London Symphony Orchestra. Stas Namin. Centuria S-Quark Symphony. Abbey Road. 2016
Channel: Stas Namin Centre
Date: 2018-04-20

Stas Namin is a cult figure in Russia. He is a musician, composer and producer, artist and photographer, director and producer (film and theatre), as well as entertainment promoter. An initiator of many innovative projects, Namin is a pioneer of Russian rock music. He is the leader of the band the Flowers, and originator and producer of the band Gorky Park. Namin organised the SNC, Russia’s first independent production company, which launched the careers of many Russian stars. 

Stas was introduced to music in his early childhood. His mother, Nami Mikoyan, is a musician, writer and art historian. At their home, she received as guests Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonid Kogan, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli, Georgy Sviridov and other famous musicians and arts professionals. The first teacher of music for Stas was composer Arno Babajanian.

The music of the band Tsvety, which Namin formed in 1969, writing most of their songs, was always characterised by a particular melodicism and sophisticated polyphonic arrangements.

As early as in the 1980s, Georgy Sviridov gave invaluable help to Namin in the latter’s development as a symphony composer. Namin would share his new work and ideas with the maestro and ask his advice. 

The friendship with an American musician and composer Frank Zappa, who had turned to symphonic music and collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra, largely influenced Stas Namin’s musical tastes. The interest in complicated forms of music led to their frequent meetings with Alfred Schnittke, which lasted for hours. 

In 1989, Namin established the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (MSO), whose principal conductor was Konstantin Krimets. The MSO recorded over eighty CDs, which were released in Japan, the US, China, Austria and the UK. The orchestra made over 100 original recordings and recorded soundtracks for over 450 films. Besides, the orchestra successfully toured Russia and other countries. The year 1991 saw a unique joint tour of the UK by the MSO and Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Frank Zappa granted performance rights to the MSO for his orchestra music from The Yellow Shark album. In the 2000s, Ohan Duryan, a recipient of the Légion d’Honneur order, joined the orchestra as principal conductor. A series of the MSO performances with Maestro Duryan at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory became an unforgettable event in the musical life of Moscow.

At the same time, a different repertoire was prepared: symphonic arrangements of rock music, which the orchestra performed as Moscow Symphony Rocks.

Stas Namin started experimenting with symphonic music as early as in the 1990s. At the end of that decade, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra recorded the first parts of his symphony suite, Autumn in Petersburg. After 2010, Namin focused on writing symphonies. He completed Autumn in Petersburg with the final three parts. The eight-part suite was performed for the first time at the Moscow International House of Music in 2012, in a rendition by the Russian Federal Symphony Orchestra. The concert was released on CD and DVD. Presently, the Namin suite is performed by various orchestras both in Russia and abroad. In 2014, Namin started working on his new symphony works. 

In 2016, a German pianist and composer Ratko Delorko produced and recorded a piano version of the Autumn in Petersburg suite. 

In July 2016, at Abbey Road Studios (London, UK), the London Symphony Orchestra recorded Centuria S – Quark, a new symphony by Stas Namin.

In December 2016, as part of the Stas Namin Art Days in Armenia, the symphony was performed by the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, conducted by Sergey Smbatyan. It took place at the Aram Khachaturian Great Concert Hall in Yerevan. 

The Russian premiere of Centuria S – Quark was held at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 22 April 2017. The Russian National Orchestra gave a rendition of the symphony, as interpreted by a Grammy Award winner, conductor Mikhail Pletnev.