Barshai / Moscow Co Russian Archives-barshai Edition

Rudolf Barshai Edition (10CD)

Rudolf Barshai, conductor
Moscow Chamber Orchestra

"A magnificent musician, a true master" (Sviatoslav Richter).

Rudolf Barshai studied and performed with the finest musicians in the former Soviet Union. Born in 1924 in Southern Russia, he studied violin at the Moscow Conservatory with Lev Zeitlin, a disciple of Leopold Auer, and viola with Vadim Borisovsky of the Beethoven Quartet. Later, in Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg, Barshai studied conducting with Ilya Musin and composition with Dmitri Shostakovich. He went on to perform with Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Julian Sitkovetsky and Leonid Kogan. In 1945, Barshai was a founding member of the Borodin Quartet. Ten years later, he formed the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, which showcased the Russian string sound in repertoire from the Baroque to the 20th Century. Barshai led the Orchestra until 1977, when he emigrated to the West.

In addition to his performances as conductor, violinist and violist, Barshai is known for his arrangements of works by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, among others.

The Brilliant Classics 10-CD Rudolf Barshai Edition features the conductor and his Moscow Chamber Orchestra in works by Gluck, Rameau, Marais, Purcell, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Poulenc, Hindemith, Martinu, Bartok, Weinberg, Raats, Meerovich, Lokshin, Bunin, Stravinsky, Boris Tchaikovsky and Karen Khachaturian. Barshai also conducts his own orchestrations of Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge, Prokofiev's Visions fugitives and Fairy Tale and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony Op. 118a and is the solo violist in Lully's Menuet et Arioso. ( Brilliant Classics )