Het zo delicate en diep menselijke timbre van de altviool is in de kamermuziek relatief schaars te noemen. Maar gelukkig was daar Brahms die met zijn twee sonates Op. 120 op een elegante en zeer expressieve manier de extreme gevoeligheid van de altviool naar een hoger niveau heeft getild. De altviolist Yuri Bashmet staat synoniem voor muzikale diepgang, virtuositeit en artistieke moed. Deze sonates zijn aan deze altviolist wel toevertrouwd. De voorheen bescheiden altviool wordt hier getransformeerd tot een briljant solo instrument. Samen met zijn dochter Ksenia (speelt ook twee prachtige solo pianostukken!) neemt Bashmet ons mee naar een wereld van diepte en esthetische vaardigheden. Van de melancholie tot het enthousiasme van de eerste sonate en de vredige liefdesdialoog van de tweede.
Brahms: Two Viola Sonatas, Op. 120 & Two Piano Rhapsodies, Op. 79
Yuri Bashmet (viola) Ksenia Bashmet (piano)
The works of chamber music that showcase the timbre of the viola, so delicate and so profoundly human, are relatively scarce.
Brahms’ two sonatas, Op. 120, elegant and highly expressive, sublimate the extreme sensitivity of the viola with a simplicity that only perfect mastery of musical composition can achieve. The music of Brahms and Yuri Bashmet's viola were made to meet each other. Admirably accompanied by her daughter, Ksenia Bashmet, he takes us into a world of depth, virtuosity and aesthetic prowess.
As if a butterfly-viola were playing a flower-piano, they fly together in a frenzied pursuit, only to end in the burst of laughter of a chord which we know ahead of time can only be perfect.
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The works of chamber music that showcase the timbre of the viola, so delicate and so profoundly human, are relatively scarce. Brahms’ two sonatas, Op. 120, elegant and highly expressive, sublimate the extreme sensitivity of the viola with a simplicity that only perfect mastery of musical composition can achieve. The music of Brahms and Yuri Bashmet's viola were made for each other. Here again, Yuri Bashmet has transformed the previously modest viola into a brilliant solo instrument in its own right. Admirably accompanied by her daughter, Ksenia Bashmet, he takes us into a world of depth, virtuosity and aesthetic prowess. Bashmet founded the International Viola Competition in Moscow, a competition that remains, to this day, the only one devoted to this instrument in Russia. This renowned viola player constantly makes international headlines in the realm of music, and his talent has been rewarded on countless occasions in both Russia and the rest of the world. Since 1983, when he was awarded the title of Artist Emeritus of the RSFSR, Bashmet has garnered titles and awards: winner of the State Prize of the USSR in 1986, People’s Artist of the USSR in 1991, and he also won the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1994, 1996 and 2001, and in 1993 was named instrumentalist of the year (the equivalent of an Oscar in the world of music). He is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1995, he was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in the world, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. In 1999, the French state appointed him Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2003, he became a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur. He is holds the most prestigious honour of the Republic of Lithuania, and in 2000, the President of Italy awarded him the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 2002, the President of the Russia Federation gave him the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, third class. In 2013, Maestro Bashmet received the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, fourth class.
