Grigory Krotenko – Double-Bass Concertos (In the footsteps of Josef Kämpfer)

Grigory Krotenko (Double-Bass, Viola da Gamba, Violone, Bassetto)

Born in 1983 in Moscow, Russia, Grigory began his musical studies at the age of 5. He took up the Double-Bass at his 11 years, and later was accepted to the Academic Musical College to the class of the honored artist of Russia A. Meshcherinov.

In year 2007 he obtained BA Degree of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where in the year 2010 he successfully completed his Master Degree, in a course of Professor E. A. Kolosov. In his graduation year Grigory was offered a teaching position at the Moscow Conservatory, where he still remains as one of the leading double-bass teachers in the country.

Grigory Krotenko is a winner of the III Serge Koussevitzky International Competition (St. Petersburg, 2009).

Grigory’s active musical career as a soloist and member of many leading Russian and European chamber ensembles includes playing various historical bass string instruments such as Violone, Viola da Gamba, Viennese Bass and Bassetto. He was a member of such renown early music ensembles as The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, plays with Il Pomo d’Oro, La Voce Strumentale (Dmitry Sinkovsky) and Barocco Concertato (Maria Krestinskaya). In 2011 he performed with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique as the Guest Principal Bass.

Grigory is a participant and Board Member of Persimfans – the First Symphony Ensemble with no conductor. Apart from his playing career, Grigory is known as a rising star of Russian musical journalism. His interesting and recognizable interviews with famous performers and his entertaining articles, full of deep studies and sparkling irony, already won a significant fan audience in Russia and abroad.

Barocco Concertato Ensemble

Barocco Concertato was established in 2011 by soloists of the leading Russian early music ensembles inspired by historically informed performance and authentic style and technique. The ensemble specializes in Renaissance, Baroque and classical music. The members of the ensemble have attended masterclasses given by such European early music stars as Maria Leonhardt (the Netherlands), Andrey Reshetin (Russia), Peter Van Heighen (Belgium) Andrew Manze (Great Britain), Bob van Asperen (the Netherlands), Vittorio Ghielmi (Italy), Hugo

Reyne (France) Michel Laplenie (France) and Andrew Laurence King (Great Britain). All the ensemble participants are among the prize-winners of international contests and prestigious European festivals, such as Earlymusic (Saint-Petersburg), Oude Music Utrecht (Holland), Boston Early Music (the USA), Vantaa Early Music Festival (Finland) and Sanssousci Musicfestspiele (Germany).

The ensemble has varied sound possibilities. A combination of baroque violins, viola d’amore, harpsichord, organ, theorbo, archlute, bassoon, oboe, viola da gamba, violon and percussion makes the ensemble sound very much like a small baroque orchestra.

Key members:

International contests award winners: Maria Krestinskaya (baroque violin, viola d’amore) Elizaveta Panchenko (harpsichord, organ) Rust Pozyumskiy (viola da gamba, viola) Konstantin Yakovlev (baroque bassoon, oboe) Konstantin Schennikov (theorbo, archlute, percussion)

Guest-members:

Igor Lisov (traverso flute) Grigory Voskoboinik (contrabass) Svetlana Grinfeld (baroque violin) Ksenia Timofeyeva (baroque violin) Alexander Gorbunov (viola)

“It doesn’t matter whether we are thinking about Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism or Romantic music, each style deserves to be studied as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible; every single piece of music should be played in consistence with its time and historical tradition. For by immersing ourselves into the world of the great eras of the past, by studying the language, the symbols and the hidden allegories, we can discover the subtlest secrets of the time, music, style and history carefully restoring invisible threads between the past and the present centuries. This is what we see as our top priority as musicians and performers.”

Ilia Mazurov (baritone)

Born in 1991 in Krasnoyarsk (Russia), graduated from Krasnoyarsk College of Arts as a choir conductor. During his studies Ilia won several vocal and conducting competitions.

From 2009 to 2014 he studied conducting at St. Petersburg Conservatory with Valentin Nesterov and participated in vocal master classes of Elena Obraztsova. Ilya has performed parts in operas by Charpentier, Lully, Rameau, Monteverdi, Mozart, Rodriguez de Hita, various cantatas and oratorio works (Mozart’s Requiem , Magnificat and Messe h-moll by J. S. Bach, “Die Schöpfung” by J. Haydn, Te Deum by Purcell, etc.) and also chamber music (vocal works of Schubert, Schumann etc.)

In 2015-2016 he performed the main role in the “Gorebogatyr-Kosometovich” by Martín-y-Soler and Catherine the Great, participated in a reconstruction of the first Russian-language opera “Cephalus and Prokris ” (Francesco Araja, Alexander Sumarokov) at the festival “Early Music” (St.-Petersburg, directed by Andrey Reshetin) and in the Bolshoi theatre (Moscow, 2017). In 2017 participated in a concert performance of the Opera “Le Faucon” by Bortniansky and was invited to Cesti Baroque Competition (“Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik”, Austria). Ilia performes with various orchestras and ensembles (“The soloists of Catherine the Great”, “Barocco Concertato”, Mariinsky orchestra, “Synergy Orchestra”, etc.) and musicians (Michael Chance, Deborah Jork, Isabelle Poulenard, Valery Gergiev, Andrey Reshetin, Jérôme Correas, Maria Krestinskaya).

In the footsteps of Josef Kämpfer

Josef Kämpfer (1735–?1810) – cavalry officer in the Hungarian army, self-taught double bass virtuoso and double bass designer – led a peripatetic life moving through musical circles at the highest levels in Austria, Germany, Paris, London and St Petersburg. He met Leopold Mozart, the Haydn brothers, Vaňhal, and many of the most famous musicians of the day.