Leonidas Kavakos (Violin soloist)
Leonidas Kavakos established himself as one of the most sought after young
virtuoso violinists and appears regularly with leading orchestras and in recital
throughout the world.
International recognition came whilst Kavakos was
still in his teens. He won the Sibelius competition in 1985 and then the
Paganini competition in 1988 and following these successes, he was invited by
orchestras across Europe, North America and the Far East and his reputation
soared.
Kavakos now appears in concert throughout the world with the great orchestras
and conductors and regularly visits the major international festivals with
visiting orchestras, in chamber music and in recital.
In the current season, Kavakos appears with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Budapest
Festival Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra,
Houston Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, La Scala
Filharmonica, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota
Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
He will work with such conductors as Andrey Boreyko, Rafael Frьhbeck de Burgos,
Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivбn
Fischer, Hans Graf, Alan Gilbert, Valery Gergiev, David Robertson and Osmo
Vдnskд.
In October 2007, Kavakos took up the position of Artistic Director of the
Camerata Salzburg, succeeding Sir Roger Norrington. He conducts twice each
season in the Camerata's Abonnement series in the Mozarteum, Salzburg as well as
appearing at the Salzburg Festival, the Mozartwoche and in their own festival,
the Begegnung both in Salzburg and Vienna. He has previously taken the orchestra
on tour to Italy, Germany, Spain and Greece and in February 2006, he presented
the Camerata Salzburg in his own festival at the Megaron, Athens. This was a
series of three Mozart programmes in which he played the five concerti and
conducted three late symphonies. The concerts were recorded and have been
released by Sony to wide acclaim. The Sunday Times wrote that this “…grand
account of the great E flat major symphony suggests he will be as formidable a
director of this superb chamber orchestra as he is a soloist.”
Kavakos is an established chamber musician and collaborates with many
distinguished partners - Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt,
Elisabeth Leonskaya. He regularly plays at the major European halls, and last
season gave a series of chamber music recitals at the Verbier Festival and the
Salzburg Festival. He was also resident at the Concertgebouw in a dedicated
weekend of recital and chamber music as well as in concert with the Camerata
Salzburg.
In addition to his most recent disc of the Mozart concerti with the Camerata
Salzburg, Kavakos has a distinguished catalogue of recordings. In 1991, he won
the Gramophone Award for the first recording ever of the original version of
Sibelius’ violin concerto (1903/04) on BIS. Further recordings include the
violin concerto by Hindemith with the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos), solo sonatas
by Ysaяe (BIS), works by Debussy, Kreisler, Paganini et al (Delos) as well as
Sibelius’ Humoresques (Finlandia). On ECM, he has released a recording of
sonatas by Enescu and Ravel together with pianist Pйter Nagy and a recording of
works by Bach and Stravinsky which received the following accolade, "...the
exquisite tenderness of the playing gives the music a sense of timeless,
poignant beauty...the performance here is exceptional for its unruffled poise
and delicious details. Not to be missed". Gramophone May 2005.
Leonidas Kavakos plays the “Falmouth” Stradivarius of 1692 and a Giovanni
Battista Guadagnini of 1782 (Torino).
Leonidas Kavakos Plays Sibelius 1/4 : Violin Concerto |
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About This Video 08:10 Valery Gergiev/Leonidas Kavakos/Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Nov.15,2012 Tokyo |
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