[TR24][OF] Prokofiev / Прокофьев - Sonata for Violin, Percussion and String Orchestra - Sebastian Bohren, Georgian Chamber Orchestra - 2019 (Classical)

Sebastian Bohren
Described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as one of the most “serious and straightforward musicians of his generation”, the Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren was born in Winterthur in 1987. Among his early teachers were Jens Lohmann at the Zurich Conservatory. Later teachers have included Robert Zimansky and Zakhar Bron at the Zurich University of the Arts, Igor Karsko at the Lucerne School of Music and Ingolf Turban at the Munich University of the Arts. Other seminal influences have been Ana Chumachenco, Heinrich Schiff and Hansheinz Schneeberger.
As a soloist Sebastian Bohren has appeared with numerous orchestras at home and abroad, including the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Andrew Litton, the Basel Symphony Orchestra under Ivor Bolton, the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur under Douglas Boyd, the Basel Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the CHAARTS Chamber Artists under Gábor Takács-Nagy, the St Petersburg Staatskapelle under Elim Chan, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Muhai Tang, the Zurich Camerata under Patrick Lange, the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra under Christoph-Mathias Müller, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Argovia Philharmonic, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, to name only the most important. He made his Lucerne Festival debut in 2018.
Sebastian Bohren’s recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Chaarts Chamber Artists was released on the RCA Red Seal label in 2016 and was well received by the specialist press. The following year saw the release of his recording of works for violin and orchestra by Mendelssohn, Hartmann and Schubert, encouraging NDR to write that “Bohren and Chaarts have again succeeded in making a CD of the highest artistic quality”. That same year also saw the release of live recordings of works by Vasks, Kancheli and Shostakovich. His recording of Part One of a complete recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas was released in June 2018 and was described by Concerti as “full of spirit, sparkling with wit and filled with warmth and sympathy – listening to his playing is a source of sheer joy”.
Sebastian Bohren’s latest release brings together the violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Benjamin Britten with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under the direction of Andrew Litton. Pizzicato wrote that “On this CD Bohren has dipped Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in liquid gold. We hear notes shaped with great maturity and filled with the most sensual beauty.” WDR wrote: “His interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto is a real pleasure to listen to – arguably his most successful interpretation to date.”
Bohren is a member of the Stradivari Quartet. Among the venues where the group has performed in 2018/19 are the Chamber Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, the Chamber Hall of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the National Center for the Performing arts in Beijing and Shanghai Symphony Hall. They have also toured Japan and Korea. Other highlights of recent seasons have included performances at Victoria Hall in Singapore, at the Rheingau Music Festival, the Bad Kissingen Summer Festival and the 2019 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Sebastian Bohren additionally pursues his passion for chamber music with other artists, including Roby Lakatos, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Thomas Demenga, Christian Poltera, Antoine Tamestit and Benjamin Schmid.
Sebastian Bohren lives in Zurich but continues to maintain close links with the canton of Aargau. In 2015 he was supported by the Aargau Kuratorium and in the summer of that year he was festival artist at the Boswil Summer Festival. He successfully organizes his own concert series in Brugg, Stretta Concerts.
Sebastian Bohren was born in Winterthur in 1987. He plays a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in Parma in 1776 and on loan to him from a private benefactor in Switzerland.
Andrei Pushkarev was born in 1974 in Kiev in the family of musicians. He began his musical education as a pianist. At the age of six he entered the Kiev Lysenko Specialized Music School and soon started to study percussion instruments. 1992 he became a student of National Musical Academy of Ukraine, prof. Alexander Blinov. Among other Prizes, he received a First Prize as solo vibraphonist in the newly established competition “New Names of Ukraine”, at which also performed his own musical compositions. In 1996 Pushkarev became the main timpanist in the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1999 he joined Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra (artistic leader Gidon Kremer), still maintains solo-vibraphone and principal percussion positions. He had participated in concerts around the world. He as well had participated in numerous recordings as a member of the ensemble on labels such as Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon.ECM etc. As a soloist he can be heard on the CD release “After Mozart” which in 2001 received a Grammy Award in the U.S. and as well the Echo Award in Germany in 2002. Since this time he has been working on various arrangements for symphonic and string orchestra; has been touring with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, performing in numerous concert halls all around the world. His arrangements were performed in the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, in the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, etc. by such musicians like Gidon Kremer, Yo Yo Ma, Martha Argerich, Daniil Trifonov, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Mischa Maisky, Nicolas Altstaedt, Michel Portal, Mario Brunello, Gabor Boldoszki, Didier Lockwood and many others. In 2006 he toured as a part of Gidon Kremer’s trio project “From Bach to Piazzolla” together with Lithuanian pianist Andrius Zlabys in Europe, South America, USA and Canada performing his own compositions and arrangements. Other projects included a tour and CD recording together with Gidon Kremer and Argentinean bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi. “Themes from the Songbook” – music from cinema and theater by Georgian composer Giya Kancheli with arrangements by Dino Saluzzi and Andrei Pushkarev. In October 2010 this CD was released by ECM Records.