ALEXEI KORNIENKO

Alexei Kornienko is an outstanding musician whose work is characterised both by an unconditional and joyful attention to text and also a boldness in interpretation. This seeming contradiction in fact stands the Austrian conductor Kornienko in very good stead. His work as a pianist of the Russian school, with his extraordinarily wide Classical and Romantic repertoire, is combined profoundly with his work as a conductor, which he has steadily expanded in recent years.

Born in Moscow, he began music lessons at the age of fi ve, studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (piano class Zak) and in Charkow (conducting class Jordania), and was prize-winner at the International Rachmaninov Piano Competition in Moscow. Since his move to Austria in 1990 he has made his name as a respected competition juror as well as a teacher at the Kärtner Landeskonservatorium (Carinthian State Conservatory). He is co-founder of the Gustav Mahler Ensemble and a member of the Bösendorfer Artistic Club.

Kornienko divides his career between the piano and the conductor’s podium. Together with his wife, the acclaimed violinist Elena Denisova, he is also active in the rediscovery of forgotten treasures of Classical-Romantic period chamber music: Musik um 1900, their CD "Vienna 1900" (Gramola Vienna) of works by Robert Fuchs, Pavel Singer and Alexander von Zemlinsky, brought them international success.

<p">In Vienna Kornienko and Denisova are currently (2009) recording another world premiere: Joseph Haydn‘s violin sonatas, for Gramola Vienna. Another collaboration, their recording of the rarely performed chamber music version of Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons (DEKA), featured Elena Denisova on four different historical violins from Cremona and displayed Kornienko‘s profound skill as cembalist, meeting with critical acclaim in Europe and Japan.

Kornienko stands out as an extraordinarily dynamic interpreter of the works of Beethoven and Brahms, but also of the Modern, and his ability to master highly challenging works ensures his position as a much sought-after conductor for premieres of complex scores. He has worked with countless internationally renowned orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the George Ernescu Philharmonic Orchestra and as a permanent guest conductor of the Sofi a Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has garnered enthusiastic praise from critics and public alike. In 2010 he will conduct the Moscow Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra on a large US tour.

Kornienko has been artistic director of the Wörthersee Classics Festival since its foundation in 2000, and strives each year to create a programme of the highest quality.