Arcadi Volodos
Biography
Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos only began a serious musical training at the city's conservatory in 1987, after which he continued to study the piano at the Moscow Conservatoire under Galina Egizarowa. He then studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Jacques Rouvier and in Madrid at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia, where his teacher was Dimitry Bashkirov.
The idea of "contests" was entirely alien to his concept of music, so he refused to enter competitions, and thus decided not to pursue a soloist's career initially.
His career took off when a manager of the Sony Classical label was on a business trip in 1996 and a French friend urged him to listen to a private performance by an extremely talented pianist. The "audition" took place in a small house in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur, and the Sony man was so impressed by Volodos' exceptional ability that he immediately offered him an exclusive long-term contract. His explanation at the time: "You only come across someone as talented as Arcadi Volodos once in a lifetime".
Music
The first album "Piano Transcriptions", with pieces written by Volodos himself, was released in autumn 1997. To accompany the release, Volodos made his first live appearances which caused an absolute sensation. The CD was awarded several prizes including Gramophone Editor's Choice and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and received outstanding reviews.
Since then he has been working with some of the world's most renowned orchestras and conductors, among them the Berlin, Munich, New York and London Philharmonic orchestras.
In 1999, Sony Classical released the legendary Carnegie Hall debut and this CD was showered with international awards such as the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Gramophone Award and the Echo Klassik 1999.
Since then, further CDs have been released to widespread acclaim, featuring works by Schubert "Solo Piano Works", Rachmaninov 's Third Piano Concerto, with the Berliner Philharmonic (conducted by James Levine) and Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa "Piano Concerto".
In February 2007, Sony Classical released the CD "Volodos plays Liszt ". The CD received the "Diapason d`Or" of the French classical magazine Diapason, the German Echo classical award and a 5-star-review in Gramophone.
Discography
1997 - Volodos: Piano Transcriptions
Recorded October 21 1998, released 1999 - Volodos, Live at Carnegie Hall
2000 - Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 & Solo Piano Works
2002 - Schubert - Piano Sonatas
2003 - Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 / Rachmaninoff - Solo Piano Works
2007 - Volodos plays Liszt
