Marc Bouchkov & Katia Skanavi

Program

Marc Bouchkov, born in 1991, is a French violinist who had already made a striking impression even before winning First Prize with Special Distinction at the Paris Conservatoire in 2010. Since then, he has embarked on a busy concert career, performing a repertoire ranging from the classics to recent works such as the Violin Concerto by Pēteris Vasks. Pianist Katia Skanavi was born in Moscow and has made a number of very well received recordings of Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff. The combination of these two artists on this concert with pieces by Mozart, Prokofiev, and Schumann promises to be exciting, as does Bouchkov’s performance of one of Ysaye’s remarkable unaccompanied violin sonatas.

PROGRAM:

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1750-1791)
Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat Major, K. 454 (1784)
     Largo — Allegro
     Andante
     Allegretto

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 1, No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 (1938-1946)
     Andante assai
     Allegro brusco
     Andante
     Allegrissimo - Andante assai, come prima

EUGÈNE YSAŸE (1858-1931)
Sonata for Solo Violin in E Major, Op. 27, No. 6 (1923)

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Fantasie for Violin and Piano in C Major, Op. 159, D. 934 (n.d.)
     Andante molto
     Allegretto
     Andantino
     Allegro
     Allegretto
     Presto
 

About the Artists

Marc Bouchkov’s artistry is driven by expression. His violin playing is grounded not only in a thorough knowledge of the score, the historical content and the authenticity of the interpretation, but also in his belief that performance is a way to communicate directly with his listeners. The closeness of the violin’s sound to the human voice is his inspiration for expressing feelings and emotions in music, turning these into a musical experience for the audience.

Marc Bouchkov was born 1991 into a family of musicians. He received his first lessons at the age of five from his grandfather, Mattis Vaitsner. His first public appearance was just one year later. In 2001, he joined Claire Bernard’s studio at the Lyon Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique; he transferred to the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) in 2007. There, he began studies with Boris Garlitzky, who has been his mentor ever since, and offers him invaluable guidance for honing his craft. The following years saw participation in master classes and invitations to festivals in Moulin d‘Ande, Troyes, and Bordeaux (France), Viterbo (Italy) and New Hampshire (USA).

Marc Bouchkov’s artistic development has been marked by numerous international prizes and awards. He won First Prize at the highly-regarded “International Violin Contest Henri Koch,” as well as at the “2010 European Young Concert Artists Audition” in Leipzig. That same year, he received the First Prize for Violin with Special Distinction from the Jury at the CNSM Paris; the prestigious Ebel Prize followed in 2011. In 2012, he was a finalist and award-winner at the 2012 “Queen Elizabeth Competition” in Brussels. In 2013, he won First Prize at the “Montreal International Musical Competition,” and was named an award-winner of the Stiftung Juventus by Georges Gara.

As a concert artist, Marc Bouchkov has enjoyed a rapidly growing career. Alongside numerous recitals in Hamburg, at the Montpellier Festival, at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, at the International Musical Olympus Festival in St. Petersburg and in Montreal, his collaborations with orchestras such as the Belgian National Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Filharmonia Lodz, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie are becoming ever more extensive.

Marc Bouchkov is sponsored by Brigitte Feldtmann, who has provided him with a violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1865.


Born in Moscow, Katia Skanavi has been impressing audiences, critics and fellow performers alike with her vibrant pianism and sensitive musicality. A former finalist at the Van Cliburn competition, she is a favoured partner of musicians of the calibre of Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer, both as a concerto soloist and a chamber musician. She is prized for her command of a rich and vivid tonal palette, and a virtuosity that is allied to intuitive and thoughtful interpretation.

Among highlights of recent seasons have been recital and orchestral engagements in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Moscow and Paris. She has appeared at choice European festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Festival and with cellist Truls Mørk in Stavanger. Recent European engagements include her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and concerts with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur. Her most notable American engagements have included recitals in New York, Ravinia and Washington and concerto appearances with the Symphony Orchestras of Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis and San Francisco. In 2009/10 season her concerto appearances included performances with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under Oleg Caetani and Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michel Tabachnik.

Katia Skanavi comes from a culturally rich Greek – Russian family. She began her musical studies in Moscow at the School for Gifted Children and at the age of 12 she gave her first public concert with orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, performing Kabalevsky’s third piano concerto under the composer’s direction. On her 18th birthday she became a multiple prize-winner in the finals of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Appearances followed at the world’s major concert venues, including the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

She nevertheless continued to study, at the Conservatoire National in Paris and the Moscow Conservatory, then at the Cleveland Institute with Sergei Babayan. In 1994 she won the Maria Callas Competition in Greece, home of her great-grandfather, and was awarded Greek citizenship. Further success at the Van Cliburn competition came in 1997.

Katia Skanavi’s repertoire is an eclectic mix of music from the Classical period to contemporary music. She has recorded several CDs, mainly for the Lyrinx label. Her discs of works by Schumann, Rachmaninov and character pieces by Tchaikovsky, recorded live in Marseille, were highly regarded by the critics, and a Chopin recital (on the Pro Piano label) was named ‘Classical Recording of the Month’ by Gramophone magazine. 

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