Alexander Melnikov completed his studies at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Naumov. His most formative musical moments in Moscow include an early encounter with Svjatoslav Richter, who thereafter regularly invited him to festivals in Russia and France. He was awarded important prizes at eminent competitions such as the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau (1989) and the Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth in Brussels (1991).

Known for his often unusual musical and programmatic decisions, Alexander Melnikov developed his career-long interest in historically informed performance practice early on. His major influences in this field include Andreas Staier and Alexei Lubimov. Melnikov performs regularly with distinguished period ensembles including the Freiburger Barockorchester, Musica Aeterna and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

As a soloist, Alexander Melnikov has performed with orchestras including the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Teodor Currentzis, Charles Dutoit, Paavo Järvi, Thomas Dausgaard, Maxim Emelyanychev and Vladimir Jurowski.

Together with Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov recorded a unique all-Schubert programme of four-hand pieces, which they have also performed in concert. An essential part of Melnikov’s work is intensive chamber music collaboration with partners including cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Alexander Melnikov’s association with the label harmonia mundi arose through his regular recital partner, violinist Isabelle Faust, and in 2010 their complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano won a Gramophone Award. This album, which has become a landmark recording for these works, was also nominated for a Grammy. Their most recent releases feature Brahms and Mozart sonatas for violin and piano.

Melnikov’s recording of the Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award, Choc de classica and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In 2011, it was also named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the "50 Greatest Recordings of All Time. " Additionally, his discography features works by Brahms, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Scriabin. Along with Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester, Melnikov recorded a trilogy of albums featuring the Schumann Concertos and Trios (published in 2015-16) and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (2021). Other releases include a complete recording of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas , "Four Pieces, Four Pianos", released in 2018 and highly acclaimed by critics and following this in 2023 his new album "Fantasie – Seven Composers Seven Keyboards" in which he plays the pieces on the instruments of the time. In addition to this solo album, the CD with Schumann's Piano Quartet, Op. 47 and Piano Quintet, Op. 44 was released at the end of 2023, on which Melnikov can be heard together with Isabelle Faust, Anne Katharina Schreiber, Antoine Tamestit and Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season will be Alexander Melnikov's residency at the Konzerthaus Wien with a solo programme, a chamber music concert and a concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Concert tours take him to Japan, America and Europe, where he performs with renowned orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Ivor Bolton, Maxim Emelyanychev, Hannu Lintu, Daniel Cohen, Anja Bihlmaier and Giovanni Antonini.

Alexander Melnikov continues his chamber music work in a wide variety of formations with partners such as Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Alexei Lubimov, Olga Pashchenko, Mikhail Shilyaev and Jean-Guihen Queyras and performs with these formations in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Berlin, Lyon, Amsterdam, Bonn, Vancouver, Seattle, and London, among others.

Solo recitals in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Auditorium de Lyon, in Prague, Madrid, the Philia Hall Yokohama and the Toppan Hall in Tokyo round off Alexander Melnikov's season.

2024/2025