©Photo: Marco Borggreve

Alexei Volodin

Piano

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“He is a marvellous artist, who peels away layers of meaning and expression in everything he plays, hooked to a fabulously discreet virtuosity.”
(Classical Source, April 2019)

Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, Alexei Volodin possesses an extraordinarily diverse repertoire from Beethoven and Brahms through Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev to Scriabin, Shchedrin and Medtner.

Highlights of the 2019/20 season include concerts with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Royal Philharmonic and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras, and Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, working with conductors Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kent Nagano, Pietari Inkinen and Robert Trevino. He will also appear with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for a special project performing a cycle of Beethoven Concertos and the Choral Fantasy.

Previous seasons have included performances with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, The Mariinsky Orchestra, Antwerp, BBC and NHK symphony orchestras and NCPA Orchestra China, as well as tours with SWR Symphonieorchester, Russian National Orchestra and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Volodin regularly appears in recital and has performed in venues including Wiener Konzerthaus, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música, Mariinsky Theatre, Paris’ Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tonhalle Zürich and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música. This season he appears in the International Piano Series at the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall and the Meesterpianisten Series at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as recitals in Bratislava, Ostrava, Den Haag, Oxford and Winnipeg.

An active chamber musician, he has a long-standing collaboration with the Borodin Quartet. In 2019/20, they will be joined by trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov for performances at the Southbank Centre and Istanbul Music Festival. Previous chamber partners include Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Mischa Maisky and Sol Gabetta, as well as the Modigliani Quartet, Cuarteto Casals and Cremona Quartet.

A regular artist at festivals, Volodin has performed at Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival, Festival Les nuits du Château de la Moutte, Variations Musicales de Tannay, Bad Kissingen Sommer Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron, Les Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, Festival La Folle Journée, The White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, St. Magnus International Festival and the Moscow Easter Festival.

Volodin’s latest album with the Mariinsky label was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.4, conducted by Gergiev. Recording for Challenge Classics, Volodin’s disc of solo Rachmaninov works was released in 2013. He also recorded a solo album of Schumann, Ravel and Scriabin, and his earlier Chopin disc won a Choc de Classica and was awarded five stars by Diapason.

Born in 1977 in Leningrad, Alexei Volodin studied at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy and later with Eliso Virsaladze at the Moscow Conservatoire. In 2001, he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como and gained international recognition following his victory at the International Géza Anda Competition in Zürich in 2003.

Alexei Volodin is an exclusive Steinway artist.

Alexei Volodin- Rachmaninov’s ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal © ProdCan Inc

Alexei Volodin - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4 (excerpt) with The Mariinsky Orchestra © Mariinsky TV

Alexei Volodin - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 (excerpt) with The Mariinsky Orchestra © Mariinsky TV

Alexei Volodin - Brahms: Piano Concerto No.2 (excerpt) with The Mariinsky Orchestra © Mariinsky TV

Alexei Volodin - Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (excerpts)

Alexei Volodin - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.4 for the left hand (excerpt) © BBC Proms / LSO / Valery Gergiev

Alexei Volodin - Ravel: Miroirs (excerpt) © Challenge Classics

Alexei Volodin - Chopin: Barcarolle Op. 60 (excerpt) © Challenge Classics

“He is a marvellous artist, who peels away layers of meaning and expression in everything he plays, hooked to a fabulously discreet virtuosity.”

(Classical Source, April 2019)

“approach[es] the fast movements with mercurial wit and dazzling clarity of fingerwork…allow[s] Prokofiev’s natural lyricism to come to the fore in the slow movement”.

5* (Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine, March 2016)

“wonderfully mercurial…Volodin’s fluent and apparently effortless pianism, matched by the alert accompaniment from Gergiev and his superb orchestra, make a most convincing case for this unjustly neglected work.”

4.5* (Graham Williams, HR Audio, January 2016)

“But the highlight of the evening came in the first half, when the Russian pianist Alexei Volodin was the soloist in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto. I was astonished by the way in which Volodin combined Russian full-bloodedness with subtlety and deep-listening control of texture in this most-demanding, intellectually and virtuosically, of concertos. It was among the finest specimens of concerto-playing I have heard from the NSO, as the players and soloist made their parts integrate with one another, turn corners impeccably, and shade the discourse between parts. Volodin’s physical efforts were palpable but even stronger was the sense that magisterial mental and physical control were serving musical imagination and insight.”

(Martin Adams, The Irish Times, October 2015)

“Volodin is the kind of pianist that could only be grown in Russia: a virtuoso who loves to show his muscle, but plays full of passion in the slow passages. And he’s a pianist who knows what the word cantabile means with Rachmaninov: echoing the solemn singing of Orthodox Church music.”

***** (Joep Stapel and Merlijn Kerkhof, NRC Handelsblad, September 2015)

“Alexei Volodin’s performance of the Fourth was superbly controlled and beautifully subtle.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian, July 2015)

“To hear him slowly open the valves of Chopin’s poetry, aerate Schubert’s lyricism and launch Schumann’s fantasies makes you aware of his layered artistry… Everything in this programme was thoroughly considered, but such is the intelligence of his approach his audience rapport never sounded calculated…his transformation of Schubert’s intricate decorative passages that acquire a life of their own was masterly. Just as admirable was the control and tact with which he discerned the difference between the up-front and explicit Schubert and music much more shadowy and recessive… The Third of the set, the ‘Rosamunde’ variations in B flat, confirmed Volodin’s affinity for Schubert in playing of formidable perception, expressive tonal range and superb delicacy.”

(Peter Reed, Classical Source, June 2015)

“His sensitive approach to the Allegretto revealed an extremely delicate and clear touch that veiled the difficulty of the score.”

(Georges Masson, Le Républicain Lorrain, January 2015)