Bolshoi Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in Russia and one of the world’s largest symphony orchestras. It was founded in 1776 when the Company, which put a start to the future Bolshoi Theatre, was formed. According to a decree of Catherine II, the opera orchestra was to incorporate 35 musicians.
It was made up of serf musicians bought by the Treasury from their landowner-masters, and of foreigners and other free people. The Orchestra took part in all the Theatre’s musical dramas and opera productions. Gradually its repertoire was expanded: following operas and ballets by Alyabiev, Verstovsky and Varlamov, the works of Glinka, later by Serov, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov were staged at the Bolshoi and played by its Orchestra. From the 1830s, the Orchestra began to give performances of well-known European operas by Mozart, Cherubini, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Weber, later by Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Gounod and Puccini.
From the end of the last century, the Orchestra started to give symphony concerts and these were to play a major role in the development of its professional skills. The two years – 1904–1906 – that Rachmaninov was conductor of Bolshoi Orchestra saw considerable reorganization of the Orchestra. Rachmaninov’s activities resulted in a re-assessment of the role and place of the orchestra in opera and ballet productions and the key importance of the Orchestra in musical theatre came to be acknowledged.
The twenties and thirties of the century witnessed a new stage in the creative evolution of Bolshoi Orchestra. Over this period, the best players in the country joined the Orchestra which became the Soviet Union’s most important collective of performing musicians and the center of the capital’s musical life.
Many outstanding Russian conductors have worked with Bolshoi Orchestra: Rachmaninov, Suk, Golovanov, Pazovsky, Samosud, MelikPashaev, Haykin, Svetlanov, Rozhdestvensky, Simonov, Lazarev and Ermler. When appearing with Bolshoi Orchestra, the distinguished foreign conductors – Bruno Walter, Oscar Fried, Albert Coates, Fritz Stiedry, Zdenek Khalabala, Hermann Abendroth, Riccardo Muti – never failed to remark on the Orchestra’s high professional level.
Bolshoi Orchestra has made numerous recordings of operas, ballets and symphonic works, many of which have received international recognition and high awards. In 1989, Bolshoi Orchestra was awarded Italy’s highest music prize, the “Golden Viotti” medal, as the best orchestra of the year.
Today, Bolshoi Orchestra includes more than 250 members. Its musicians often perform as soloists and members of ensembles in concert halls in Russia and abroad. Among them many are international competition prize-winners and People’s or Merited Artists of Russia. Many of the older generation of musicians are professors at the Moscow Conservatoire and the Gnessin Academy of Music, and many younger players in the Orchestra are their former students. Their style is distinguished by the striking, fullblooded sound of the string quintet, the filigree work of the wood-wind and the brilliance and power of the brass.
Over the years, Bolshoi Orchestra has won international acclaim due to its participation in Bolshoi Ballet and Opera Company tours as well as to its appearances on the concert platform. In 2014 Tugan Sokhiev was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. Under his leadership, Bolshoi Orchestra has given numerous symphonic concerts, performing works by Mahler, Verdi, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff.
