The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio (TSO) was organized
in 1930, and
Alexander Orlov
became its first director. Initially the TSO was engaged in concert
performances of opera music but in the very first years of its existence
the TSO went beyond the borders of the Radiotheatre, and began to give
its own performances. In 1937 there came another director,
Nikolai Golovanov,
and the next 16 years in the history of the orchestra, as well as its
further establishment and formation of individual performing personality,
were closely connected with him. In 1953
Alexander Gauk,
a brilliant musician, succeded Golovanov, and from 1961 to 1974 the
orchestra was directed by
Ghennady Rozhdestvensky,
a bright interpretator of twentieth-century music. Since 1974 till now
the orchestra has been headed by Vladimir Fedoseyev, an outstanding
conductor. Each of the TSO directors was a phenomenon in the world
musical culture, and each made his contribution to shape up the artistic
style and personality of the orchestra. It is to the TSO that such
prominent composers like
D.Shostakovich,
A.Khachaturian,
N.Miaskovsky,
S.Prokofiev,
R.Gliyer,
D.Kabalevsky,
G.Sviridov,
B.Chaikovsky
and others trusted the first performances of their works. The orchestra
was conducted by such famous Russian and foreign musicians as
b.Khaikin,
L.Stokovsky,
G.Abendrot,
K.Tsekki,
A.Kluitens,
G.Fattelburg,
K.Zanderling,
Yev.Mravinsky.
The unforgettable names of distinguished performers went down in the
TSO history. The TSO concerts with participation
D.Oistrach,
L.Kogan,
S.Richter,
E.Gilels,
I.Arkhipova,
I.Kozlovsky,
V.Tretiakov
and
Yu.Bashmet
became remarkable events.
The geography of the TSO tours is very wide. The musicians gave guest
performances in small and big cities of this country and abroad including
Europian, Asian and American capitals. The TSO is a permanent participant
of major musical festivals: "Russian Winter", "May Stars", and "Moscow
Autumn". It was the central and most successful participant of the
European festivals in Salzburg and Bregenz, in Vienna, in the "Russian
Festivals" in London and Skriabin Festival in Graz, the Tchaikovsky
Festival in Munich and Frankfurt, the "Prague Spring" to name but a few.
In 1992 the TSO took part in the
Beethoven
Festival in the composer's native
city of Bonn gathering the best orchestras of the world, and critics ranked
the TSO performing
the Seventh Symphony
by
Beethoven
and
the Fourth Symphony
by
Mahler
first among other no less glorious performers.
The orchestra fully cooperates with major music recording firms such
as JVC and Pony Canyon (Japan), Music (Austria) and Sony Classical
(Europe) and wins the first prizes at their competitions. Thus in
1988 the orchestra won the Crystal Prize of the Japanese Broadcasting
Corporation Asahi Hoyu for the best performance of the year.
The winner of the
Glinka
Prize, Vladimir Fedoseyev finished the post graduate course in 1968
specialing in conducting opers and symphony music in the class of professor
Leo Ginzburg.
When, in 1974, he was invited to take the position of the TSO director,
he had a large experience already of working with the famous orchestras
(Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bolshoi Orchestra and the Kirov
Theatre Orchestra, as well as the Russian Folk Instruments Orchestra
which had won world acclaim under Fedoseyev's direction).
But it was exactly with the TSO, in work with a superb ensemble of performers
multifarious performing activities of the orchestra of radio and
television, that Fedoseyev revealed in all its glory his talent of a Chief
Conductor.
Fedoseyev is a thoughtful, serious conductor. He feels in depth the
author's conception. The foreign press always emphasizes the orchestra's
wide and non-traditionally Russian repertory. However, special
recognition was won by the orchestra conducted by Fedoseyev for its
execution and recording of Russian music:
Tchaikovsky,
Scriabin,
Mussorgsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov,
Stravinsky,
Shostakovich
and
Sviridov.
Vladimir Fedoseyev is constantly invited to work with best European
orchestras. He worked in Germany with the orchestras of Hamburg,
Studtgart and Frankfurt; in France he conducted the National Orchestra
and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Radio France, in Italy he worked
with the orchestra of La Scala (Milan), with Radio and Television
Orchestras of Rome, Milan and Turin. Fedoseyev and the company
"Classical Version" (England) made recordings of all the piano
concertos by
Tchaikovsky
with
M.Pletnev
as a solist. Fedoseyev is the famous opera conductor performing with
the best opera theatres of Europe: La Scala (Milan), opera theatres
of Rome, Florence and Bologne, Stadt Opera of Vienna ("You cannot imagine
the music life of Vienna without this Russian conductor...").
Fedoseyev is a constant participant in world choral festivals arranged
in Oslo, Stokholm and Munich, where he conducted
"Requiem"
by
Verdi
performed by a two-thousand-strong choir and the best solists of the
world -
Luciano Pavarotti,
Carol Vaness,
Franco de Grandis,
Florence Quivar
and
Roberto Scandiuzzi.
But Maestro Fedoseyev has remained faithful to his orchestra connected
with him by bonds of "the love forever". In the twenty years of joint
work and mutual enrichment the performing style of the orchestra has
acquired an individual colouring. Its manner is bright and clearly
recognizable, no matter where it performs - in the concert halls, over
the radio or television. What can be more? But Maestro remains in a
constant quest for new music, new ways and new solutions. The Vienna
newspaper Die Presse was justified in writing that "all done by this
artist or to be done in the future went through his heart and mind.
His musicians follow him obediently and work wonders. The same pieces
can be performed differently but they cannot be performed better."
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