Yuri Bashmet

“[The Sinfonietta] receives a magnetic reading here from the two high-powered Russian soloists… and the Two Portraits, written when Britten was sixteen, offers a vigorous, purposeful picture of a friend and a reflective, melancholy one of himself, with the viola solo beautifully played by Bashmet. A revelatory disc.” Penguin Guide ***

World premiere recordings of the works of Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas including his Viola Concerto dedicated to and performed by Yuri Bashmet.

“I was born in Independent Lithuania, and I want to live and die in a free country rather than the Soviet Union.” With such powerful and optimistic words, the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas became the voice during the 1990’s for the ideals and hopes in his country, still under the flag of the then collapsing Soviet Empire. It was with such a spirit that the composer translated into music the turmoil and expectation that a whole nation shared. ‘Sun’ marks the awaited return of Barkauskas to AVIE, this time featuring acclaimed viola player Yuri Bashmet to whom Barkaskas dedicated his Viola Concerto. Other works here include the symphonic picture Sun, Symphony No. 5, and Konzertstück No. 2, all composed between 1981 and the mid 1990’s. The music of Barkauskas speaks about the spiritual world of the individual and the artist in his struggle with the conditions of all human fate. Enriched with the composer’s ability to express rhythmic and harmonic patterns that are a complex mixture of his own traditional musical vocabulary and the new more western feel of classical and modern styles of composition, these works reflect the hope of the his homeland as it comes closer to its eventual independence.

Vytautas Barkaskas was born in Lithuania in 1931 and is Professor Of Composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music where he has taught since 1961.

The living legend: still innovative, radical and original. Pierre Boulez concludes his acclaimed Bartók Concertos project, which has received the highest accolades, with an album featuring the Viola Concerto, Violin Concerto no.1 and the Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra

For this recording, Boulez has once again gathered an extraordinary team of musicians: Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Pierre-Laurent Aimard – with his long-term recital partner Tamara Stefanovich – and two of the world’s most esteemed ensembles: the Berliner Philharmoniker and London Symphony Orchestra

DG is particularly delighted that its exclusive artist Pierre-Laurent Aimard teams up with Pierre Boulez, with whom he shares a strong artistic partnership. The combination of two such insightful musicians as Aimard and Boulez with one of the world’s great orchestras promises to be something very special

A recording that brings together some of the greatest musicians of the modern age in their admiration for the Hungarian master composer of the 20th century: Boulez’s Bartók cycle has all the ingredients to become the benchmark recording of this repertoire

This exciting release marks the first solo recital disc in some years by the world’s most celebrated violist Yuri Bashmet, and features high quality arrangements mostly not recorded before.

Reminiscences is a highly personal disc of Bashmet favourites and encores played over 30 years with his long-time piano partner Mikhail Muntian (who premiered Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata).

Marais’ haunting music for viol suits the viola well and forms the backbone of the recital, just as it did for his Carnegie Hall debut. Bashmet played Benda’s Grave at the Beslan Memorial concert with Gergiev in 2005, and the other beautiful arrangements (some by Bashmet’s teacher, the legendary Vadim Borisovsky) throw a new light on many old favourites.

Bashmet’s collaboration with ONYX has been highly successful - their first two discs of Russian string works (ONYX4007/ONYX4017) gained a Grammy Nomination and Award respectively. Their most recent disc of Tan Dun and Takemitsu featuring Bashmet as violinist, violist and conductor is getting equally great reviews (ONYX4027)