Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Viola Concerto No. 1 Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, Elvira Misbakhova, London Symphony Orchestra, Airat Ichmouratov

• Airat Ichmouratov (b. 1973): Piano Concerto, Op. 40:
• 1 Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Op. 40: I. Andante affettuoso 16:27
• 2 Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Op. 40: II. Grave Solenne 12:32
• 3 Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Op. 40: III. Allegro moderato 09:28
• Concerto No.1 for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 7:
• 4 Ichmouratov: Concerto No.1 for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 7: I. Andante 15:33
• 5 Ichmouratov: Concerto No.1 for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 7: II. Recitativo 14:54
• 6 Ichmouratov: Concerto No.1 for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 7: III. Allegro - Presto 06:57
• Total Runtime 01:15:51

Info for Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Viola Concerto No. 1

Volga-Tatar-born Canadian composer and conductor Airat Ichmouratov conducts the London Symphony Orchestra for this recording of two of his major works, Chandos’ third album dedicated to the works of this outstanding composer. Both concertos are recorded here by the soloists who premiered each work. Ichmouratov’s first viola concerto was conceived in 2004, whilst he was a conducting student at the Universite de Montreal. His fellow Ph.D. candidate, the violist Elvira Misbakhova, wanted something new for her doctoral performance, preferably a concerto that combined lyrical impulses and virtuoso challenges. The resulting work is a large-scale piece in three movements that exploits and celebrated the naturally sombre character of the instrument. The Piano Concerto was written in six months in 2012 – 13 and then lingered in a drawer for almost a decade awaiting a soloist who could both do it justice and add finishing touches to the solo part. Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, a Montrealer with a fondness for the virtuoso tradition, was himself looking for a new concerto to champion. Ichmouratov gratefully acknowledges the contributions made to the solo part by Sylvestre, the concerto’s dedicatee.

Ichmouratov’s music is therefore a grandiose pied-de-nez to the psycho-rigid purists who have for so long imposed a shameful atmosphere on pleasure in contemporary music. And yet, if this music is eminently enjoyable, even exciting, will there be anything left of it a century from now? Will it have replaced astringent modernism for good, the latter reduced to an ephemeral cerebral fad? Or, on the contrary, is it itself a fad, a need for temporary consonance after decades of hyper-demanding avant-garde?

Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano
Elvira Misbakhova, viola
London Symphony Orchestra
Airat Ichmouratov, conductor

Jean-Philippe Sylvestre
is the laureate of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize 2008, the highest distinction from the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2000 at the age of 17, pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre won first prize at the prestigious Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, as well as the People’s Choice Award at the same competition. He is also laureate of the Young Performer Competition and Concertino Praga International Competition. He was three times recipient of the 1st prize at the Canadian music competition, and at one of these occasions, was the recipient of the highest score of the entire competition. He is the recipient of the studio-prize Paris residency 2016 from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Mr. Sylvestre has played with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Simon Streatfeild, Christian Schulz, Richard Bradshaw, Alain Trudel, Fabien Gabel, and Rolf Bertsch. Famous conductor Yannick Nézet Séguin qualifies him as “a poet of the piano”. M. Sylvestre has appeared at the prestigious Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Gaveau hall in Paris, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Sala 2 Oriol Martorell in Barcelona, the St-Pierre des Cuisines Auditorium of Toulouse, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Fundação de Educação Artística in Brazil, the Wilfrid-Pelletier and Pierre-Mercure halls in Montreal, the Glenn Gould Studio and the George Weston Hall in Toronto, as well as the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. In November 2019, M. Sylvestre has taken part on an Australien tour of seven concerts where he performed in Sydney and Melbourne. He is regularly invited as a soloist by the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, and the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil.

Booklet for Ichmouratov: Piano Concerto, Viola Concerto No. 1