Press / NPR in USA No doubt we have been blessed in recent years with some excellent orchestras performing in the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, including orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and our own Sarasota Orchestra, but a performance on Wednesday evening inspires us to name the National Philharmonic of Russia the best of them all.Commissioned by President Vladimir Putin in 2003 to pull together Russia's top musical talent under the leadership of the renowned conductor and violinist Vladimir Spivakov, the National Philharmonic of Russia tours all over the world as the cultural ambassador of the "new" Russia.And they represented their country in grand style with a program of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky performed impeccably. Focusing on Tchaikovsky's stage works with the Polonaise from his opera "Eugene Onegin" and then ending with the sweeping lyricism of his Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op. 66, from the ballet, Spivakov and his musicians achieved a string sound of luscious beauty with a bejeweled shining edge. The winds played with perfection, each principal a seeming virtuosic soloist. Gail Williams, Sarasota Herald Tribune, 10.04.2009 |
JULY 2010 
