Alexander Melnikov
Alexander Melnikov has earned a reputation as one of the finest Russian pianists of his generation. He was born in Moscow in 1973 and began his music studies at the age of 6 at Moscow’s Central Music School, then continued at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire from where he graduated in 1997 in the class of professor Lev Naumov. Later he completed his post-graduate studies in Munich with Elisso Wirssaladze and at the Fondazione per il Pianoforte (Lago di Como, Italy) where he had lessons with Andreas Staier and Carl-Ulrich Schnabel among others. While still studying he became a prizewinner of several major international piano competitions (Schumann, Zwickau in 1989 and Queen Elisabeth, Brussels in 1991 among others) and began his international career shortly afterwards.
Alexander Melnikov collaborates with orchestras such as the Russian National Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic under Mikhail Pletnev, Leipzig Gewandhaus and Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Symphony among others. He also performs on fortepiano, collaborating regularly with the Concerto Koeln and with Philippe Herrewege.
In recital, Melnikov appears regularly at the world’s leading concert halls like Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Queen Elisabeth and Théâtre Musical de Paris Le Chatelet. Melnikov had close artistic ties with the late Sviatoslav Richter, who regularly invited him to participate in his festivals in Moscow (December Nights), and his chamber music festival in Grange du Meslay (Tours, France). Chamber music plays an important part in Melnikov’s activities. Between 1993 and 2003 he performed extensively with Vadim Repin, and at present he is a part of a well-established duo with Isabelle Faust. His partners also include Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Alexander Rudin, Pieter Wispelwey and Jean-Guihen Queyras. In piano-duo he appears regularly with Andreas Staier, Boris Berezovsky, and Alexei Lubimov. Melnikov was featured as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2000 to 2002 and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 in recital and chamber music as well as performing and recording with the BBC Orchestras.
Alexander Melnikov records since 2004 for Harmonia Mundi France and has released CDs with Solo works by Brahms, Rachmaninow and Scriabin, as well as chamber music together with Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Teunis van der Zwart. The recordings of all Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano (together with Isabelle Faust) received the Choc de Classica Award. The next releases will include among others the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues for piano.
Photograph courtesy of Marco Borggreve
