Nikolai Nekrasov (Conductor)

Born: June 30, 1932, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR
Died: March 21, 2012 (79 years old), Moscow, Russia

Nikolai Nekrasov grew up in a musician’s family—his father had also been the conductor of a folk orchestra. After music school, he studied at the Gnessins Institute in Moscow, graduating as a virtuoso balalaika player and orchestra conductor. While still a student, Nikolai won a first prize with a gold medal at an international compentition held as part of the Sixth World Youth Festival in Moscow.

Nekrasov came in contact with the Folk Orchestra of Radio and Television after years as a conductor of the world-famed Piatnitsky Folk Choir and Moiseyev’s Folk Dance Company. This experience, as well as his natural talent, helped him to discover the great potential of the folk orchestra.

The new artistic director captured the attention with his inspired interpretations, bursts of musical emotion, and absolute transparency of his musical images—and at the same time, a certain academic austerity of the conductor’s personality.

Indeed, the conductor and his orchestra are one indivisible whole. Their fertile interaction is evidenced not only in the joint quest for artistic truth and the ability to penetrate the very heart of the music. It is expressed in the overall psychological mood and in the blending of thought and feeling, which helps them, to use Beethoven’s phrase, “...to inflame man’s heart,” building bridges from heart to heart.

Coming up are more programmes, recording sessions, tours, radio and television concerts. Boundless horizons, beyond which lies the future of the orchestra, perpetuating the richness of Russian folk music, which once gave the world such giants as Glinka and Tchaikovsky and also innovative works worthy of our time, a time of expanding cultural exchange, of getting to know each other, of the triumph of peace and human reason.

Reviews

”Nikolai Nekrasov has a remarkable insight into the composer’s mind, a gentle poetry in the performance, and a thoughtful regard for the performers, supporting his soloist and helping him to better express the thoughts and emotions of a particular work. I am always pleasantly struck by the atmosphere of genuine interest, sympathetic consideration for each other, concentration and self-discipline at his concerts, and even more so at rehearsals. I think the whole orchestra is mesmerised by his personal appeal, his inner culture, his subtle musical taste.”
Russian basso Yevgeni Nesterenko

“It’s a woderful orchestra—headed by a wonderful musician! The passion with which they throw themselves into their work is transformed into some truly inspired music and has won the hearts of millions of music lovers.”
Composer Andrei Eshpai

“Today, we no longer have to point to the accomplished skill of the players, to the extraordinary canti-lena—now transparent and fragile, now warm and velvety—that is so typical of this particular orchestra. Any further work on their professional skill, or the potential of the individual instrument and the orchestra as a whole, now serves only one aim—to reveal the inner content of the music as fully as possible.”
Critic Vassili Paskhalov


“What thrills me about this orchestra is the variety and richness of the sound—transparent, pastel, iridescent, and all the infinite shades in between. The slow dreamy pieces remind me of the sad and gentle beauty of the Russian landscape. This music comes straight from the heart—an enchanted narrative that leaves us enchanted, too. It’s not so much a performance of the music as an act of wonder, which the players want to share with us.”
Critic Svetlana Vinogradova