The eminent Russian violinist Mark Lubotsky and his cellist wife Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky perform string duos by Mozart and Gliere on this first CD by the pair for the NCA label.

In summer of 1783, Mozart visited the indisposed Michael Haydn (brother of the famous Joseph), who worked as violinist and court composer for the Archbishop of Salzburg. In a gesture of friendship, Mozart helped Michael Haydn out when he was unable to fulfil a commission for Six Duos for violin and viola on time by writing two of the six - which were all then published under Haydn‘s name. The versions for violin and cello of Mozart’s duos were published in Hamburg at the end of the 18th century.

The Eight Duets for violin and cello written by Reinhold Glière in 1908, make up a cycle of miniatures, showing the Russian composer’s high professional mastery in this unusual chamber genre. Each of these short pieces is distinguished by a strong individual character and great lyrical expression.

A pupil of David Oistrakh, Mark Lubotsky is one of today’s most distinguished Russian violinists, especially notable for his performances of music by Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Benjamin Britten (he recorded Britten’s Violin Concerto under the composer’s baton). Lubotsky was instrumental in rediscovering the composer Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944), who was ostracized and suppressed by the Soviet government. He has appeared world-wide as soloist with conductors such as Kyrill Kondrashin, Eugene Ormandy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Kurt Sanderling, and he has recorded for the labels Philips, Sony Classical, Decca, Ondine, Bis, Collins Classic and Olympia.

Born in Saratov, Olga Dowbusch-Lubotsky studied the cello in Moscow and in Hamburg at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, winning several prizes. All her concerts in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Russia have been well-received, and she has played at famous international music festivals such as Savonlinna (Finland), Peter de Grote (Netherlands) and the New Jersey Festival (USA). A member of the Lubotsky Trio, she is particularly known for performing works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Alexander Raskatov, Viktor Suslin and Valentin Silvestrov. For NCA she has previously released music by Schubert and Gubaidulina.