A concert that offers the opportunity to hear two rarely performed gems of Russian chamber music: Mikhail Glinka’s unfinished viola and piano sonata in two movements, a rare work for the viola of the time, and Nikolai Medtner’s third and grandest violin sonata, which he composed in London.
Programme
M. Glinka (1804-1857): Sonata for viola and piano
N. Medtner (1880-1951): Sonata for violin and piano no. 3, Op. 57, ‘Epica’
Alexander Karpeyev, piano
Natalya Lomeiko, violin
Yury Zhislin, viola
Premiered online 2 March at 6.00pm GMT and now available to watch on demand.
Musicians’ Biographies
Yury Zhislin
Described by The Strad as a 'virtuoso with a truly Romantic temperament', Yuri Zhislin enjoys an active and illustrious career as soloist and chamber musician. In 1991, Yuri entered the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with his father and later Dr Andrievsky, winning the title of the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year in 1993.
The orchestras that Yuri performed with include the Oxford Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Lithuanian State Symphony and the Santiago de Chile Symphony, to name a few. Zhislin made his recital debut at the New York Carnegie Weill Hall in 2014 and appeared at the major concert venues throughout Europe, the USA, South America, Australia and Japan. His discography includes a recital CD released in 2005 on the SOMM label, a violin/viola Duos CD for the Naxos label in 2009, and a string trio CD for the Nymbus Alliance label with Dmitry Sitkovetsky on violin and Luigi Piovano on cello.
A keen chamber musician, Yuri has worked with such artists as Maria-Joao Pires, Maxim Vengerov, Barry Douglas and Natalie Clein among many others. Formed in 2004 by Yuri, the Russian Virtuosi of Europe is an ensemble comprising outstanding string players based in Europe. Yuri is a professor of violin and viola at the Royal College of Music in London.
Natalya Lomeiko
Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia Natalya has already established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist. Having won numerous prizes in Tibor Varga, Tchaikovsky, Menuhin, Stradivari International Violin competitions; in the year 2000 she received the Gold Medal and the 1st Prize in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, Italy) and the 1st prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (Auckland, New Zealand) in 2003.
Natalya studied at the Specialist Music School in Novosibirsk with Prof. A. Gvozdev, at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England with Lord Menuhin and Prof. N. Boyarskaya, at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Prof. Hu Kun and currently lives in London.
Alexander Karpeyev
Featured as ‘One to watch’ in International Piano magazine, Alexander Karpeyev is a Russian pianist resident in the UK, who has performed throughout the UK and Europe and toured in the USA, Canada and Russia as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
Alexander trained at the Moscow Conservatory with Vera Gornostayeva and Alexander Mndoyants and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Joan Havill. He is the winner of the Dudley International Piano Competition as well as the Norah Sande Award and the holder of a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 2014 he completed a performance practice doctoral degree at the City University, based on the Edna Iles Medtner Collection at the British Library. Alexander is often asked to give masterclasses and lectures on Russian performing practice.
Alexander is passionate about communicating his ideas on Romantic 19th and early 20th-century piano repertoire, and in particular exploring the works of virtuoso pianist-composers. A Medtner specialist, he became deeply immersed in Medtner’s music and approach to music-making while working on his doctoral degree, and his contact with unique performing practice evidence informs his own playing. In 2019 he gave the Algerian premiere of Chopin’s F minor Concerto with the Algerian National Opera Orchestra under Maestro Amine Kouider.
He devotes considerable time to promoting Russian music in London as the Music Curator of the Pushkin House Music Salon in Bloomsbury, where he appears both as a soloist and collaborator with guest artists. He also has a mission to devise and direct music festivals that imaginatively combine performance and scholarship.
