EN / RU

Running time:
2 parts by 45 minutes
6+
16 October 2022 Sunday 18.00 Grand hall
18.00 Grand hall

RNO. Conductor – Dimitris Botinis
Alexey Melnikov, piano

Alexei Melnikov graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where he studied under Sergei Dorensky and his assistants – Nikolai Lugansky, Pavel Nersessian and Andrei Pisarev. In 2010 he won 2nd prize at the International Piano Competition in memory of Vera Lotar-Shevchenko in Novosibirsk, in 2014 he took 1st prize and several special prizes at the San Marino International Piano Competition, and in 2015 he won 3rd prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Japan). In 2017 he was a prize-winner at the Manhattan International Music Competition and gave a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2018 he received a prize from the Neva Foundation at the Verbier Music Academy and Festival. In 2019 he took 3rd prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow – St Petersburg). He has given recitals at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Bunka Kaikan concert hall in Tokyo, the Žofín Palace in Prague, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory as well as at other venues throughout Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Poland, the USA, Spain, Belgium and Vietnam. Has taken part in the International Chamber Music Festival in Cervo (Italy), the Animato music festival in Paris and the Moscow International H. Neuhaus Festival of Young Pianists.

Dimitris Botinis was born in Moscow and grew up in Greece. He graduated from the Municipal Conservatory of Patras as a violinist. In 2011 he graduated from the class of the latter at the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (faculty of opera and symphony conducting). He has worked with such ensembles as the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow and St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg, the Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Academic Capella, the State Hermitage Orchestra, the Frankfurt Oper Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Croatian Radio and Television, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), the Liszt and Wagner Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, the Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano, the National Symphony Orchestra of Greece and orchestras in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras.

The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas, is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed recordings. Their recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus' Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry's highest honor.  Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year's best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.