MOSCOW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Established in 1989, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra includes prize-winners and laureates of Russian and international music competitions and graduates of conservatories in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev who have played under such conductors as Svetlanov, Rozhdestvensky, Mravinsky and Ozawa, in Russia and throughout the world.

During the following years the orchestra not only survived in the period of economic difficulties, but strengthened its position and became one of the top orchestras in Russia. Since the early 1990s it has been a regular participant in the Moscow musical seasons. Each year the orchestra presents around twenty concerts in Moscow’s two best concert halls, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and has its own subscription series. The repertoire includes both traditional and less well-known classical music, as well as compositions by contemporary composers.

The orchestra has recorded sound tracks for several Hollywood films. Since 1991 frequent tours have taken the orchestra to most European countries, as well as Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and the United States. The orchestra has also been a regular participant in international music festivals in Germany, Austria and Cyprus. The chief conductor and artistic director of the orchestra is Vladimir Ziva.

In addition to its extensive concert programmes, the orchestra has been recognized for its outstanding recordings for Marco Polo, including the first-ever survey of Malipiero’s symphonies, symphonic music of Guatemala, the complete symphonies of Charles Tournemire and Russian music by Scriabin, Glazunov, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Nikolay Tcherepnin.

The orchestra also stays busy recording music for contemporary films. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra has received several international awards including CD of the Month by the American magazine CD Review, the prestigious French Diapason d’Or and the Chairman’s Choice in the Cannes Classical Awards. The Economist voted the orchestra’s recording of film music by Bernard Herrmann (Naxos 8.570186) one of the ten best records of the year. Critical accolades for the orchestra’s wide-ranging recordings are frequent, including its important film music re-recordings with conductor William Stromberg and reconstructionist John Morgan for Marco Polo. Fanfare critic Royal S. Brown, reviewing the complete recording of Hans J. Salter and Paul Dessau’s landmark House of Frankenstein score, saluted the CD (Marco Polo 8.223748) as a “valuable document on the kind of craftsmanship and daring in film scoring that passed by all but unnoticed because of the nature of the films.” Film Score Monthly praised the orchestra’s recording of Korngold’s Another Dawn score, adding that “Stromberg, Morgan and company could show some classical concert conductors a thing or two on how Korngold should be played and recorded.” The same magazine described a recording of suites from Max Steiner’s music for Virginia City and The Beast With Five Fingers (Marco Polo 8.223870) as “full-blooded and emphatic.” And Rad Bennett of The Absolute Sound found so much to praise in the orchestra’s film music series he voiced a fervent desire that Marco Polo stay put in Moscow and “record film music forever”. Many of these recordings are now being reissued in the Naxos Film Music Classics series.

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Role: Orchestra
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