Concert

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.

Credits

A closer look: featured composers

Further listening: featured works

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