A day with Mischa Maisky II: Verbier Festival Essentials
Verbier Festival 1995-2020
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Cast
Mischa Maisky — Cellist
Martha Argerich — Pianist
Julian Rachlin — Violinist
Kirill Troussov — Violinist
Yuri Bashmet — Violist
Lawrence Power — Violist
Jakob Koranyi — Cellist
Nikolai Lugansky — Pianist
Joshua Bell — Violinist
Henning Kraggerud — Violinist
Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra
Gábor Takács-Nagy — Conductor
Program notes
Generously supported by Madame Aline Foriel-Destezet
A cellist whose reputation precedes him, Mischa Maisky has been a favorite artist of the Verbier Festival since its inception in 1994. In the festival’s inaugural edition, he invited his daughter Lily—then only six years old, today a professional pianist!—onstage to play several encores with her father. The only artist to have studied under both Rostropovich and Piatigorsky, Maisky is celebrated for his interpretations of Bach, especially the beloved Cello Suites, pillars of the repertoire. The virtuoso has also devoted much of his career to chamber music, playing frequently with the great Martha Argerich, another longtime audience favorite at the Verbier Festival!
The impeccable Maisky-Argerich duo begins this program in high style with Grieg's A Minor Sonata for Piano and Cello, before Maisky joins a dream team including Julian Rachlin, Kirill Troussov, and Yuri Bashmet in Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" Sextet in D Minor. The cellist returns to center stage for a deeply moving interpretation of Bruch's Kol Nidrei, conducting the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra while he plays. Two Russian chamber works follow, with Rachlin back in Rachmaninov's Trio élégiaque in G Minor, as well as Argerich, Bashmet, and Joshua Bell joining Maisky in Shostakovich's G-Minor Quintet for Piano and Strings. Two Saint-Saëns cello favorites close out the concert portion: the monumental Cello Concerto in A Minor, and the heartrending The Swan from Carnival of the Animals. Finally, enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the early days of the Verbier Festival in Stewart Binns's documentary Mountain Airs!
Mischa Maisky appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.