Around the Music Festival

The Russian National Orchestra has announced that it has terminated its contract with the orchestra’s founder and longtime artistic director, Mikhail Pletnev. The orchestra stated that the reason for terminating the contract is that “there will be no substantial creative contact with the orchestra after the end of 2020.

However, the orchestra’s director, who has supported Pletnev for many years, was also ousted last month, which is believed to be a de facto dismissal of Pletnev by the Russian authorities.

Born in Arkhangelsk in the former Soviet Union, 65-year-old Pletnev won the first prize in the piano section of the 6th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978, and continued his spectacular career as a top pianist.

In 1990, he founded the Russian National Orchestra, the first privately funded orchestra in Russia since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

The Russian National Orchestra has attracted international attention since its establishment, partly because it has amassed excellent musicians with abundant financial resources, and has been active not only in concerts but also in recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, a long-established label with which Pletnev himself has an exclusive contract.

The orchestra has given many overseas performances, including regular concerts in the U.S. It was the first Russian orchestra to perform in front of the Pope, and also performed in Israel. The orchestra was the first Russian orchestra to win a Grammy Award.

In 2004, under the direction of Kent Nagano, the orchestra produced an album of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” with Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, and Sophia Loren as narrators.

However, Pletnev’s shadow began to fade in 2020, and he himself left for Switzerland, where he has citizenship, in 2021. For his actions, he generated speculation that something may have happened with the authorities.

However, his departure was closely watched, as he remained silent on the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February and has not taken any anti-Russian actions.

Last week, however, an interview by a Croatian journalist became public, revealing the background to the recent ouster drama. The interview hinted at the increased control of the authorities after the orchestra began receiving support from the state government in 2009, and Pletnev emphasized that he had not left the orchestra on his own, saying that he had been “cut off from the musicians in Moscow.

In the interview, he also revealed that he has established a new orchestra based in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, as a new venue for his activities.

The “Rachmaninoff International Orchestra,” named after the composer who had long been an influence on him, will be made up of 18 members of the Russian National Orchestra, with musicians from Slovakia, Austria, and Ukraine joining them.

Prior to the concert, they have already recorded Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” Suite and Shchedrin’s ballet “Carmen” Suite, which celebrates its 90th birthday this year, and are waiting for their release.

Photo：Russian National Orchestra