Alexei Ogrintchouk is one of the most outstanding oboists of today and has been performing worldwide since the age of 13. He is winner of international awards including the prestigious Geneva competition, the BBC New Generation award and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. A graduate of the Gnessin School of Music and the Paris Conservatoire where he studied with Maurice Bourgue, he combines astounding technique with virtuosity and lyricism. Alexei Ogrintchouk manages to combine orchestral playing - he has been solo oboist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2005 - with his ever-increasing solo engagements. He has performed concertos with great orchestras including Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres, Suisse Romande, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, all the Orchestras of the BBC, Royal Philharmonic, KREMERata Baltica, as well as the chamber orchestras of Auvergne, Stuttgart, Munich, UBS Verbier and Prague. In 2007 he performed the Strauss Concerto at the BBC Proms to outstanding reviews and was immediately invited back in 2008. In December 2010 he will perform the world premiere of a new concerto by Dalbavie with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiri Belohlavek. He is also much in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician and has performed with many distinguished artists including Gidon Kremer, Radu Lupu, Thomas Quasthoff, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Maurice Bourgue, Sarah Chang, Nikolai Znaider, Julian Rachlin and Leif Ove Andsnes. His discography includes a Schumann recital disc (Harmonia Mundi), the world premiere of the Beethoven oboe concerto (Raptus classics), music by Britten (Record One), Skalkotas (BIS) and the Mozart Oboe Concerto (PentaTone classics). A CD of Bach Concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra will be released next season on the BIS label.
Photograph taken by Marco Borggreve
BBT Project: CD of Bach Oboe Concertos with Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Alina Ibragimova on BIS
"An intriguing disc, fastidiously researched…The Swedish Chamber Orchestra plays crisply and cleanly with a sound perfectly matched to Ogrintchouk’s own (extremely fine and technically impeccable) sound…this is a fine performance."
Early Music Today March/May 2011
"Ogrintchouk plays it [A major Concerto for oboe d’amore] beautifully…with a just appreciation of the instrument’s mellow tonal qualities. He has the understanding of how Bach’s long phrases are braced by shorter ones within their span, which is an essential quality of good Bach-playing. The other two solo concertos find him equally at home…simply be grateful for four admirably played and recorded oboe concertos by a great composer who wrote demandingly but incomparably for the instrument."
John Warrack, Gramophone February 2011
"Alexei Ogrintchouk... offers playing that’s graceful, beautiful and searchingly expressive."
Malcolm Hayes, Classic FM Magazine March 2011
"What's consistently authentic, though, is the quality of Ogrintchouk's playing, with its fulsome tone and clean articulation. He's placed well forward in the sound picture but the contribution of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra is important, too; forget the musicology, it's a delightful disc."
Andrew Clements, The Guardian 23 December 2010
BBT Project: Marc-André Dalbavie Oboe Concerto, commissioned for Alexei Ogrintchouk by BBT and BBC, premiere 17th December 2010 with BBC Symphony Orchestra at Barbican, London
"the concerto dazzles like a 100-watt bulb in a hall of mirrors…the restless energy of Ogrintchouk's performance could power the Barbican's stage lights for months…the oboist's fingers are almost never still, tracing constant, rippling curlicues as the music rises and falls…all ears were on the brilliant Ogrintchouk, who, as he greeted the composer at the end, looked exhilarated."
Erica Jeal, The Guardian 21 December 2010
"It could have been electronic, but was actually the solo oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk (chords are possible on the oboe, but it’s rare for them to sound as beautiful as Ogrintchouk made them)... The small patterns swelled into big ones, swooping up and down the entire range of the oboe with a virtuosity that had to be heard to be believed."
Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph 20 December 2010
"...a fabulous soloist"
Paul Driver, Sunday Times 26 December 2010
I am really delighted to have received the BBT award and all the support from the Trust which comes with it. The award has enabled me to commission a new oboe concerto with full symphony orchestra. This is well into the planning stages now and I'm looking forward to performing the work in the UK in a future season. The BBT has also smoothed the way for me to release a series of concerto discs with orchestra. I start recording the first of these later this year. There's no doubt that this will provide an additional platform to further my international career and attain greater public recognition.
