Warner Classics & Jazz

Biography

The internationally acclaimed Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and studied in Krasnoyarsk. He made his western operatic debut at the Nice Opera in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, and his career rapidly expanded to include regular engagements at all major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, the Berlin State Opera, the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Chicago Lyric Opera and the Kirov Opera, St Petersburg, in addition to appearances at the major international festivals. His most notable roles include Onegin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Posa in Verdi's Don Carlo, Germont père in La Traviata, Francesco in I Masnadieri, the title role in Rigoletto and Renato in Un ballo in maschera.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky has given many recitals, to great acclaim, in most major international recital venues, including the Wigmore Hall, London, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Carnegie Hall, New York, the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Moscow, the Liceu, Barcelona, the Cultural Centre, Hong Kong and the Musikverein, Vienna. He has also given recitals in Istanbul, Jerusalem and Australia, South America and across the Far East.

He appears regularly in concert with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and conductors with whom he has worked include Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev. Giya Kancheli wrote his symphonic work “Do not grieve” for Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, premiered in May 2002.

He retains strong musical and personal contacts with Russia. The distinguished Russian composer Georgi Sviridov wrote a song cycle, St Petersburg, especially for Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who often includes this cycle and other music by Sviridov in his recitals. He also takes an interest in Russian church music and has given numerous concerts and made a recording of this music with the St Petersburg Chamber Choir. In May this year he became the first Russian opera singer to give a solo concert with orchestra and chorus on Red Square in Moscow; this concert was attended by President Putin and televised in over 25 countries.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky's many recordings include recital and aria discs for Philips Classics and for Delos Records, as well as complete opera performances on CD and DVD. He has also starred in Don Giovanni Unmasked, a film (by Rhombus Media) based on Mozart's Don Giovanni. His most recent releases with Delos Records are CDs of Russian romances, I met you, my love, and of Russian war songs, Where are you, my brothers?

In his first recording with Warner Classics, Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Mussorgsky's Songs of Dances and Death. Recorded at the 2004 London Proms, he is accompanied by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov who also perform Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances on the disc. In a review of the concert at which the recording was made, The Observer called Hvorostovsky’s voice 'perfectly focused and full of drama, with Shostakovich's orchestration lending Mussorgsky's music the feel of a Russian winter landscape.' The CD is released in summer 2005.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky has a close collaboration with conductor and Music Director Constantine Orbelian and their Future plans include a performance of Russian war songs at the Chatelet Theatre, Paris with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, followed by a tour of North America with performances at the Los Angeles, Opera, the Kennedy Center Washington and the Lincoln Center, New York.

Future operatic plans include Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto and Eugene Onegin at Covent Garden, Pique Dame at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Il trovatore at the Paris Opera Bastille, Don Carlo at the Vienna State Opera, Valentin in Faust at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.