“Alexander Vedernikov, who has died in Moscow with Covid-19 aged 56, was a Russian orchestral conductor known for his fast tempi and loud fortissimos,” reads an unsigned obituary in Monday’s (11/2) Telegraph (U.K.). “Vedernikov directed many thrilling concerts in Britain, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s centenary performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at the Barbican in 2013…. Vedernikov … made his Covent Garden debut in December 1996 with the Royal Ballet in Prokofiev’s Cinderella with Darcey Bussell in the title role….. Vedernikov spent eight years as music director of the Bolshoi Theatre [beginning] in 2001…. Over the past decade Vedernikov … had become a regular sight in British concert halls, conducting orchestras in Bournemouth, Birmingham and Manchester. He made his Proms debut in 2016 conducting Stephen Hough in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini…. Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov was born in Moscow on January 11, 1964…. He … was assistant to the conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev at the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra before setting up his own Russian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in 1995…. Latterly he was conducting the Odense Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Danish Opera, and was music director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg.”
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