Mischa Maisky is one of the greatest living cellists, and the only one to have been taught by both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. Rostropovich described the musical art of Maisky as follows: “he is one of the foremost talents of the younger generation of cellists. His playing is a combination of poetry, amazing subtlety, powerful temperament and perfect technique”.

Born in Latvia, Maisky received his training in Russia. After he moved to Israel, he delighted audiences with appearances in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, New York and Tokyo and other distinguished music centres. He thinks himself a citizen of the world: “I play an Italian cello, using a French and a German bow, with Austrian and German strings, my 6 children were born in 4 different countries. I drive a Japanese car and wear a Swiss watch and an Indian necklace, and I feel at home anywhere people appreciate and revel in classical music.”

The record company Deutsche Grammophon, with which Maisky has had an exclusive contract for 25 years, has released over 30 discs on which the artist plays with such orchestras as the Viennese Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestra de Paris, the Orpheus, the European Chamber Orchestra and many others.

Among the peaks of his career is the year 2000, during which he performed compositions by Bach on a world tour of over 100 concerts. As a sign of his profound respect for the great composer, Maisky recorded the Bach solo suites for the third time.

The recordings of Mischa Maisky have brought him high marks from music reviewers worldwide, as well as top ranking prizes like the Record Academy Prize in Tokyo (five times), the Echo Deutscher Schallplattenpreise (three times), the Grand Prix du Disque in Paris and the Diapason d’Or as well as several Grammy nominations.

This world renowned musician regularly appears at most of the most prestigious festivals and has worked with such renowned conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Gustavo Dudamel, while among his partners on the music scene we can count Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, Nelson Freire, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Peter Serkin, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Bell, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen and many other famous musicians.

What so perfectly justifies his place as first soloist in the series of this year’s concerts is the particular relationship of Maisky and Dubrovnik. This appearance this evening could be characterised as a return concert to a city in which he also, apart from several appearances at the Summer Festival (2001 and 2002), every year between 2000 and 2012, performed at the chamber music festival Julian Rachlin and Friends.