ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
Shostakovich Premieres he has conducted: he has enjoyed a close relationship with Shostakovich and his family for many years and still works in close collaboration with Irina Shostakovich. He originally met Dmitri Shostakovich whilst making his Moscow debut, conducting the State Orchestra of Russia, on the invitation of Evgeny Svetlanov, as a result of winning a conducting competition in East Germany. Greatly impressed, Shostakovich entrusted him with the translation into German of the texts of the 13th and 14th Symphonies and he conducted the German premieres of both works. He also conducted the worldpremiere recording of the Michelangelo Suite followed by a concert of the premiere of two British song cycles for which he was responsible for setting the original English text: Six Romances on Verses of British Poets and Anglo-American folk Songs, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio in Munich, both recorded live and to be released on the Orfeo Label in 2012. At the instigation of Irina Shostakovich he made an Italian original version of the Michelangelo Suite, which is dedicated to her.
PERFORMANCE
By his mid-twenties he was conducting in all East Germany’s principal orchestras and opera houses, including the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Leipzig Gewandhausand won the Berlin Critic’s Prize for his opera performances at the KomischeOper Berlin. His CD of Shostakovich’s Michelangelo Suite (premiere recording) directly lead to his becoming assistant to both Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. In the early 1980s he became permanent guest conductor of the Deutsche StaatsoperUnter Den Linden, which led to his successful debut at the Wiener Staatsoper, conducting Die Zauberflöte. Immediately afterwards the Wiener Staatsoper invited him to conduct Le Nozze di Figaro – the first performance after the death of the great Karl Böhm. He has won many prizes and a competition and is particularly renowned for the German, Russian and French orchestral repertory.
Among the orchestras he has conducted are: BBC Scottish; Baltimore Symphony; BayerischeRundfunk Symphony Orchestra; Bergen Philharmonic; Bournemouth Symphony; Czech Philharmonic; Dallas Symphony; Deutsches Symphonie Orchester; Dresden Staatskapelle; Dresden Philharmonic; Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig; Halle Orchestra UK; Helsinki Philharmonic; Konzerthausorchester Berlin; London Philharmonic; Montreal Symphony; NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra; Oslo Philharmonic;Philharmonia Orchestra; Pittsburg Symphony; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Royal Philharmonic; Radio Philharmonic Hilversum; Royal Stockholm; St Petersburg Philharmonic; Tchaikowsky Radio Symphony, Moscow; Vancouver Symphony; WDR Symphony Cologne. He is also a regular guest conductor of radio orchestras in Germany. He is principal guest conductor of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and the Osaka Symphony awarded him the title of Music Director Laureate for his Lifetime. With this Orchestra he won the Grand Prix of the Osaka Critics twice in three years.
RECORDING
Shostakovich Premiers he has recorded: (Deutsche Grammophon) Two CD recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with Shostakovich Premieres, which became The Editor’s Choice in the September 2006 issue of the Gramophone in London Original Suite from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Eight Waltzes (Orchestration Boris Tishchenko), Verses of Captain Lebyadkin Op. 146, Satires {Pictures of the Past) Op. 100, Five Romances on Words from Krokodil Magazine Op. 121(Orchestration Leonid Dessyatnikov), Preface to the Complete Edition of My WorksOp. 123, with Sergei Leiferkus and the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. Opera Houses where he has conducted include: Wiener Staatsoper; Deutsche Oper; Unter den Linden Deutsche Oper Berlin; BayerischeStaatsoper; HamburgischeStaatsoper; KomischeOper Berlin; Bolshoi Theater; Mariinsky Theater; DetKongeligeTeater Denmark; Finnish National Opera; Teatro La Fenice di Venezia; Opéra de Nice.
He has recorded for many companies including: Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical International, Naxos, BIS, Chandos; Audite, Berlin Classics and Ondine winning many prizes - amongst them are:
Mahler SYMPHONY NO. 6 ~ St Petersburg Philharmonic (Cannes Classical Award)
COMPLETE BRAHMS SYMPHONIES ~ Philharmonia Orchestra London (Salzburg Prize)
KLETZKI’S PIANO CONCERTO IN D MINOR, OP. 22 with Joseph Banowetz, (Grammy Nomination)
MAGNARD COMPLETE SYMPHONIES (Cannes Classical Award)
TANEYEV COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA (several awards)
Most recently - he recorded for Ondine:
SHOSTAKOVICH Six Romances on Verses by English Poets, Scottish Ballad, Suite on Poems by Michelangelo, with Gerald Finley soloist and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
WEINBERG The Idiot for Pan Classics – NationaltheaterMannhim
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
He grew up in St Petersburg, where his father, the celebrated conductor Kurt Sanderling, was permanent conductor of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He graduated from the Music School of the Leningrad Conservatory and went on to study conducting at the HochschulefürMusik in East Berlin, becoming Music Director of the Halle Opera at 24 years old.
