Golden Violin

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 album 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. 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, Tartini and Paganini. 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 every listener.