CARPE DIEM
Slovak Philharmonic
Orchestra
Orchestra
Dubai, UAE
Following his hugely successful appearance at InClassica 2021, on Tuesday 31st May the InClassica International Music Festival welcomes back the winner of multiple national and international competitions, Italian bandoneon specialist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi. This concert features Mr Pietrodarchi performing alongside the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the winner of the 1999 “G.Fitelberg” International Competition and recipient of the 2018 Gazzetta Italia Prize, Massimiliano Caldi, for a performance of works by Verdi, Shor and Beethoven. InClassica is proudly presented by SAMIT Event Group.
“Daniel Raiskin is clearly a musician of sensibility, well versed in his craft; a further example perhaps of one last great gift of the old Soviet Union, the rigour and distinction of its conducting schools” (by David Gutman, Gramophone)
A son of a prominent musicologist, Daniel Raiskin grew up in St. Petersburg. He attended the celebrated conservatory in his native city and continued his studies in Amsterdam and Freiburg. First focusing on viola, he was inspired to take up the baton by an encounter with the distinguished teacher Lev Savich. In addition, he also took classes with Maestri such as Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Milan Horvat, Woldemar Nelson und Jorma Panula. Raiskin, who cultivates a broad repertoire, often looks beyond the mainstream in his strikingly conceived programs.
From the 2020/2021 season Daniel Raiskin is the Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava. In addition, he is Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra since August 2018 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra from season 2017/18.
The 2021/22 season includes guest conducting appearances with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow and Orquesta Clássica Santa Cecilia Madrid.
With the Winnipeg Symphony in May 2022 he will undertake a European tour with appearances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam and Tivoli in Utrecht among others. Raiskin served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife 2017-18, Chief Conductor of both, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz (2005-2016) and of the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Lódz (2008-2015). His regular guest appearances include the Athens State, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Iceland Symphony, Japan Century Symphony, Malmö Symfoni Orkester, Mariinsky Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Osaka Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, San Antonio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Chamber and the Tonkünstler orchestras.
His appearances in opera productions include Carmen, Shostakovich’s The Nose and Mozart’s Don Giovanni among others.
Daniel Raiskin is also relentlessly committed to sharing his knowledge and passion with young musicians around the world. He devotes his time regularly to working with youth orchestras in a.o. Canada, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Russia and South Africa. Among the major soloists with whom he has appeared are Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Nelson Freire, Martin Fröst, Alban Gerhardt, Vadim Gluzman, Natalia Gutman, Kari Kriikku, Simone Lamsma, Lang Lang, Francois Leleux, Jan Lisiecki, Alexei Lubimov, Tatjana Masurenko, Albrecht Mayer, Daniel Müller-Schott, Olli Mustonen, Steven Osborne, Julian Rachlin, Benjamin Schmid, Julian Steckel, Anna Vinnitskaya and Alexei Volodin. Recent recordings include Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 with the label AVI, both to great critical acclaim. His recording with cello concertos by Korngold, Bloch and Goldschmidt with Julian Steckel and the label AVI received an Echo Klassik Award in 2012. Other recent recording projects include a Louis Glass Symphony cycles and a concerto cycle with the entire concertos and rhapsodies by Aram Khachaturian, both with the label CPO, Lutoslawski’s vocal-instrumental works with the label Dux and a recording of Alexander Tansman’s Isaie le Prophète and Psaumes with the label World Premiere Recordings.
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi was born in Atessa on December 26th 1980. He began studying the accordion at the age of nine before switching to the bandoneon later. From 1993 to 2001, he studied at the F. Fenaroli Civic Music school in Lanciano with M° C. Calista and with M° C. Chiacchiaretta. In 2007, he graduated with honours from Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music in Rome.
In 2006, he resided at the Montreal Jazz Festival “I colori del mare” with Gabriele Mirabassi and Pietro Tonolo a project of the EGEA record company.
On 25th May 2009, he played at the Colosseo (Rome) with M° Andrea Bocelli, Angela Gheorghiu, Andrea Griminelli and the Abruzzo Symphony Orchestra. The event “L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra” was in aid of the earthquake victims of Abruzzo. It was exclusively broadcast worldwide on RAI 1 and RAI SAT.
On December 25th 2010, he performed with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Concerto per la Vita e per la Pace (Concert for Life and Peace), worldwide broadcast by RAI in Bethlehem.
On June 1st 2011, he performed at the Arena of Verona together with Erwin Schrott during the festivities for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification. The show was broadcast live by Rai 1.
Together with Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebeko, he performed in the most important cities in Germany, England and Denmark in 2012. In the same year, he recorded the DVD "Live in Portofino" on a guest appearance with Andrea Bocelli.
In 2013, he performed on a guest appearance with Andrea Bocelli, Riccardo Cocciante, Pino Daniele and Simona Molinari at the event "Teatro del Silenzio". On February 22 2014, he performed at the Ulker Sports Arena in Istanbul together with Andrea Bocelli.
In 2018 recorded “Tango Seasons” for Sony Records, alongside Andrés Gabetta leading the fantastic baroque ensemble Cappella Gabetta.
Apart from frequently performing in Italy, he has been giving concerts in England, France, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Serbia, Germany, the U.S.A., Poland, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Canada, Armenia, Russia, Israel, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Turkia, Libano, Belarus and China.
THE SLOVAK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA was established in 1949. Two highly reputed, internationally acclaimed personalities, Václav Talich (Principal Conductor, 1949 – 1952) and Ľudovít Rajter (1949 – 1976, and the orchestra’s Artistic Director until 1961), stood at the orchestra’s birth. Other chief conductors who have played an instrumental role in the orchestra’s musical evolution include Tibor Frešo, Ladislav Slovák, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Verbitsky, Bystrík Režucha and Aldo Ceccato. Between 1991 and 2001 the role of Chief Conductor and Music Director was held by Ondrej Lenárd. In the 2003/2004 season Jiří Bělohlávek acted as Artistic Director. In 2004 Vladimír Válek became Chief Conductor, and was succeeded by Peter Feranec in 2007 – 2009. From 2009 – 2016 the French conductor Emmanuel Villaume was the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and from 2017 until 2020, the British conductor James Judd. Leoš Svárovský (from 2007 – 2018), Rastislav Štúr (from 2011 – 2019) and Petr Altrichter (for the 2018/2019 season) have been Permanent Guest Conductors of the Slovak Philharmonic. From the 2020/2021 season Daniel Raiskin became Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.
Among the many guest conductors who have worked with the Slovak Philharmonic over the years, international personalities like János Ferencsik, Witold Rowicki, Václav Smetáček, Karel Ančerl, Franz Konwitschny, Arvīds Jansons, Václav Neumann, Hermann Abendroth, Antonio Pedrotti, Sir Eugene Goossens, Sir Malcom Sargent, Roberto Benzi, Kurt Masur, Sir Charles Mackerras, Carlo Zecchi, Serge Baudo, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Sanderling, Zdeněk Košler (who, thanks to his longstanding fruitful collaboration with the orchestra, was awarded the honorary title of ‘Chief Conductor in memoriam’ in 1996), Riccardo Muti, Karl Richter, Kirill Kondrashin, Leif Segerstam, Alain Lombard, Sergiu Celibidache, Thomas Sanderling, Oskar Danon, Mario Rossi, Neeme Järvi, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, Evgeny Svetlanov, Mariss Jansons, Christoph von Dohnányi, Dmitri Kitayenko, Otmar Suitner, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Rahbari, Fabio Luisi, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Peter Schreier, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Ralf Weikert, Miltiades Caridis, Pinchas Steinberg, Peter Keuschnig, Tomáš Hanus, Jakub Hrůša, Juraj Valčuha, Tomáš Netopil, Ion Marin, Pavel Baleff, George Pehlivanian, Jun Märkl, Ilan Volkov, Wayne Marshall, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Alan Buribayev must be mentioned, as well as composers and artists of own works like Jean Martinon, Krzysztof Penderecki a Aram Khachaturian.
The orchestra has made numerous recordings for radio, television and the music publishers OPUS, Supraphon, Panton, Hungaroton, JVC Victor, RCA, Pacific Music, Naxos and Marco Polo. The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra regularly gives guest performances on leading European stages and at festivals. In the course of its numerous tours abroad, the Slovak Philharmonic has performed in nearly every European country, as well as in Cyprus, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, the USA and Oman.
One of the most important events of the 2019/2020 season, which had to be ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic, was a trio of concerts by the SPh at the Bratislava Music Festival with the conductors James Judd, Juraj Valčuha and Pinchas Steinberg, a special concert to commemorate the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Year, gala concerts to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Slovak Philharmonic, and the 30th Anniversary Concert of the Velvet Revolution.
The planned SPh concert tour to South Korea and Japan, which should have taken place this season, has been moved to 2023 as a result of the overall situation in the world.
