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The Russian conductor and cellist, Alexander Rudin, graduated from the Gnesin GMPI (now: the Russian Gnesin Academy of Musi)c in 1983 (his professors in cello and piano were Lev Evgrafov and Yury Ponizovkin respectively). He was a prize-winner and laureate of prestigious cello competitions including the “Concertino Prague” Competition (1972); the Bach Competition in
Leipzig (Cello 1st Prize, 1976), Gaspar Cassado Competition in Florence (1979), and the 6th and 7th Tchaikovsky competitions in Moscow (1st Prize in 1978 and 2nd Prize in 1982). In 1989 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in
Dmitry Kitaenko’s class and with a degree in conducting.
Alexander Rudin is one of the brightest artists of the modern Russian musical scene. A world renowned cellist, conductor, pianist, outstanding ensemble player, professor of the Moscow Conservatory, researcher of early music scores, orchestrator and creator of unique concert series - in all these roles Alexander Rudin is equally successful. He belongs to the new type of Russian performers - universal musicians.
Alexander Rudin performs worldwide and participates in festivals in Edinburgh, Istanbul, Kuhmo and Ljubljana. He was the honorary guest in the Classix Festival in Braunschweig, and has appeared as soloist with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic,
Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestra of the Bavarian Opera,
Münchener Kammerorchester, and all of the principal Russian Orchestras, including Pyotr Tchaikovsky Large Symphony Orchestra, and the
Russian National Orchestra. As a conductor he performs regularly in Russia, Finland, Turkey, Poland, Norway and Spain. He frequently performs in chamber music as a cellist and pianist. His regular partners in chamber music performances are Yuri Bashmet,
Alexei Lubimov, B. Davidovich, Dmitry Sitkovetsky,
Vladimir Spivakov, Natalia Gutman, and V. Krainev. A creative co-operation connects Alexander Rudin with Russian composers of different generations -
Dmitry Kabalevsky, I. Tcherepnin,
Edison Denisov, V. Silvestrov, Rodion Shchedrin, A. Golovin, Artyomov, Klimov and others.
In 1988 Alexander Rudin was appointed Artistic Director of the Festival Musical Assemblies. From 1988 he is Artistic Director and Conductor of the
Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, Moscow, co-operates at the same time with the Austrian Arpeggione orchestra.
From 1989 Alexander Rudin is Professor and from 2002 - full Professor at the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, teaches a chamber ensemble class. In 1991-1992 he was Visiting Professor to the Helsinki Sibelius Academy. In addition to this, he gives numerous master-classes all over the world, and collaborates with student orchestras as a conductor (the Student orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory, the Youth Orchestra of Ekaterinburg etc.). Since 1993 he has been the President of the ‘Musical Assemblies’ charity foundation. He has been a member of the jury of many international music competitions, including the 10th and 11th Tchaikovsky competitions and the Bach Competition (Leipzig, 1998), and he was the chairman of the jury of the 12th Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002.
Serves as juror in many international Competitions, including the 10th and 11th Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Competitions and the Leipzig J. S. Bach Competition, 1998. In 2002, President of the Jury of cellists at the 12th International P. I. Tchaikovsky Competition. In 2001, winner of the Moscow Administration Prize.
The musical versatility, which allows Alexander Rudin to work with striking intensity in very different musical spheres combined with a unique artistic integrity make him stand out even among his most progressive peers. In his work the maestro rigidly follows pursuits and experiments within pure academic traditions. “Music is not an encore,” says Alexander Rudin, “You can’t downgrade it to the level of pure entertainment”. The combination of lesser known and completely unknown music with new interpretations of classical “hits” is characteristic of most concert programmes by this artist. Due to his passion for unearthing and rediscovering forgotten music Moscow audiences heard many interesting works for the first time, such as: “Fantasy on Russian Themes” for cello and orchestra by K. Davydov, the cello concertos by A. Kraft, J.B. Tricklir, I. Fazius, R. Folkmann and the First Cello Concerto by A. Dvorak. Together with
Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, Moscow he presented Moscow audiences with premiers of works by
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, A. Salieri, I. Pleyel, J. Dussek, C. Dittersdorf, O. Kozlovsky, V. Pashkevich and A. Alyabiev.
Though Rudin received an academic musical training, he became interested in the authentic performance of early music. With time he achieved a perfect balance between the two: nowadays he plays concerts on the modern cello and the viola da gamba alike, performs Romantic music in the traditional academic manner, while Baroque and Classic masterpieces receive “historically correct” treatment. This “authentic” trend gave way to the orchestra’s collaborations with a number of world-class artists famous in this field, such as outstanding British conductors
Christopher Hogwood and Roger Norrington. A significant part of Rudin’s repertoire includes works of contemporary composers (A. Golovin, V. Silvestrov, V. Artemov).
Alexander Rudin has recorded a few dozen CD’s. The most notable among them are: the Six cello suites by J.S. Bach (on Naxos), Cello concertos by J.B. Tricklir and N. Myaskovsky as well as a “Grieg-album”. The latter presents Rudin not only as a cellist and conductor, but also as a master of orchestral arrangement: Grieg’s chamber music here is performed using the maestro’s orchestration. Recent discs include recordings of works by A. Alyabiev and A. Tcherepnin, and a live recording of Beethoven’s Third Symphony with the Cello Concerto by A. Kraft in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. |
