25/04/2020
KONSTANTIN MANAEV (cello)
With Bach's 1st Suite, the cellist, who studied in Moscow, Dresden and Basel and gives guest performances all over Europe, had began to learn to play cello: "I was six when my mother, a pianist, played the Prelude from Bach's 1st Suite for me on the piano. I was totally electrified and immediately wanted to play the beautiful melody. But my mother said, 'Kostyusha, if you want to play it, you have to be able to play the cello, because Johann Sebastian Bach composed it for cello and not for piano. 'Only a week later, I got a small eighth cello and started practicing Bach.'"
Three years later Konstantin Manaev plays at the music festival "New Names" in Japan. From that moment on it is clear for him that he will become a cellist. "Since then, music has been my faith, my religion."
In 2016, Konstantin Manaev is linked to Bach's 1st Cello Suite by another incisive experience: after the memorial concert for the murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked him to give an encore for that very piece - much to the delight of the audience present.
Born in Yekaterinburg, Konstantin Manaev first studied at the special music school of the Moscow Conservatory with Kirill Rodin, then at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and at the Basel Music Academy with Ivan Monighetti, who contributed greatly to the development of the cellist's musical personality and power of interpretation.
Konstantin Manaev delights his audiences worldwide and has received critical acclaim for his performances in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, Milan, St. Petersburg and Tokyo.
He made his orchestral debut in the Berlin Philharmonie in 2014 with the Berlin Camerata Chamber Orchestra. His debut at the Tonhalle Zurich accompanied by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra took place in 2011.
He worked with the conductors Daniel Raiskin. Gabriel Feltz, Arvo Volmer and Daniel Cohen. His chamber music partners include Benjamin Kim, François Benda, Elizaveta Blumina, Bruno Giuranna, Misha Maisky, Sol Gabetta, Felix Renggli, Yury Revich, Radovan Vlatkovic, as well as the composers Sofia Gubaidulina and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh.
Konstantin Manaev's concert repertoire includes works from the early baroque to the modern. Contemporary composers dedicate his new works to him, including Aziza Sadikova, Johanna Doderer, Alexandra Filonenko, Alexey Sioumak and Gordon Hamilton.
Two special recordings with the label GWK Records are proof of his versatility:
Three cello concerts by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach accompanied by the Berlin Camerata take your breath away. "Far away from any historicizing approach, far away from any convention, the cellist develops a creative freedom on his instrument that one really only rarely hears. The most delicate, breathy pianissimi, enchanting lyricism, powerfully humming basses, dizzying roller coaster rides: Manaev masters his instrument so masterfully that he can demand everything that is possible in virtuosity and passion, in intensity and lyrical suppleness. Manaev's C.P.E Bach, ideally supported by the Camerata Berlin, lives from a never-ending espressivo". Remy Franck | Pizzicato, LU.
The works of the Azerbaijani composer Frangis Ali-Sade, "Counteractions (Yanar Dag) for violoncello and accordion" and "Oyan! for violoncello solo" are first recordings.
He plays a cello by Johannes Theodorus Cuypers from 1762 and a modern instrument by Yury Pochekin, donated by the Pirolo Foundation Basel.
Important highlights: Festival Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Piatigorsky Festival in LA, Viana do Castelo Music Festival in Porto, Viva Cello Festival in Basel, Kanonji Festival in Takamatsu, Beethovenfest in Bonn, ZDF New Year's Eve Concert 2017 at the Brandenburg Gate, Semper Opera Dresden, Tonhalle Zürcih, Berlin Philharmonic, Konzerthaus Berlin, Gürzenich Cologne, Gasteig Philharmonic Munich, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid. TV and radio broadcasts, including Morgenmagazin ZDF, BR-Klassik, ARD, Kulturradio Deutschland, Klassikradio, WDR3, RBB.
