Tugan Sokhiev in conversation with Andreas Ottensamer (17 min.)

Since 2010, the Russian conductor Tugan Sokhiev has been a regular guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In January 2018, he brought the chorus of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, whose music director and chief conductor Sokhiev is, to Berlin for performances of large-scale works by Rachmaninov, Borodin and Prokofiev. In this interval feature with the Philharmoniker’s principal clarinet Andreas Ottensamer, the conductor talks about his work at one of the most important opera houses in his native country, the tradition and unmistakable sound of Russian choral music, Prokofiev’s difficult position as a moderate soviet state artist under Stalin, and the unlimited artistic possibilities in a music capital such as Berlin, where Sokhiev was chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester for several years.