"Viktoria Mullova is not only an astonishing violinist and
probingly individual musician but an unsurpassed
communicator, the music leaping out at you."
The Daily Telegraph
Viktoria Mullova is an internationally acclaimed artist who studied at the Central Music School of Moscow and at the Moscow Conservatoire. Her extraordinary talent captured international attention when she won first prize at the 1980 Sibelius Competition in Helsinki and the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982. Since then, she has appeared with most of the world's greatest orchestras and conductors and at the major international festivals.
A passion for the Baroque repertoire and a period approach to playing, which she has nurtured since 2000 (performing and touring throughout the world with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Il Giardino Armonico), sees Mullova playing a new instrument at many of her concerts – her cherished ‘Jules Falk’ 1723 Stradivarius with gut strings and classical and Baroque bows.
Mullova’s ventures into creative contemporary music, which started in 2000 with her album “Through the Looking Glass” (with the renowned British jazz pianist Julian Joseph - “…Mullova and friends transcended their contrasting musical origins and fused into something genuinely new and beguiling.” - Richard Morrison, The Times), continues with specially commissioned works from young composers such as Dave Maric (premiered with Katia Labèque at the 2002 City of London Festival and on tour throughout Europe) and Fraser Trainer (premiered with the experimental ensemble Between the Notes at the 2003 City of London Festival). She continues to develop these relationships and will premiere a new work for the BBC Proms in 2005.
With a group of like-minded musicians she formed the Mullova Ensemble, which first toured in July 1994. The Ensemble have since recorded two discs (Bach Concertos and Schubert Octet) and continue to tour throughout Europe, their unique blend of scholarship and musicianship and their ability to breathe life into music new and old appreciated by audience and critics alike.
As a recitalist, Mullova performs regularly with Katia Labèque and Piotr Anderszewski. She also plays solo Bach programmes on gut strings, either with the harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone or purely solo; “To hear Mullova play Bach is, simply, one of the greatest things you can experience…” Tim Ashley, The Guardian.
Her discography for Philips Classics, numbering over eighteen recordings, has attracted many prestigious awards, but in 2005 Mullova once again explores new territories and has teamed up with the newly formed Onyx Classics label to present a series of new recordings including a Vivaldi Concertos programme with Il Giardino Armonico directed by Giovanni Antonini. Onyx is a new label with a new ethos – adopting all the normal traditional sales and marketing practises across retail chains throughout all major markets, but also the very latest new media technologies for marketing and distribution via the internet: audiences can now listen to excerpts of the artist’s CDs on line and either purchase the album direct or download directly from the website, from where extensive information will feature Miss Mullova’s entire touring schedule, world-wide.
Discover more about Viktoria Mullova, or purchase her recordings, by visiting her website: www.ViktoriaMullova.com. (Viktoria’s new CD VIVALDI will be out from 16th May, 2005 via the usual outlets, and from her website).
March 2005
