Mark Lubotsky - Bach: 3 Sonate e 3 Partite per violino solo (1987)

Violinist Mark Lubotsky was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and grew up in Moscow. Along with Abraham Jampolsky, David Oistrakh was his most important teacher at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory there. Has has won prizes at international competitions such as Salzburg Mozart Competition and the Moscow Tchaikovsky competition. Lubotsky is deeply committed to Oistrakh’s musical ethics and this signifies the striving for maximum concurrence between emotional and intellectual components on a high technical level of interpretation.

His many recordings of classical-romantic and modern violin concert repertoire as well as of chamber music provide ample evidence of this. Highly noteworthy is Lubotsky’s outstanding CD recording of the solo works of Johann Sebastian Bach (Collins Classics), for which he used a bow made specially for him and modelled on historic prototypes. In both the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as well as in the Riemann Dictionary of Music Mark Lubotsky is recognized as one of the best violinists of our time.

“Lubotsky plays on the highest level of technical perfection and with wonderful power”, wrote the London Times in 1988. The New York Times (1985) was equally enthusiastic as well as the Financial Times in 1980: “Lubotsky’s musical poise is characterized by intellectual strength and emotional intensity.”

The Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) played an important role in Lubotsky’s life. While they were both students at the Moscow Conservatory, Schnittke asked Lubotsky to advise him on violin-technical questions concerning his First Violin Concerto. Lubotsky became one of the first interpreters of this work and also a life-long friend. Alfred Schnittke dedicated his Second Violin Concerto and three violin sonatas to him. Lubotsky played the first performance of Schnittke’s First and Second Violin Concertos to the composer’s greatest satisfaction.

This also holds true of the first performance of Schnittke’s Piano Trio, which Lubotsky played with Irina Schnittke (piano) and Mstislav Rostropovich (cello) as well as for the Third Violin Sonata in which Irina Schnittke was Lubotsky’s piano partner. Just as competently, Lubotsky also interpreted the violin music of Arvo Pärt in festivals dedicated to the music of the Estonian composer in London and Tokyo.

It is characteristic of Lubotsky’s artistic reputation that Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) chose him and no other violinist as the soloist in the LP recording, which he himself conducted, of his Violin Concerto, op. 15. Britten declared: “This is the performance I have been waiting for.”
Lubotsky was instrumental in rediscovering Russian composer Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944), who was ostracized and suppressed by the Soviet government. His two CDs with the four violin sonatas as well as the “24 Preludes” and other pieces are first recordings of these works (under the English label Olympia).

Conductors, with whom Mark Lubotsky has performed as a soloist, are Kyrill Kondrshin, Eugene Ormandy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling and others.

Orchestras, with which he has played or made recordings, are The Moscow Philharmonic, The State Soviet Philharmonic, The English Chamber Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Concertgebouw Orchester (Amsterdam), Rotterda Philharmonie, Residentie Orchester, Scottish National Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Göteborger Sinfoniker, Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, etc.

Lubotsky’s piano partners are Ljubov Edlina, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl, Ralf Gothoni and recently Brenno Ambrosini.

Mark Lubotsky has also been extremely successful as a teacher and is known world-wide for his ability to pass on the violin tradition of his teachers David Oistrakh and Abraham Jampolsky. Several of his pupils have won international competitions. He taught at the Gnesin Institute in Moscow and was granted a professorship at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam following his emigration from the Soviet Union. He moved to Hamburg where DIE WELT enthusiastically reviewed the first duo evening of his Beethoven cycle: “The Hamburg Conservatory of Music can take pride in having won Mark Lubotsky as a professor a stroke of luck!”

Lubotsky has held master courses at the Toho University in Tokyo, at the Oakland University in New Zealand, the Guild Hall School of Music in London, at the St. Petersburg Music Conservatory, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and in Göteborg/Sweden.

Lubotsky has also been internationally active as a judge at competitions, such as “Carl Flesch” (London), Tchaikovsky (Moscow), “Lipizer” (Italy), “Yehudi Menuhin” (France) and Brahms (Hamburg).

Recordings have been made by Mark Lubotsky for the labels Philips, Sony Classical, Decca, Ondine, Bis, Collins Classic and Olympia.

Track List CD1 (68:14):
Sonata 1 - BWV 1001
1 Adagio
2 Fuga
3 Siciliana
4 Presto

Partita 1 - BWV 1002
5 Allemanda
6 Double
7 Corrente
8 Double Presto
9 Sarabande
10 Double
11 Tempo di Borea
12 Double

Sonata 1 - BWV 1003
13 Grave
14 Fuga
15 Andante
16 Allegro

Track List CD2 (71:49):
Partita 2 - BWV 1004
1 Allemanda
2 Corrente
3 Sarabanda
4 Giga
5 Ciaccona

Sonata 1 - BWV 1005
6 Adagio
7 Fuga
8 Largo
9 Allegro assai

Partita 3 - BWV 1006
10 Preludio
11 Loure
12 Gavotte en Rondeau
13 Menuet I - Menuett II
14 Bourree
15 Gigue




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