Mikhail Pochekin

Mikhail Pochekin – Antonín Dvořák: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:01 minutes | 896 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © haenssler CLASSIC

“I sense a deep humanity in Dvorak’s music. He was a great master of orchestration, and he composed unusually beautiful melodies and harmonies. But at the forefront he always presents honesty and generosity. And when we listen to this music, this penetrates deep into our hearts.” I consider Dvorak’s Violin Concerto to be unique, and it occupies a very special place among all of the violin concertos of this period. Behind its creation lies a very unusual story. The composition dates back to 1879, but its premiere did not take place until 1883, exactly four years later. The reason for this was that the concerto was dedicated to Joseph Joachim, who repeatedly requested a number of changes in the piece. The story subsequently ended in such a way that Joachim, despite the changes and his years of collaboration with Dvorak, ignored the piece when it was completed, leaving it to be premiered instead by Czech violinist Frantisek Ondricek.” (Mikhail Pochekin)

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Mikhail Pochekin – Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219 & Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:46 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © haenssler CLASSIC

Although Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first instrument was the piano, even as a child he revealed himself to be a highly gifted violinist. In this domain too he was encouraged by his father Leopold, well-known violin teacher in his own right and author of a violin method widely respected at the time. Even when Wolfgang was already 21, father Leopold reaffirmed his son’s violinistic talent, on 8 October 1777. “You don’t realize how good you are on the violin when you put your mind to it, playing with character, conviction and spirit, just as if you were the best violinist in Europe”. That letter was written in the period between 1773 and 1779, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed numerous works requiring string soloists. From April to December of 1775 alone, the 19-year-old penned 5 violin concertos, in an unbroken process as it were. At that time Mozart was employed as concertmaster by the archbishop’s court in Salzburg, where instrumental music was highly prized. He had, however, previously got to know the Italian tradition and art of the violin in situ, frequenting students of the famous Giuseppe Tartini there, such as Pietro Nardini and Gaetano Pugnani. On several occasions during his three journeys to Italy, he also met the Bohemian composer Josef Myslivecek, who cultivated the violin concerto genre intensively. Synthesizing the influence of Italian masters with that of Joseph Haydn, Johann Christian Bach and French violinists, Mozart composed his own concertos, which sparkle with vitality but are at the same time both intimate and graceful.

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Mikhail Pochekin – J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas BWVV 1001-1006 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:12:58 minutes | 2,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Solo Musica

“Pure and penetrating” was the violin playing of Johann Sebastian Bach according to the tradition of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel: “He fully understood the possibilities of all violin instruments. This is testified by his soli for violin and cello without bass. One of the greatest violinists once told me that he had seen nothing more perfect to become a good violinist and he could advise nothing better than the violin soli without bass mentioned above.” When Carl Philipp Emanuel addressed these words in a letter to the musicologist and early Bach biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel in 1774, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin were known to a still manageable, albeit growing circle of enthusiasts. Now these works are taken up on the present recording by Mikhail Pochekin. Mikhail Pochekin is one of the most captivating violinists of his generation. He appears with many renowned orchestras including the Mariinsky Theater Symphony, the Russian National Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”, the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra or the Lithuanian National Orchestra and worked together with conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Vassily Sinaisky, Yuri Simonov, Kevin Griffiths, Valentin Uryupin, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Dimitris Botinis, Mei-Ann Chen or Alexander Sladkovsky.

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