EarlyMusicNews.Org

"Chamber Orchestra of Moscow State University was born in 1967. It was created by Edward Gindin a talented musician with a strong personality who played viola in the orchestra of Stanislavsky Opera Theatre but also had played before for a while in a famous Chamber Orchestra directed by Lev Markiz. Creation of the orchestra was enthusiastically supported by professor Shilov and academician Petrovskiy, the Rector of the Moscow State University at that time. It was originally formed as a chamber orchestra at the School of Mathematics and Mechanics but soon (since September 1967) transformed into a Chamber Orchestra of the Moscow State University. Initially, the style of the orchestra followed the "good manners" dictated by the legendary Moscow Chamber Orchestra founded in 1961 by Rudolf Barshai. In 1976, Edward Gindin emigrated to US as a refugee and the orchestra got for a while a shadow of a "politically incorrect collective". Since then, the orchestra was directed by Alexander Riz, a docent from Gnesin Institute (1975-1978 and 1987-1989; subsequently, emigrated to US), and other musicians Oleg Reshetkin (1979), Alexander Moldavskiy (1979-1987; eventually, emigrated to Israel) and Georgiy Kheresko (1985-1986; diseased 1999) and Dmitry Goldobin (1990/1991). The Chamber Orchestra of Moscow State University won the first prizes in the 1-st and 2-nd All-Union festivals of non-professional arts. It is also a laureat of two Festivals of Amateur Chamber Orchestras in Erevan. The current music director Alexander Konstantinov is not a professional musician, but an actively working biochemist, who has played violin in the orchestra since 1968, and has been its konzertmeister since ca. 1970.

In 1989, following steady and determined devotion of one of the orchestra members Andrey Sharapov (viola) who introduced to us first tape copies of authentic style performers and was persistent enough to use gut strings, give up a shoulder rest and a chin rest and to buy a baroque bow, the orchestra became interested in the so-called authentic style of baroque music performance. Having started virtually on the scratch, guided by accidental copies of recordings by Hogwood, Pinnock, Gardiner, Hornancourt and Leonhardt and progressing by tries and errors, the orchestra gradually picked up its own feeling of the style. A great impetus in this direction was given by Vladimir Drozdov (double bass) and Dmitry Goldobin (harpsichord) who joined the Orchestra in 1990 and before entering the orchestra, played for a while in one of the first authentic style ensembles organized in Moscow by Ivan Monigetti. Dmitry Goldobin spent a year as a music director of the orchestra in 1990/1991 academic year and the first early music program made with him (Locke, H.Lawes, Muffat, Kindermann, Halborne) provided a basis for further progress of the orchestra in this direction. Tuning down to a’=415 Hz made the evolution irreversible. Since 1990 the orchestra plays without conductor. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Orchestras/Chorus

Added on: Jul 24, 2008 | Hits: 389