Brahms: The Violin Sonatas
Grigori Zhislin (2020 Remastered, Studio 1989)
1 disc(s) - 10 track(s)
Total length: 01:15:07
There are versions much more virtuosic than the duo Zhislin / Bauer. However, this very touching duo (cover II) moved us for several reasons. The age that separates the pianist and the violinist has created a mother/son relationship that can be felt in the interpretation. It looks like the photo of old Brahms with the two charming ladies. The musical phrasing is ample and deep. The sound of the instruments is beautiful: the experience of life can be felt in Frieda Bauer's piano playing. The sensitivity, tenderness and attention for her partner can be felt in Grigori Zhislin's playing. It is an introspective version, very human.. In the photo (cover I), Brahms is surrounded by the wife and daughter of Viktor von Miller zu Aichholz during a summer stay in Gmunden..
Yehudi Menuhin: “Grigori Zhislin has all my admiration, both as a musician and as a superb instrumentalist. I came to know him as an exceptional teacher, but his natural gifts and total dedication have made him not only an excellent musician, but also a great violinist.”
Elizabeth Guilels-Kogan: “Each of his brilliant successes in international competitions and every one of his solo and symphonic performances convinces me of his immense potential as a violinist, artist, and virtuoso, who has mastered a wide range of both classical and contemporary repertoire.”
Grigori Zhislin was born in Saint Petersburg and studied with Yuri Yankelevitch in Moscow. He is a prizewinner of the international Premio Paganini competition (First Prize) and the Queen Elisabeth Competition. His career was subsequently marked by major concert tours throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia. He collaborated closely with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, and Sofia Gubaidulina, who dedicated numerous works to him. His outstanding qualities as both violinist and violist, together with the breadth of his repertoire, brought him international acclaim.
Frieda Bauer was born in Kyiv in 1919. She studied piano at the Kyiv Music School and later at the Moscow Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov, graduating in 1944. For many years, she worked as an accompanist, notably in the cello classes of Semyon Kozolupov and later Mstislav Rostropovich, and accompanied numerous competitions, including the Casals Competition in Paris in 1957.
From 1960 onward, she became the recital partner of David Oistrakh, with whom she toured worldwide, performing programs encompassing the violin and keyboard repertoire from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Prokofiev.
Among the distinctions they received were the Gold Medal for their interpretation of the Beethoven Violin Sonatas during the bicentenary concerts in Vienna in 1970, as well as the Grand Prix du Disque in France in 1966 and 1968 for recordings of sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Prokofiev, and Leoš Janáček.
After the death of David Oistrakh, she performed with Igor Bezrodny and Grigori Zhislin. In 1989 and 1990, she gave chamber music masterclasses at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.
Enjoy your listening
