The Golden Violin Andrey Baranov

• Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770): Violin Sonata in G Minor, B. G5, Op. 1, No. 4 "Devil’s Trill" (Arr. Fritz Kreisler):
• 1 I. Larghetto 02:22
• 2 II. Allegro energico 02:55
• 3 III. Grave. Allegro assai 07:39
• Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840): Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7:
• 4 III. La Campanella 07:40
• Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski (1840-1893):
• 5 Sérénade mélancolique in B-Flat Minor, Op. 26 09:49
• 6 Valse-Scherzo in C major, Op. 34 05:39
• Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op. 42:
• 7 I. Méditation in D Minor 09:45
• 8 II. Scherzo in C Minor 03:11
• 9 III. Mélodie in E-Flat Minor 03:25
• Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943):
• 10 14 Romances, Op. 34 05:49
• Maurice Ravel (1875-1937):
• 11 Tzigane, M. 76 08:33
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918):
• 12 Suite Bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune 04:35
• Niccolò Paganini:
• 13 Caprice in A minor, Op. 1 No. 24 (Arr. Robert Schumann) 04:17
• Total Runtime 01:15:39

Info for The Golden Violin

For his first disc as a soloist Andrey Baranov explores a broad, cosmopolitan repertory from several centuries. First Prize laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2012, he shows himself to be inspired in these works that constitute the backbone of the virtuoso violin repertory, thanks to an irreproachable technique at the service of intense emotion.

In 2012 a great virtuoso, the Russian violinist Andrey Baranov won the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium. Although a soloist of the first rank, he is also passionately fond of chamber music; first violin of the David Oistrakh Quartet he founded in 2012, he also plays with his sister, the pianist Maria Baranova. Together they explore in this first disc a broad, cosmopolitan repertory from several centuries, in which the virtuosity of the language of the violin is amplified by the technical evolution that blossomed in the late 18th century and by the emotion that different composers sought to put into music.

The Russian repertory predominates in this recording with the famous Vocalise of Rachmaninov as well as three works of Tchaikovsky, all composed within three years of each other: the gentle Sérénade mélancolique, the joyfully leaping Valse-Scherzo as well as the triptych Souvenir d’un lieu cher, each of its three pieces having a distinctive character.

In the French repertory, two composers with quite similar musical styles and ideas are on the programme: Maurice Ravel with his highly daunting concert rhapsody Tzigane and Claude Debussy with his tender Clair de Lune.

The programme, however, begins in Italy with two emblematic representatives of the virtuoso violin: first of all the formidably perilous Devil’s Trill of Giuseppe Tartini, published 30 years after the composer’s death. Then comes Niccolò Paganini, the Italian father of the modern violin with one of the most spectacular works in the repertory, the rondo La Campanella, the last movement of his Concerto No. 2. For his first recording as a soloist Andrey Baranov plays a violin from the early 19th century that belonged to David Oistrakh, a copy of the very celebrated Stradivarius The Messiah. Andrey Baranov shows himself to be inspired in all these works that constitute the zenith of the virtuoso repertory and his irreproachable technique is always at the service of a violin that sings and will stir everyone.

Andrey Baranov, violin
Maria Baranova, piano

Recorded from 20 to 22 July 2017 at Flagey, Studio 4 in Brussels, Belgium
Produced, engineered and editing by Frédéric Briant

Andrey Baranov
is winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition 2012. He is also a winner of the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions, and a prizewinner of more than twenty other international competitions including Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Isakadze, David Oistrakh and Paganini (Moscow). He is the first violinist and founding member of the David Oistrakh String Quartet, an outstanding ensemble established in 2012.

Born in Saint Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey Baranov began playing the violin at the age of five. He attended the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint Petersburg and the Conservatoire de Lausanne. He studied with Lev Ivaschenko, Vladimir Ovcharek and Pierre Amoyal.

Since making his major debut in 2005 at the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic hall under Vasily Petrenko and the Philharmonic Orchestra, he has performed in renowned venues throughout the world including the Bozar Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Großer Saal Mozarteum Salzburg, Cadogan Hall London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Mariinsky Concert Hall and Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Hall.

Andrey Baranov has already appeared with leading international orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic London, and SWR Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra under conductors Teodor Currentzis, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yury Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Alexander Vedernikov among others.

As a chamber musician, he has performed alongside such artists as Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, Eliso Virsaladze, Liana Isakadze, Alexander Buzlov, Daniel Austrich.

Aged only 23 Andrey was appointed teaching assistant to Pierre Amoyal at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and has since been in demand as a teacher at many international masterclasses. He has been invited to institutions in Bangkok, Chicago, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm, Moscow, Manchester and elsewhere.

Maria Baranova
Born in 1988 into a family of musicians, Maria Baranova began her piano studies at the age of five. In 2007, she graduated from the Special Music School at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint Petersburg.

At the age of ten, she began to play with her brother Andrey Baranov. In 2000 she was a laureate of the All Russian Mazur Competition and began performing all over Europe as a soloist and with different ensembles. In 2008 Maria Baranova was a laureate of the 10th Maria Yudina International Music Competition and obtained the Prize for the Best Duet at the Academy of Lausanne. She was prize-winner with Andrey Baranov in the International Duo Competition in Katrineholm (Sweden) in 2010, and won 2nd prize at the same competition in 2014.

From 2010 until June 2015 she was a student of the Conservatory of Lausanne (HEMU) where she obtained her two master degrees under Professors Marc Pantillon (accompaniment) and Christian Favre (piano). Since 2015 she has been a student at the Hochschule der Künste Bern (Switzerland).

Booklet for The Golden Violin