Zagorinskaya Natalia
is regarded as one of the outstanding interpreters of 20th century music. Born in Moscow, she started to study the piano at the Moscow Conservatoire at the age of 7. This was followed by vocal training at the P. Tchaikovsky Conservatoire from which she graduated in the class of Vera Kudriavtseva. Subsequently she became honorary member of the Moscow Helikon Opera with which she went on tour to the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain and Lebanon (Al Bustan Festival).
She took part in performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (live broadcast, 2004) and at the Victoria Hall in Geneva (2005). In 2006 she performed Alexander Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphonyat the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and Haarlem Philharmonic. In 2008 she performed Franz Schreker ’s Vom ewigen Lebenunder Reinbert de Leeuw at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and Kurtág’s Troussovaat the Aldeburgh Festival. The Hungarian composer ’s works play a special role in her repertoire. She has presented the Messages of the Late R. V. TroussovaOp. 17, Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova Op. 41 (of which she was the first performer, at Carnegie Hall, in 2009), and Four Capriccios, Op. 9 in many countries around the world including the leading musical centres, and with the partnership of modern music ensembles such as Contrechamp, intercontemporain, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Schönberg Ensemble, as well as orchestras such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic in Saarbrücken and Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Orchestra. In 2011 she sang both the Akhmatova and the Troussova cycles in a concert celebrating Kurtág’s 85th birthday in Budapest.
Her repertoire also includes such 20th-century classics as the works of Prokofiev (Love for Three Oranges), Stravinsky (Les Noces), Poulenc (the role of Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites), Berg (Lulu Suite), Janáček (Emilia Marty in the first Russian performance of The Makropoulos Affair), Elliott Carter (A Mirror on Which to Dwell), Edison Denisov’s Les Pleursand other song cycles, Castiglioni’s Terzina, Dallapiccola’s Tre Poemiand Commiato, Barraqué’s Chant après chant, Boulez’s Improvisation sur Mallarmé I/II, and Nono’s Intolleranza Suiteand Sul Ponte di Hiroshima.
Her recent operatic roles includes the title part in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Fata Morgana in Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges, Stephana in Giordano’s Siberia, Tsarina Alexandra in the first Russian performance of Jay Reise’s opera Rasputinas well as, in 2011, Mariana in the first Russian performance of Wagner ’s Das Liebesverbot at the Moscow Helikon Opera.
Concert engagements took her to the Los Angeles Radio Hall, Radio France Hall, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Haarlem Philharmonic, Edinburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Helsinki Christmas Festival and, on several occasions, to the Festival La Bâtie in Geneva. She has sang with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic in Saarbrücken and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, among others.
Future plans include further engagements in Vienna with Klangforum Wien at the Konzerthaus Wien (with Kurtág’s Troussova and Dallapiccola’s Commiato), Amsterdam with Nieuw Ensemble (with Akhmatova and Troussova), Paris with IRCAM (Troussova), Warsaw and Paris with the Ensemble intercontemporain (Kurtág’s Omaggio and Caprices) and Porto and Saarbrücken (with Avni’s Se questo è un uomo).
