Czech Chamber Music Society • Bell, Isserlis, Kissin

The founding of the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire in 1862 began one of the most interesting chapters of Russian music history. Beforehand, music had mainly been taught privately, in court ensembles, or by church choirs. Now, for the first time, a conservatoire was offering systematic, European-oriented training to instrumentalists, singers, and composers. The three graduates of that school chosen for today’s programme—Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Solomon Rosowsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich—represent three different generations from contrasting cultural and musical worlds, but at the same time they share in common the distinctive spirit of an important musical institution.

Exactly 40 years after the school was founded, the school’s composition department admitted Solomon Rosowsky (1878–1962), the son of the cantor Baruch-Leib Rozowsky, who had himself once studied at the conservatoire and was a contemporary of Tchaikovsky. Already as a student, Solomon Rosovsky stood apart from others by striving to merge classical composition technique with the traditions of Jewish music. One such example is a work he wrote in 1907 while still at the conservatoire: the Fantastic Dance on a Hebrew Theme for piano trio, Op. 6, which weds Hassidic melodic traditions with a European instrumental form. A lengthy cello recitative is followed by a violin melody evoking the singing of a cantor with characteristic melismas and modal colouring. A quicker dance section then provides contrast with the earlier passages with their strong vocal stylisation. This combination of liturgical and secular elements of Jewish musical traditions gives the composition an attractive, unique quality. He dedicated the work to his father. From 1925, Rosowsky worked in Jerusalem, then he emigrated to the United States, where he earned a reputation not only for composing, but also for teaching and conducting research in the fields of Jewish folklore and liturgy.

With a career spanning four decades, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. He has performed with every major orchestra in the world, and regularly appears as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, director and conductor. In 2011, Bell succeeded founder Sir Neville Marriner as Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He is also the Founder and Music Director of Chamber Orchestra of America (COA), which aims to empower the next generation of artists.

As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums, winning Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, Diapason d’Or, and Opus Klassik awards. Following his world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, Bell gives the concerto’s UK, North American, and Canadian premieres at London’s BBC Proms, with the New York Philharmonic, and during his season-long tenure as a Toronto Symphony Spotlight Artist. He also leads extensive U.S. and European tours with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and makes his first appearances as the New Jersey Symphony’s inaugural Principal Guest Conductor.

Bell has commissioned and premiered new works by John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Nicholas Maw, winning a Grammy Award for his recording of Maw’s Violin Concerto. In 2023‒2024, he introduced his newly commissioned concerto project, The Elements, a five-movement suite by renowned living composers Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery, and Kevin Puts.

A keen advocate for accessible music education, Bell received the 2022 Paez Medal of Art from the Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts, and the 2019 Glashütte Original Music Festival Award, presented in association with the Dresden Music Festival. He is actively involved with Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts and has partnered with Trala, the tech-powered violin learning app. The Joshua Bell Virtual Violin, created through an ongoing partnership with leading virtual instrument sampling company Embertone, is widely considered the best virtual instrument of its kind.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell has been named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, and recognized with the Avery Fisher Prize. He received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and, in 2000, was honored as an “Indiana Living Legend.” Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.

“Cellist, author, musical explorer and general enthusiast.” That is how the world-famous musician Steven Isserlis describes himself on his website. A Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a laureate of the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau and of the Wigmore Medal, he also plays other roles in the world of culture.

Besides solo appearances with prestigious modern orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, he also enjoys performing with ensembles that specialise in historically informed interpretation (sometimes in those cases conducting while playing the cello) and giving recitals with harpsichord. On the other hand, he is a great supporter of newly composed music and has performed a number of contemporary works such as The Protecting Veil by Sir John Taverner or Lieux retrouvés by Thomas Adès. His rich discography includes the complete cello suites of J. S. Bach (Gramophone Award), Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, and late works by John Taverner (BBC Magazine Award). 

For many years, Steven Isserlis has been the artistic director of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, and he has created numerous chamber series, for example at London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s 92nd Street Y, and the Salzburg Festival. He has revealed there, among other things, his passion for Czech music, which he calls “uniquely, irresistibly attractive”.

He likes to play not only for adults, but also for children, towards whom his literary ambitions are directed. His books Why Beethoven Threw the Stew and Why Handel Waggled his Wig are hugely popular and have been translated into several languages. 

In another literary text, he revealed his family history: “My grandfather’s family needed somewhere to live, so they set out looking for a flat”, says Isserlis. “One of the flats they visited belonged to a 102-year-old landlady, who kindly showed them around, but when my grandfather admitted he was a musician, the woman became disagreeable. ‘I can’t stand musicians’, she shouted. ‘When I was little, my aunt had a tenant who was a musician. He was a dirty old man who spat on the floor’. ‘Who was that?’, asked my surprised grandfather, and she growled back: ‘Beethoven!’”