Valery Kuzmych Polyansky (Valery Polyansky) |

Valery Polyansky

Valery Polyansky is a professor, People’s Artist of Russia (1996), laureate of the State Prizes of Russia (1994, 2010), holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2007).

V. Polyansky was born in 1949 in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow State Conservatory simultaneously at two faculties: conducting and choir (class of Professor B.I. Kulikov) and opera and symphony conducting (class of O.A. Dimitriadi). In graduate school, fate brought V. Polyansky with G.N. Rozhdestvensky, who had a great influence on the further creative activity of the young conductor.

While still a student, V. Polyansky worked at the operetta theater, where he led the entire main repertoire. In 1971, he created the Chamber Choir of Students of the Moscow Conservatory (later the State Chamber Choir). In 1977 he was invited as a conductor to the Bolshoi Theatre, where he participated together with G. Rozhdestvensky in the production of Shostakovich’s opera Katerina Izmailova, and also conducted other performances. Heading the State Chamber Choir, Valery Polyansky collaborated fruitfully with the leading symphony ensembles in Russia and foreign countries. He has repeatedly performed with orchestras of the Republic of Belarus, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Holland, USA, Taiwan, Turkey. He staged Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” at the Gothenburg Musical Theater (Sweden), for several years he was the chief conductor of the “Opera Evenings” festival in Gothenburg.

Since 1992, V. Polyansky has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the State Academic Symphony Capella of Russia.

V. Polyansky made a large number of recordings at leading recording companies, both abroad and in Russia. Among them are works by Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Glazunov, Scriabin, Bruckner, Dvorak, Reger, Shimanovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Schnittke (Schnittke’s Eighth Symphony, published by the English company Chandos records in 2001, was recognized as the best recording of the year), Nabokov and many other composers .

It is impossible not to mention the recording of all choral concerts by the remarkable Russian composer G. Bortnyansky and the revival of A. Grechaninov’s music, which was almost never performed in Russia. V. Polyansky is also an outstanding interpreter of Rachmaninov’s heritage, his discography includes all the composer’s symphonies, all his operas in concert performance, all choral works. Currently, V. Polyansky is also the President of the Rachmaninoff Society and heads the International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition.

Among the creative achievements of recent years is the unique cycle “Opera in Concert Performance”. In the last decade alone, V. Polyansky prepared and performed more than 25 operas by foreign and Russian composers. The last work of the maestro is participation in the world premiere of A. Tchaikovsky’s opera The Legend of the City of Yelets, the Virgin Mary and Tamerlane (July 2011), which was held with great success in Yelets.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website