Solo [Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe], Volume. 1 Andrey Baranov

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002:
• 1 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: I. Allemanda 06:31
• 2 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: II. Double 04:32
• 3 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: III. Courante 03:31
• 4 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: IV. Double 04:02
• 5 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: V. Sarabande 03:59
• 6 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: VI. Double 03:46
• 7 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: VII. Tempo di Borea 03:45
• 8 Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002: VIII. Double 04:04
• Eugène Ysaÿe (1858 - 1931):
• 9 Sonata for solo violin No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 27 (Ballade To George Enescu ) 06:23
• Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840):
• 10 Caprice for solo violin No. 1 in E Major, Op. 1 01:49
• 11 Caprice for solo violin No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 1 03:00
• 12 Caprice for solo violin No. 9 in E Major, Op. 1 (La Caccia) 02:37
• 13 Caprice for solo violin No. 14 in E-Flat Major, Op. 1 02:07
• 14 Caprice for solo violin No. 17 in E-Flat Major, Op. 1 03:18
• 15 Caprice for solo violin No. 20 in D Major, Op. 1 03:14
• 16 Caprice for solo violin No. 24 in A Minor, Op. 1 03:54
• Total Runtime 01:00:32

Info for Solo [Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe], Volume. 1

The Golden Violin, Andrey Baranov’s first solo disc, received an excellent welcome and was hailed by the press for “his flamboyant virtuosity, his imagination, his sense of drama, limitless instrumental mastery, a sensitivity that can reach the state of grace”.

The Russian violinist today launches the first part of an exploration of the solo violin repertory, tackling some of the greatest and most beautiful pieces of three composers who, in the course of three successive centuries, became masters of violin writing: Bach, Paganini and Ysaÿe.

Composed in 1720, the Sonatas and Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach are fundamental works that push back the boundaries of the instrument; Bach opened up the violin to hitherto unsuspected possibilities and composed a summit of the repertory that is revolutionary in its dramatic impact. These six works seem indeed to show the composer’s suffering and solitude, yet they also convey hope and the vital force.

It was after having heard the Sonatas and Partitas of Bach that Eugène Ysaÿe embarked on the composition of his own Sonatas for solo violin during the summer of 1923. They portray the evolution of violin techniques and certain important characteristics of early twentieth-century music, giving new credentials of nobility to solo violin music. The required virtuosity is always at the service of a highly poetic musical language; the third Sonata, with its fantastical and rhapsodic lyricism, seems to acquire orchestral force from the variety of its colours and the richness of its polyphony. Between the two, Niccolò Paganini undoubtedly pushed the virtuosity of his instrument to extreme limits. His 24 Caprices for solo violin, published in 1820, are gems of virtuosity and character and form so many brilliant concertos as much as transcendental studies. As with Bach and Ysaÿe, they also manifest magnificent poetry and an extraordinarily adventurous imagination, as much melodically as harmonically. Andrey Baranov has chosen to record seven of these Caprices, concluding his programme with the staggering No. 24, the cumulation of all the techniques used in the previous caprices. The First Prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2012 thus ended in the finest manner a programme covering three centuries of violinistic modernity.

Andrey Baranov, violin

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 Solo [Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe], Volume. 1