Middagrecital Passacaglia

Dmitry Ferschtman (Moscow, 1945) studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Kozolupova and Natalia Gutman. During his studies at the conservatory he co-founded the Glinka Quartet with Misha Geller, among others. He played in the ensemble from 1966 to 1978, giving hundreds of concerts in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1978, Ferschtman settled in The Netherlands. He has performed as a soloist numerous times, under conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Kenneth Montgomery, and Edo de Waart, and has made many radio recordings. He is also an extremely active chamber musician. He has given countless recitals and recorded numerous CDs with his wife, Mila Baslawskaja. Dmitry Ferschtman has been a professor at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Utrecht Conservatory, and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He is currently leading the string quartet course at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.  

Hungarian cellist Örs Köszeghy (1980, Budapest) was the winner of the second prize at the seventh Hungarian National János Starker Competition, and a finalist of the International David Popper Cello Competition in 2001. Hij has made recordings for various labels and played a part in the documentary The Secret of Boccherini with cellist Anner Bijlsma, with whom he has worked together closely. He is passionate about chamber music: in addition to being a part of the string trio Trio Dumas, he also performs with the clarinet trio Maneon Trio, gives duo concerts with violinist Diet Tilanus, and recitals with pianist Daniël Kramer. His interpretations of 20th-Century solo cello compositions have led him to perform at many major venues and festivals, from the Cello Biënnale to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He received his first degree from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, studying with Csaba Onczay. He continued his studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Dmitry Ferschtman, where he received his Master’s degree in 2006. He has been a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 2009.

Pieter Wispelwey began his cello studies with Dicky Boeke and went on to study at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Anner Bijlsma, as well as in the United States with Paul Katz. In 1992, he was the first cellist to receive the Dutch Music Prize. Pieter Wispelwey feels at home on a modern cello just as much as on a Baroque cello. As a soloist, he performs all over the world with a remarkably broad range of repertoire. He has an impressive discography – he has recorded more than 30 CDs – which includes three recordings of Bach’s complete cello suites. In 2013, he released a CD with works by Schubert performed on authentic instruments, as well as a CD with Lalo’s cello concerto combined with Saint-Saëns’ rarely played second cello concerto. He currently teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. Pieter Wispelwey plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini made in 1760 and a Baroque cello made by Pieter Rombouts in 1710.