SIBERIAN VIOLINIST MIKHAIL SIMONYAN PLAYS WITH PIANIST JULIA ZILBERQUIT AT LONDON DEBUT AT WIGMORE HALL
AZG Armenian Daily
08/10/2008
Culture
"breadth, lyricism and fleet technique"
– The New York Times
"the poise, perfection, and inner-burning fire of a master like
David Oistrakh"
– The Miami Herald
Violinist Mikhail Simonyan, hailed as having "a flawless, liquid
line and ravishing tone," by The Washington Post, will present his
London debut at Wigmore Hall with pianist Julia Zilberquit on Tuesday,
14 October, 2008 at 7:30 pm (36 Wigmore Street).
The concert program includes Bach’s Violin Sonatas Nos. 3 and
4 and Prokofiev’s Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2. In January 2009,
Mr. Simonyan’s much-anticipated debut CD – a recording of both
Prokofiev Sonatas with pianist Alexei Podkorytov – will be released
by Delos (DE 3385). The album was recorded with Grammy Award-winning
producer Adam Abeshouse. Review copies are now available.
At just 22 years of age, Mikhail Simonyan is already recognized as
one of the most celebrated talents of his generation. Performing
and recording both Prokofiev Violin Sonatas is an undertaking near
and dear to his heart. He worked intensely on this repertoire with
his mentor, violinist Victor Danchenko, a student of the great David
Oistrakh for whom both sonatas were written.
Of this process, Mr. Simonyan remarks, "Mr. Danchenko was in the
Soviet Union during the war, so he passed along the ideas. He told me
a lot about living in the Soviet Union during the war years, and that
helped me to understand all the details of the music, to understand
how sad this music is. Emotionally, it’s the hardest pieces for me
to play on stage, because as soon as I play the first note, my mind
immediately goes there…"
Mr. Simonyan, who hails from Novosibirsk (the same city that Vadim
Repin and Maxim Vengerov call home), began to study the violin at
the age of five. As part of the first generation of artists to forge
careers in an era with substantially decreased government support,
he has blazed a trail for young musicians in Russia. In 1999, at 13,
Mr. Simonyan made his acclaimed New York debut at Lincoln Center with
the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra (ARYO) and his debut in
St. Petersburg, Russia at the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre in ARYO’s joint
concert with the Mariinsky Youth Orchestra, performing the Szymanowski
Violin Concerto No. 1 (which he had just learned for the occasion).
In addition to Mr. Simonyan’s upcoming Wigmore Hall debut, current
and upcoming concert season highlights include a debut at the
Berlin Philharmonie; his debut at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago,
Chile, performing the Bruch Violin Concerto; a recital during the
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Musikfestival in Germany as part of the "Junge
Elite" concert series.