the famous Frenchman A. Cortot, saying that after him no one has been able to perform Chopin’s works better. In 2003, the Musical Review newspaper named Lugansky the best soloist of the 2001-2002 season.

The musician’s recordings, released in Russia, Japan, Holland and France, were highly appreciated in the music press of many countries: “… Lugansk is not only a magnificent virtuoso, he is, first of all, a pianist who completely immerses himself in music for beauty …” (Bonner Generalanzeiger) ; “The main thing in his playing is the refinement of taste, stylistic and textual perfection … The instrument sounds like a whole orchestra, and you can hear all the gradations and nuances of orchestral voices” (The Boston Globe).

In 1995, N. Lugansky was awarded the international prize. Terence Judd as “the most promising pianist of the younger generation” for his recordings of works by S.W. Rachmaninov. For the disc containing all of Chopin’s etudes (by Erato), the pianist was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’Annee award as the best instrumentalist of 2000. His discs of the same company with recordings of Rachmaninov’s Preludes and Moments Musicale and of Chopin’s Preludes were also awarded the Diapason d’Or in 2001 and 2002. The recording at Warner Classics (1st and 3rd concerts of S. Rachmaninov) with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo received two awards: Choc du Monde de la Music and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. For recordings of the 2nd and 4th concerts of S. Rachmaninov, made with the same orchestra and conductor, the pianist was awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik 2005 award, awarded annually by the German Recording Academy. In 2007, a recording of Chopin and Rachmaninoff sonatas made by N. Lugansky and cellist A. Knyazev also won the Echo Klassik 2007 award. was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award for Chamber Music. Among the latest recordings of the pianist is another CD with works by Chopin (Onyx Classics, 2011).

Nikolai Lugansky – People’s Artist of Russia. He is the exclusive artist of the Moscow Philharmonic throughout Russia.

Since 1998 he has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, at the Department of Special Piano under the guidance of Professor S.L. Dorensky.

In 2011, the artist has already given more than 70 concerts – solo, chamber, with symphony orchestras – in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod), the USA (including participation in the tour of the Honored Team of Russia Philharmonic), Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Turkey. The pianist’s immediate plans include performances in France, Germany and the USA, tours in Belarus, Scotland, Serbia, Croatia, concerts in Orenburg and Moscow.

For his contribution to the development of domestic and world musical culture, he was awarded the State Prize in the field of literature and art in 2018.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website Photo: James McMillan