Moscow Chamber Orchestra

Moscow Chamber Orchestra
Origin	Moscow, USSR
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Chamber orchestra
Years active	1955 - present

The Moscow Chamber Orchestra is a Chamber Orchestra based in Moscow, Russia, and assigned to the Moscow Philharmonia, a State-run enterprise, formerly under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture (Soviet Union) and now, Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation.

History

Founding, 1955

Rudolf Barshai, founder

First performance: April 2nd, 1956, at the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory

Rudolf Barshai (Russian: Рудольф Борисович Баршай, September 28, 1924 – November 2, 2010) was a virtuoso viola player and a founding member of Borodin Quartet and left the Quartet to pursue his conducting ambitions. He assembled young, talented musicians and soon, first Chamber Orchestra in the former USSR had their inaugural concert in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on April 2, 1956. The Orchestra became the most traveled Classical Music ensemble in the former Soviet Union and toured the world from Eastern Europe to Canada and the United States and from Japan to South America. Many composers dedicated their compositions to the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, such as Dmitry Shostakovich, Revol Bunin, Mieczysław Weinberg, Boris Tchaikovsky and many others. Moscow Chamber Orchestra performed many world-premiers of contemporary compositions, such as Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No.14, in Leningrad, on September 29, 1969, being a prime example. Many world-famous musicians performed and recorded with the Orchestra: Yehudi Menuhin, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Malcolm Frager, to name a few. Following Barshai’s emigration to the West in 1977, Igor Semyonovich Bezrodny (Russian: Игорь Семёнович Безродный) was appointed a new conductor and an artistic director of the Orchestra. He led the Orchestra until 1981. For the next 10 years Moscow Chamber Orchestra was led by Victor Tretiakov, then Andrei Korsakov. Constantin Orbelian was appointed a new conductor in 1991; he was succeeded by Alexei Utkin (Russian: Алексей Уткин), in 2010.

External links

• [1] Barshai's story from Homepage
• [2] Classical-music.com - BBC Music Magazine's official music website
• [3] Barshai obituary
• Naxos
• Igor Bezrodny's biography (in Russian)
• [4] Moscow Chamber Orchestra on Internet