New Page 6
![](maestro2.JPG)
Y
URI
S
IMONOV
the USSR People's
Artist,
Professor
"
/
am not going to make any discoveries, but I
set to myself a concrete task - to play well what I like. I am an
artist and I have always sought to attain the highest level of
performance. And as long as
I
can be
useful to people I must do it at the conductor's stand. This is my
mission".
|
Biography
Yuri
Simonov was born in
Saratov, USSR, studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire with Rabinovich
and
assisted Mravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. His debut
was in
1953 with the Saratov Music School Orchestra (
Mozart’s
Symphony No. 40
) and in 1963 at the Leningrad Conservatory
conducting Dargomizhsky's
The Mermaid
.
Following success in the Santa Cecilia Conductors' Competition in Rome
in 1968,
he was invited to make his debut at the Bolshoi Opera (
Aida
)
in 1969, and was almost immediately appointed Chief
Conductor: the youngest in history and, with his appointment ending
only in 1985,
also the longest serving.
Highlights of
his period with the Bolshoi Opera were numerous new productions of
Russian and
Western operas and ballets, the re-introduction of Wagner to the
repertoire
after a forty-year absence and several memorable tours, which he led to
Paris,
Japan, Vienna, New York, Milan and Washington. During this time, he
conducted
the Leningrad and Moscow Philharmonics, USSR State and Moscow Radio
Orchestras
and Philharmonic Orchestras of Kiev, Minsk and Riga on a regular basis,
including foreign tours.
In
1982, he made his debut
with a Western operatic company, conducting
Eugene
Onegin
at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and also made his
British
concert debut conducting three concerts with the London Symphony
Orchestra.
Since then, he has given numerous further concerts with the LSO in
London and
on tour, and has conducted a Tchaikovsky cycle with them at the
Barbican Hall.
In October 1986, he opened the season at the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden,
conducting
La Traviata
. There
followed debuts with the Philharmonia with whom he also toured to
Belgium, Hong
Kong and Australia, the Royal Philharmonic (in London and Paris), and
London
Philharmonic. Further debuts followed with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Boston
Symphony, Los Angeles Opera (
Don Carlos
with
Domingo), San Francisco Opera (
Khovanshchina
),
Florence Opera (
Salome
), Genoa Opera
(Così
fan tutte
). He made concert tours
of Greece, Spain, Mexico, France and England and conducted further
Wagner
performances (
Tannhäuser, Tristan und
Isolde
and
Parsifal
) in Budapest.
In
1986, he founded the USSR
Maly State Orchestra and toured it all over the USSR, as well as to
Germany,
Poland, Hungary and Italy.
In
the 1991/2 season, he
toured Europe with both the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and, for the
first time
in their history, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra.
In
1992/3, he made his debut
with the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Stuttgart
Philharmonic,
the NHK Symphony in Japan, Hamburg State Opera (
Don Carlos
),
Dallas Opera (
Eugene
Onegin
), Belgian National Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the
Deutsche
Oper, Berlin. He returned to Budapest to conduct
Der
Fliegende Holländer
for the first time and made his debut at
the Opera Bastille with
Pique Dame
.
He also conducted the Verdi
Requiem
in a special memorial performance at Vaison la Romaine in France.
In
1993/4, he conducted
La Forza del Destino
for the
first time,
in Marseille, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic and returned to
seven
western European countries for concerts before making his debut with
the Hong
Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducted the Royal Liverpool,
City of
Birmingham Symphony and English Northern Philharmonia Orchestras.
In
January 1994, he became
Musical Director of the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels, the
former
orchestra of the great Belgian conductor André Cluytens. At the
end of August
1994, he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood
Festival.
The season 1994/5's reappearances included a month in Japan with the
NHK
Symphony Orchestra,
Die Walküre
in
Budapest and concerts with the Hungarian State Orchestra, recordings
with the
Royal Philharmonic for
Tring
and
concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestras.
Season
1995/6 included
reappearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, further
Tring
recordings with the Royal Philharmonic, the Hungarian State
Orchestra, a new production of
Siegfried
in Budapest and master classes with young conductors at Miskolc in
Hungary as well
as the full complement of concerts with the Belgian National Orchestra.
In
1996/7, he appeared in the
UK in concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and made his debut at
the Royal
Albert Hall conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of
their
new concert season there, made his Canadian debut conducting the
Montreal
Symphony Orchestra and led the first tour of the UK by the Belgian
National
Orchestra.
At
the beginning of the 1997/8
season, he conducted five concerts in Amsterdam, Toulouse and Paris
with the
St. Petersburg Philharmonic and toured his own orchestra to Austria,
Switzerland and Germany. He also returned to the Czech Republic after
many
years appearing at the Prague Autumn Festival with the Brno State
Philharmonic,
conducted a new production of
Götterdämmerung
in Budapest and returned to the NHK Tokyo.
In
1998, Yuri Simonov was
invited to become Music Director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra;
he took
up the position at the beginning of the 1998/9 season. Since then he
has worked
with them extensively, not only in Russia but also on tours to the UK,
the USA,
Germany, Spain and the Far East. He also toured Japan with the NHK
Orchestra in
2002.
Mo.
Simonov has also been the Music Director of
the "Liszt - Wagner" Orchestra (Budapest) since 2001 and in 2003
began to give annual master classes for young conductors in Budapest.
In
addition, Mo Simonov’s fruitful contacts with other orchestras
continue. He has
visited Israel several times to conduct the Israel Symphony Orchestra
and the
Israel Philharmonic, and has frequently conducted the St Petersburg
Philharmonic. In Budapest, he has conducted
Der
Ring des Nibelungen
in its entirety,
Pique
Dame
in 2003 and
Lohengrin
in
2004.
In
2003/4,
he made his debuts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the
Warsaw
National Phiharmonic, and toured Japan with the Moscow Philharmonic.
In
2004/5,
he made his debuts with the Beethovenhalle Orchestra (Bonn) and
Budapest
Festival Orchestra and led the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on tours
to the
US, Japan and the Czech Republic.
During
2005/6,
he toured Spain, the UK and Korea and conducted a new production of
Die Nurnbergen Meistersinger
in the
Hungarian Opera House, Budapest.
In
2006/7, he
led the Moscow Philharmonic on tours to Japan and Germany, and
conducted a
five-performance-cycle of Queen of Spades with Budapest Opera. He also
conducted
the opening three concerts with the MPO at 35th Hong Kong Festival and
led the
9th International Master Course for conductors in Budapest.
Season
2007/8 included two tours of Russia and two of Japan with the MPO, his
debut
with the Het Brabant Orkest (Eindhoven) and the 10th International
Master Course
for conductors in Budapest.
Season
2008/9 was marked by a jubilee –
“Ten
years together”
, dedicated to ten years long collaboration
with MPO.
Special for-concert-serial included the most famous musical pearls as
well as
world famous soloists. In addition, there were Spain and Japan tours.
In
the season
2009/10, there were Russian and Korean tours as well as guest
appearances to
the orchestras of Riga, Wuppertal and Eindhoven. In 2010, Yuri Simonov
and the
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra won the "Conductor and Orchestra"
category of the Russian national "Music Review".
The
highlight of year 2011 was Maestro’s 70th birthday. Celebrations
started with
New Year concerts in China; continued with concerts in Moscow and
Orenburg in
March; on tour in Spain and Germany in April; in Ukraine and Romania in
May. In
addition, he performed special three-concert-series in Moscow to appeal
to
young audiences, using a wealth of music and literature material but
within
themes from the tales of The Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin and Cinderella.
The
jubilee
tours continued in United Kingdom and South Korea throughout the season
2011/12.
Besides that, on September 15 there was one more jubilee concert
– this time in
occasion of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra itself turning 60 years.
The
festive season of both the Orchestra and Maestro were supported by
great
soloists: B.Berezovsky, N.Lugansky, D.Matsuev, V.Ovchinnikov,
M.Vengerov,
N.Boriso-Glebsky, S.Roldugin.
The
season 2012/13
was full with concerts in Moscow, with tours to Russian provincial
cities, to
Korea and Japan. In St.-Petersburg, Maestro conducted the
Eugene
Onegin
at the season opening production of the
St.-Petersburg Conservatoire’s Opera Theater, marking his 50
years opera debut
at that stage. In July 2013, Maestro led the 1
st
Moscow
International Master-Class for young conductors, with nineteen active
and ten
passive participants.
In
the
season 2013/14, beside twelve programs in Moscow, there
were
Russia,
South
Korea, Spain and UK tours with MPO. Also, concerts with George Enescu
Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest, Savaria Philharmonic (Szombathely,
Hungary), Sofia Philharmonic in Sofia and with
Croatian
Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra
in Zagreb.
Season
2014/15 brought new developments, i.e. the opening of new concert hall
– refurbished hall of former Olympic village in south-west of
Moscow, named after S. Rachmaninov, as well as opening of Virtual
Concert Hall, with transmission on about 40 philharmonic halls all over
Russia.. Besides that, Maestro was on Spain tour with MPO and made his
debut with Symphony Orchestra of India in Mumbai.
Season
2015/16, beside regular concerts in Moscow, was marked with Jubilee -75
concerts in Moscow and Saratov. In November 2015 Maestro again served
as a Chairman of Jury at 2nd All-Russia conductor’s competition
in Moscow.
Season
2016/17 was full with concerts in many Moscow concert halls, with
concert tours of Russia (Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Saratov,
Nizhny-Novgorod), China, Japan and Switzerland. The soloist were
E.Mechetina, D.Masleev, F.Volodin, A.Romanovsky, S.Roldugin, A.Ramm,
P.Milyukov, C.-J.Kang. In July 2017 Mr. Simonov led the two-weeks-long
master-course for young conductors organized by Moscow Philharmony.
Season 2017/18 featured
fifteen programs with MPO in Moscow, concerts in Russian cities Tcheliabinsk
and Tver, as well as foreign tours to China, Hong-Kong, South Korea and Italy.
Maestro Simonov co-operated with soloists: V. Afanasiev, N. Lugansky,
E.Mechetina, D.Masleev, S.Vladar, S.Roldugin, A.Ramm, P.Milyukov, N.
Boriso-Glebsky, S. Krylov among others.
On 4 March 2018, beside the Maestro’s
birthday, there was a special celebration of “20 years together”, marking that
long co-operation with MPO.
The season ended with summer
Master-course for young conductors: twelve-days-marathon included orchestral
and Piano sections with Closing Gala concert on 5 July 2018.
Season
2018/19 consisted of fifteen programs in three different Moscow concert
venues, as well as in Russian cities Yaroslavl, Vologda, Cherepovets,
Saransk, Samara, Ulyanovsk. The season soloists were: violinists
– M. Vengerov, P. Miliukov; pianists – E. Mechetina, D.
Masleev, D. Trifonov, A. Korobejnikov; cellists – S. Roldugin, A.
Ramm.
In June 2019, Maestro and MPO accompanied to the Violinists at the
16-th Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.Personal guest-conducting
invitations brought Maestro to Budapest, St.-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg
and Novosibirsk.
Season
2019/20 will again contain fourteen programs in Moscow, as well as in
Kazan, Ufa, Naberezhnye Celny. International tours will bring Maestro
and MPO to UK in October 2019 and Germany in January 2020.
Guest conducting will be in St-Petersburg and Budapest.
The list of soloists is as following: Alexey Volodin, Aleksandra
Dariesku, Natalia Lomeyko, Peter Laul, Ekaterina Mechetina, Barry
Duglas, Dmitry Masleev, George Li, Sergey Khachatrian, Sergey Roldugin,
Schoek Atala, Lucas Debargue.
Beside his
concert activities, Maestro Simonov always was a devoted teacher for
young conductors. From 1978 to 1991 he was a professor at Moscow
Conservatoire. Since 2006 he is teaching at St.-Petersburg
Conservatoire, and, since 2009, also at Moscow Ippolitov-Ivanov Music
Institute. He gave numerous master-classes in Russia, Hungary, UK,
Israel, Kazakhstan, and fifteen master-courses in Budapest, Miskolc and
Moscow with more than 150 participants attending it.
In 2016,
Maestro became a Honored professor of Saratov Conservatoire. In October
2019 he received the same title from St-Petersburg Conservatoire, and
in December 2019 - from Moscow Ippolitov-Ivanov Music Institute.
Maestro
Simonov was also a member of the jury of conducting competitions in
Florence, Tokyo and Budapest. In He was the jury Chairman of the
1st, 2nd and 3d All-Russia conductor’s competitions in
2011, 2015 and 2019.
He
has recorded with the Bolshoi Company for
Melodia
,
with the London Symphony
Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia for
Collins
Cl
assics
, the Royal Philharmonic for
Tring
and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for
EMI
.
Mo.
Simonov has received many
awards for his outstanding contribution to music including: Honored
Artist of
the Russian Federation (1971); People's Artist of the Russian
Federation
(1976); Lenin's Komsomol Prize (1977); People's Artist of the USSR
(1981);
Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire (1985); Order for Merits in
Culture for
the Polish Republic (1988); Russian Order of Honour (2001); Order of
Merit of
the Republic of Hungary: Officer’s Cross (2001); Order of the
Star: Commander
(Romania, 2003). In March 2011, he received the Russian Order
“For the services
to the Fatherland”,the IV Grade, and in June 2017 – the III Grade.
http://meloman.ru/performer/yurij-simonov/
The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
“The
tour of
Moscow
Philharmonic Orchestra recalls in memory those times, when some
conductors literally reigned over musical team, and most famous
orchestras in the world had in their arsenal an invariable ideal
sound… Almost unbounded sound of brass band and fascinating
modulations of strings surprised everybody again and again”
(Allgemeine Zeitung,
Frankfurt
)
![](Moscow%20Philharmonic%20Orchestra,%202005%20l.jpg)
… The Moscow Philharmonic's visit to the city was an
irrefutable triumph, with the musicians clearly reveling in the music
of their homeland and it bringing the very best out of them,
unquestionably at the top of their game, while Yuri Simonov's
expressive conducting reflected his passion for and immersion in
the music. Stunning performances of Russian masters by a
world-class orchestra and two hours of sublime musical perfection.