The Bolshoi Theatre Wind Quintet dates back to the mid 20th century.
Over the decades, the ensemble has changed several times, but never failed to feature the best wind players: soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, such as the flutist Alexander Golyshev, the oboist Sergey Burdukov, the clarinetist Eduard Myasnikov, the bassoonists Yury Rudometkin and Vladimir Bogorad, the French horn players Igor Lifanovsky and Vasily Tarasov.
Since its foundation, the Bolshoi Theatre Wind Quintet performed in Moscow and many other cities in Russia and abroad… In the late 1990s, the ensemble went on a hiatus.
In 2013, the Russian Bolshoi Theatre management decided to recreate the Bolshoi Theatre Wind Quintet. The ensemble comprised the best wind soloists not only of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, but also nationwide musicians: Nikolay Popov (flute), Honoured Artist of Russia, Sergey Lysenko (oboe), Sergey Petrov (clarinet), Alexey Raev (French horn) and Andrey Rudometkin (bassoon). This truly unique orchestra features an ensemble of soloists.
When you listen to the Bolshoi Theatre Wind Quintet, you get a notion that there is a single performer: so unified, integral and conscious their playing is, literally down to every aspiration and rest. This unique performing ensemble feels like a single multi-coloured and multi-voiced instrument made up of individually minded musicians-artists with subtle and deep feelings. The shared tastes and sensations, as well as perceptions and intentions, give us a beautiful feel of this musical ensemble.
The ensemble’s repertoire includes a large number of classical works written or arranged for this ensemble: quintets by A. Lyadov, A. Rubinstein, P. Tchaikovsky, M. Mussorgsky, S. Prokofiev, E. Svetlanov, A. Reicha, F. Danzi, J. Brahms, C. Nielsen, S. Barber, H. Villa-Lobos, P. Hindemith, etc. In addition, other works in the Bolshoi Theatre Wind Quintet repertoire were specially composed by its members for this ensemble; they have been performed at concerts and met with a great enthusiasm (in particular, works such as Fantasia on Themes from P. Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades by Sergey Lysenko and Carnival of Animals and Insects by N. Popov).
