Steve Elcock: Orchestral Music, Vol. 2 Siberian Symphony Orchestra & Dmitry Vasiliev

• Steve Elcock (b. 1957):
• 1 Incubus, Op. 28 08:30
• 2 Fantasia on a Theme by J. S. Bach, Op. 4 "Haven" 24:49
• Symphony No. 5, Op. 21:
• 3 Symphony No. 5, Op. 21: I. Allegro - Lento - Moderato 15:56
• 4 Symphony No. 5, Op. 21: II. Ostinato. Allegro 06:08
• 5 Symphony No. 5, Op. 21: III. Canzonetta. Largo 07:31
• 6 Symphony No. 5, Op. 21: IV. Allegro 14:30
• Total Runtime 01:17:24

Info for Steve Elcock: Orchestral Music, Vol. 2

This second volume of orchestral music by the English composer Steve Elcock (b. 1957), long since resident in France, brings three powerful works all with their origins in earlier pieces. Incubus examines the terrors of nightmare-riven sleep in a vigorous symphonic essay based on a movement from Elcock’s string quartet Night after Night. The impulse behind Haven, an expansive and surprisingly muscular fantasy, is the Sarabanda theme from Bach’s First Partita for solo violin. And Elcock’s Fifth Symphony takes its cue from the most famous of all Fifth Symphonies, re-examining Beethoven’s structural logic in Elcock’s own musical language to produce a volcanic new Fifth, its charge of wild energy husbanded to maximum dramatic effect.

Siberian Symphony Orchestra
Andrey Lopatin, violin (track 2)
Grigorii Vever, clarinet (track 5)
Evgeny Plaksin, horn (track 5)
Dmitry Vasiliev, conductor

Siberian State Symphony Orchestra
The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra dates back to 1977. The orchestra, then led by eminent Soviet conductor Ivan Shpiller, soon won a reputation as one of the best orchestras in the former Soviet Union. The SSSO has worked with conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Dmitri Jurowski, Gintaras Rinkevičius and Vladislav Chernushenko, and has performed regularly with soloists including Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Lazar Berman, Igor Oistrakh, Denis Matsuev, Rudolf Buchbinder and Nikolai Lugansky. Political changes enabled the orchestra to start touring internationally to critical acclaim. In 1993, by special decree of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the orchestra was awarded the title of State Orchestra and in 2009 received the honour of being named an important element of Cultural Heritage. In 2015 Vladimir Lande became the orchestra’s new Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Since then, the SSSO has embarked on a recording programme with international labels such as Naxos, Delos and Parma Records, and televised concerts have become available for online streaming.

Dmitry Vasiliev
Siberian Symphony Orchestra Artistic director and chief conductor Dmitry Vasiliev has received rave reviews as a dynamic and versatile conductor both in Russia and abroad. He has conducted over than 800 concerts. In March 2003 Maxim Shostakovich wrote, “Dmitry Vasiliev is a talented and perceptive young conductor, with creative thinking, expressive gestures and a keen sense of rhythm. One of Maestro Vasiliev’s principal strengths is the ability to emotionally charge the orchestra musicians and the audience.”

Born in 1972 in Bolshoi Kamen on the shore of Japan Sea. Vasiliev graduated from Rostov State Conservatory, then pursued post-graduate study under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Skulsky in Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory. He participated in master classes with Maestros Alexandr Vedernikov and Vladimir Ziva in Moscow.

Vasiliev’s career started blossoming in 1997 when he became a founding artistic director of the Tambov Symphony Orchestra, 482 km south-east of Moscow. Between 1997 and 2005, he toured with the Tambov Orchestra in France and performed at several international festivals, including the Rachmaninov International Piano Competition.

In 2002 Dmitry Vasiliev received a grant of the Russian Federation President.

From 2003 to 2005, Maestro Vasiliev served as Principal guest chief conductor of the Sochi Symphony Orchestra, Sochi. (city of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014).

Since 2005, he has been working as the artistic director and chief conductor of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra.

Vasiliev has guest conducted with many leading Russian orchestras in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov, Saratov and other cities. He has also guest conducted in Italy, France, Korea, China and Poland.

In 2003 he was awarded with a Diploma of the IV International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg. The same year he recorded a CD for ANTES EDITION of Concerto No.2 for piano and orchestra by Charles Villiers Stanford with the Rostov Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dmitry Vasiliev has collaborated with artist such as Pierre Amoyale, Alexandr Brussilovsky, Hibla Gerzmava, Valery Grokhovsky, Daniel Kramer, Oleg Krysa, Misha Maysky, Denis Matsuev, Vladimir Matorin, Julian Milkis, Nikolai Petrov, Vadim Repin, Alexandr Vedernikov, Eliso Virsaladze, Frederic Kempf, Sayaka Shodji, Daniil Trifonov, Marc-Andre Hamelin.

Vasiliev is an enthusiastic proponent of new music, especially by Russian composers. He has conducted the SSO in the premieres of compositions by Mikhail Bronner, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ilya Heifets, Efrem Podgaits, Tolib Shakhidy, Alemdar Karamanov, Philip Spratley, Mechislav Weinberg, Alexander Tchaikovsky and Vladimir Tikhomirov. He has also introduced Russia to the music of other countries’ music, presenting the Russian premieres of works by Charles Villiers Stanford, Karl Jenkins, John Adams and Eduard Tubin.

As artistic director, Maestro Vasiliev headed International Rachmaninov Festival (2001, 2002), Tambov’s Musicians Festival (1999, 2000, 2001, Tambov,Russia) Musical Province Festival (2002), New Music Festival (2008, 2010, 2012, Omsk, Russia). “Jam-session”- annual jazz-project, “Symphonic Cinema” annual multi-media project (video illustration of pieces being performed by orchestra), “Ringtone Party”- symphonic show for mobile phones and orchestra, competitions for young musicians “Soloist of the Orchestra” (biennially since 2008); the World and European Ballroom Dancing championships that took a place in Omsk (2008, 2009) and many others.

Awards presented to Vasiliev include the XVI Grand Prix International de l'Accordeon Award (1994, Andrezieux-Boutheon, France), and First Prize in the 1st Competition for conductors of Russian folk Orchestras (1997, Tambov, Russia). He was also granted a Diploma in symphonic conducting section of the IV International Prokofiev Competition in Saint-Petersburg in 2003.

In June, 2009 Siberian Symphony Orchestra was honored to participate at the Fourth Festival of World’s Symphony orchestras in Moscow under Maestro Vasiliev’s direction.

In April of 2010 Vasiliev and the SSO participated at the Symphonic Forum in Yekaterinburg, Russia, performing the world premiere of the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by Tolib Shakhidi with clarinetist Igor Fiodorov.

In April 2011 The SSO celebrated the reopening of its renovated Concert Hall. Dmitry Vasiliev presided over the opening concerts, where the SSO performed Beethoven’s overture “The Consecration of the House”, Lizst’s Les Préludes, Mosolov’s Zavod (Factory) and Prokofiev’s Alexandr Nevsky. UK-critic Martin Anderson wrote : “I know Alexandr Nevsky backwards – but I had never heard it performed by Russians in Russian, and I was pinned back in my seat. I hadn’t heard of maestro Vasiliev before my invitation to Omsk, but he is plainly a conductor who deserves to be known far further”.

Dmitry Vasiliev has a number of CD records on Toccata classics, ArtBeat, Antes edition. In June of 2014 the first recording of Weinberg's 21st Symphony and Polish tunes was awarded "Album of the Week" by Norman Lebrecht. He wrote in Sinfini Music: "The Siberian Symphony Orchestra, conductor Dmitry Vasilyev, play as if their lives depend on it".

Booklet for Steve Elcock: Orchestral Music, Vol. 2