Anton Batagov (born 10 October 1965) is a Russian pianist and post-minimalist composer. "One of the most significant and unusual figures of Russian contemporary music", according to 'Newsweek's Russian edition in 1997, Batagov is an influential Russian composer and performer. [1]
A graduate of the Gnessin School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and prize-winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1986) and other competitions, Batagov introduced music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich and Philip Glass to Russian audiences. From 1989 to 1996 Batagov was the artistic director of the festival of Alternativa, a festival of contemporary music. Batagov's work has been influential on the understanding of classical and new music in Russia.
In 1997 he stopped performing live for 12 years to focus on composition and studio recordings.
The style of Batagov's post-minimalist compositions is rooted in the harmonic and rhythmic patterns of Russian church bells and folk songs seamlessly mixed with the spirit of Buddhist philosophy and the dynamic pulse of early Soviet avant-garde. His discography includes over 50 albums. Batagov is the author of several movie soundtracks, and original music for major Russian TV channels.
In 2009 he returned to live performances. Since then, he has been performing a series of unique solo piano programs. His repertoire includes works by Bach, Pachelbel, Purcell and early English music, Mozart, Schubert, Debussy, as well as many other composers, and his numerous piano compositions. He has performed at The Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory and The Grand Hall of St.Petersburg Philharmonie, Moscow International House of Music and Zaryadye Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), and Bing Concert Hall (Palo Alto, CA), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), The Berliner Philharmonie and Philharmonie de Paris, Musiikkitalo (Helsinki) and Reduta Hall (Bratislava), Teatro Regio (Parma, Italy) and Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona, Spain), and many other venues. The list of festivals he has participated in includes Diaghilev Festival (Perm, Russia), Ruhrtriennale (Essen, Germany), Next Wave and Bang on a Can (New York), Glass at 80 (University of North Carolina), Aarhus 2017 Festival (Aarhus, Denmark), and others.
Batagov is one of the key performers of piano works by Philip Glass. Batagov's recordings and live performances include The complete Etudes, Batagov's piano arrangements of scenes from Einstein on the Beach and Koyaanisqatsi, music from The Hours, Distant figure (a composition written by Philip Glass for and premiered by Anton Batagov), and other works.
Anton Batagov's compositions have been performed and recorded by outstanding Russian classical and rock musicians and orchestras. Numerous musicological articles and dissertations have been written about his music. The philosophy of Batagov's projects eliminates any boundaries between "performance" and "composition" by viewing all existing musical practices—from ancient rituals to rock and pop culture and advanced computer technologies—as inseparable elements of his practice.
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.
Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov is a Russian pianist with Spanish citizenship. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe and resides in Italy.
Shura Cherkassky was a Russian-American concert pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone. For much of his later life, Cherkassky resided in London.
Ruth Laredo was an American classical pianist.
The Labèque sisters, Katia and Marielle, are an internationally recognised French piano duo.
Ural Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most recognized Russian orchestras with 87 years of history. The collective of 101 musicians is based in Sverdlovsk Philharmonic,Yekaterinburg along with the Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir and the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra. UPO was founded in 1936 by Konstantin Saradzhev's student, Mark Paverman on the basis of the Orchestra of the Sverdlovsk Radio Committee. It is the winner of the national Music Critics Association Prize (2020), and the 440Hz Big Orchestral Award (2022).
Werner Haas was a German classical pianist. He was known for his performances of early 20th century compositions, particularly those of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He had a wide repertoire that also included works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Kabalevsky, and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Vox Records is a budget classical record label. The name is Latin for "voice."
Giora Schmidt is an American/Israeli violinist.
Andrew von Oeyen is a concert pianist. He is a citizen of the United States and France.
Jonathan "Yonty" Solomon was a South African pianist. He played with many of the world's best-known orchestras.
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work (self-referential), or from a different composer's work (appropriation).
Valery Sigalevitch is a Russian classical concert pianist.
Vanessa Benelli Mosell is an Italian pianist and conductor.
Stéphan Aubé is a French Music video director for classical music and pianist.
Vyacheslav Gryaznov is a Russian classical pianist and arranger. His diverse repertoire ranges from Baroque figures such as Domenico Scarlatti to Russian composers and more recent music. He is particularly well known for his many piano transcriptions of older masterworks.
Rinat Shakirov is a Kazakh pianist.
Hai-Kyung Suh is a South Korean classical pianist living in New York. She is known for her rich, round tone, and singing voice-like phrasing, characteristics of the Romantic style of piano playing that was predominant in the Golden Age of pianism.
Claude Kahn was a French classical pianist, internationally known for his interpretations of especially the music of Chopin, but also of French music as soloist or accompanied by great orchestras in the world. He founded and directed a piano competition in 1970, to become international as the Concours International de Piano Claude Kahn. He founded the conservatoire of Antibes in 1971 and directed it until 1991.
john Schaefer, New Sounds#4837
Apple Music
Add album, The Last Alchemist (2023)