Alexander Toradze is universally recognized as a masterful virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition. He has enriched the Great Russian pianistic heritage with his own unorthodox interpretative conceptions, deeply poetic lyricism, and intensely emotional excitement. Toradze’s recording of all five Prokofiev concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra for the Philips label, is acclaimed by critics as definitive. His recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concert No. 3 was named by International Piano Quarterly as «historically the best on record» (from among over seventy recordings). Other highly successful recordings have included Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, with the Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting as well as recital albums of the works of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev for the Angel/Emi label.
Toradze regularly appears with the world’s leading orchestras. Among his best friends, some of the leading conductors of today such as Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yukka-Pekka Saraste, Mikko Frank, Paavo and Kristian Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski and Gianandrea Noseda.
Additionally, Toradze regularly takes part in many summer music festivals including those of Salzburg, the White Nights in St. Petersburg, London’s Bbc Proms concerts, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Mikkeli (Finland), the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga, and Ravinia.
Recent engagements include the Bbc Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Orchestras under Gianandrea Noseda, the London Symphony and the Mariinsky Orchestras under Valery Gergiev, the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi, the London Philharmonic under the Music Director Vladimir Jurowski and Jukka-Pekka Saraste in addition to concerts with the Orchestre National de France, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Czech and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras. In March 2010 he took part to a US tour with the London Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, including a concert at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York.
Among future projects, the recording of both Shostakovich Pianoconcerti with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi.
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and soon became a professor there. In 1983, he moved permanently to the United States and in 1991 he was appointed as the Martin endowed Professor of Piano at the Indiana University South Bend, where he has created a teaching environment that is unparalleled in its unique concept. The members of the multi-national Toradze Piano Studio have developed into a worldwide touring ensemble that has performed projects detailing the piano and chamber works of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvořák, Stravinsky and Shostakovich in Europe (Uk, Italy, Germany, Portugal, France) and in the United States.
He performed at Stresa Festival in 1999, 2000 and 2001.