David Oistrakh String Quartet

David Oistrakh

String
Quartet

David Oistrakh

String Quartet

The David Oistrakh Quartet features four of today’s most outstanding Russian musicians

… all soloists in their own right, united in their artistry and their passion for the art of quartet playing. In 2012 the family of the legendary 20th century violinist honoured the quartet with his name.

Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich

David Oistrakh String Quartet

Tchaikovsky & Shostakovich / David Oistrakh String Quartet THE BEAUTY OF TENSION The two principal works in this programme have more in common than just their geographical origin. Although Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, born three generations apart, lived in…

Grieg & Mendelssohn

David Oistrakh String Quartet

The first recording of the David Oistrakh Quartet received much praise from the press. Achieving comparison with the Borodin and the Beethoven Quartets, this young group offers an impassioned performance of Grieg and Mendelssohn: a powerful, contrasted, physical and always subtly emotional performance.

About Us

The David Oistrakh Quartet frequently performs across Europe, Asia, USA, South America and at many of the most recognised Russian venues, including all of the country’s famous philharmonics halls. They have had the honour to play at various renowned festivals, collaborating with such celebrated artists as Eliso Virsaladze, Eduard Brunner, Liana Isakadze, Andrey Gugnin, Boris Andrianov, Kirill Gerstein, Alexander Buzlov and Daniel Austrich.

After their impressive debuts in Japan, Hong Kong, at the Prague Spring Festival, the Quartet Festival at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Bienale Quartet Festival in Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Bratislava Festival, the Konzerthaus in Dortmund, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Auditorio de Barcelona, future engagements will continue to bring David Oistrakh Quartet to the most prestigious stages and festivals of the world.

75 years after David Oistrakh’s triumph at the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition, the First Violinist of the Quartet – Andrey Baranov – won the first prize in Brussels in 2012. Baranov 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) international competitions. His international career has led him to perform as a soloist with the London Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, St-Petersburg Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and MusicAeterna Orchestra, under the baton of such conductors as Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yuri Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Michael Sanderling and Alexander Vedernikov.

The Second Violinist of the Quartet, Rodion Petrov, is a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory and Reina Sofia Music Academy in Madrid. Rodion is a prize-winner of numerous competitions including Premio Paganini in Genova in 1997. He has appeared as a soloist in Russia, Europe and Asia at such concert halls as Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and is a regular participant at many of the world’s great music festivals.

Violist Fedor Belugin is laureate of a number of international competitions, first prize winner of the Swedish Duo Competition together with pianist Alexander Osminin. Since 2006 Fedor is Professor at the Moscow State Conservatory. He is one of few violists to pursue a busy solo career alongside his quartet engagements. During an important period of his career he was Violist of the Shostakovich Quartet. In 2018 he founded the “Forge of Violin Artistry”, a private music boarding school in Moscow for young musicians.

Cellist Alexey Zhilin is considered one of the leading cellists of his generation in Russia. He has won a number of international prizes and appears frequently as a soloist with chamber and symphony orchestras in Russia and Europe. He is Professor of cello at the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory. In 2018 Alexey won the J. Brahms Competition in Austria, both as a cello soloist, and in duo with pianist Andrey Baranenko.

In the first few years of the Quartet’s existence, Baranov, Belugin and Zhilin had the honour to work with Sergey Pischugin, as a second violinist – a renowned chamber musician in Russia. A former student of David Oistrakh, Professor at the Moscow State Conservatory and member of the legendary Shostakovich Quartet, Pischugin played a vital role in the founding of the David Oistrakh Quartet.

Members

Alexey Zhilin

One of the most talented and recognized Russian cellists for today. He successfully combined the solo career with chamber concerts. From the first days he is a part of David Oistrakh Quartet and plays a lot on the main Russian and world scenes. Alexey is a soloist of Saint Petersburg House of Music. For six years he is also a principal cello of MusicAeterna Orchestra (artistic director – Teodor Currentzis). Since 2014 he is an assistant professor (cello department) at the State Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

Alexey was born at 1987 in Leningrad. In the age of 11, he held the first victory on the International Music Competition in Moscow. One year later was his debut with the symphonic orchestra in Nizhny Novgorod. Since that time, Alexey has been an active participant in numerous concerts throughout Russia and abroad. In 2004 he became a laureate of International Youth Tchaikovsky Competition in Japan. In 2006 he won the first Prize of International Cello Competition in Gegardmer in France. Later Alexey Zhilin became a laureate of the International Elsky Competition in Minsk (Belarus), then he won the I prize of the Mravinsky Competition in St. Petersburg, the III prize of the Brahms Competition in Austria and the II prize of the I New Names All-Russian Open Competition. In 2011 Alexey was a semifinalist of the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

In 2011 he became the first Russian laureate of the International Competition Dr. Luis Sigall (Chili), and one year later he won the second Prize of one of the most prestigious world cello competitions – International Isang Yun Competition (South Korea). During his studying at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory Alexey was awarded a special stipend by the President of Russia.

In 2013 he post-graduated the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (class of prof. A. Nikitin). Alexey has participated in Master-Classes of such distinguished artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Natalia Shakhovskaya, Jens Peter Maintz, David Geringas, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Valter Dešpalj, Johannes Goritsky, Ivan Monigetti, Kirill Rodin, Alexander Rudin, Leonid Gorokhov and many others.

Today Alexey Zhilin performs throughout Russia and abroad; his tours have taken him to Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and others. He plays as a soloist with such renowned ensembles as a Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra Novaya Rossiya (art. dir. Yury Bashmet), Russian Philharmonic etc. Alexey has worked with conductors including Kent Nagano, Teodor Currentzis, Dimitris Botinis etc. Alexey Zhilin performs with such acclaimed musicians as Eliso Virsaladze, Irina Kandinskaya, Liana Isakadze, Mari Kodama, Boris Andrianov, Eduard Bruner, Boris Brovtsyn. The cellist takes part in international festivals including Arts Square, Musical Collection and Musical Olympus (St Petersburg), festivals in Vichy (France), Telavi (Georgia), The East-West Festival in Brussel (Belgium) etc.

www.alexeyzhilin.com

Fedor Belugin

Fedor’s graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky gave his career a boost. In 2005, while still a student, he was invited to play with the Shostakovich String Quartet. After the debut Fedor Belugin made in the Great Hall of the State Conservatory he was invited to be a permanent member of the renowned Quartet. A year later Fedor joined Master’s program at the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky to study with professor I. Kandinskaya. Along with his academic activities he was trusted to teach Quartet classes for the Moscow State Conservatory being one of the youngest teachers there. 2008 Fedor Belugin together with the pianist Alexander Osminin became the Winner of the 5th International Duo Competition (Sweden, Katrineholm), which was the unanimous decision of the jury.

This victory induced active touring – in 2009 Belugin and Osminin made a major concert tour all over Russia, giving over 40 performances at best concert halls anywhere between Murmansk to Uzhno-Sakhalinsk. Born in 1982 in the town of Krasnoyarsk-26 (Siberia), Fedor took his first lessons from his father, Zhores Nikolaevich Belugin, who, due to his teachers M. Reyentovich and A. Leshinsky, inherited from two prominent violin schools of the 20th century represented by L. Auer and K. Flesh. Traditions of two great violin teachers of the 20th century that Fedor learned as a child, are evident from his style – the musician is striving to make his viola sound as expressively as human voice. “Brilliant training…” – professor G. Odinets. “Scale of a true artist…” – professor M. Benumov.

The first success came when, guided by his father, budding talent of 13won the Grand-prix at the Young violinist competition among forbidden towns of Russia. The young musician continued his formal training in Krasnoyarsk with professor M. Benumov, Merited artist of Russia. Between 1998 and 2001 Fedor was the student of the Musical College under the Moscow State Conservatory, where he was trained under M. Keselman. Starting from 2001 Fedor Belugin was the student of the Moscow Conservatory. There he made a full course of viola under professor G. Odinets and chamber ensemble under professor I. Kandinskaya. Belugin’s genuine gift and academic excellence were well acknowledged while he was still a student: he won International Competition “Classical Legasy” (Moscow, 2005) in two nominations: Viola Solo and Chamber Music. He was also granted the “Russian Art” scholarship. Since 2005 Belugin has been actively involved with the State Shostakovich String Quartet.

It is with them that he performed 15 string quartets by Dmitry Shostakovich in Moscow and in Paris. In 2007 M. Rostropovich invited the Quartet to take part in Baku festival in memory of D. Shostakovich. Winning the International Duo Competition made the geography of Belugin’s tour performances expand significantly to include numerous cities and towns in Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Poland, the USA, Sweden, Italy. His repertoire includes almost every piece of music ever composed for viola and also the music he has done arrangements for, his main interest being in arranging for viola some violin and cello romantic pieces and 20th century music – sonatas by S. Frank’s, S. Rachmaninov, A. Grechaninov, R. Schumann, music by J. Brahms, A. A. Dvořák, P. Tchaikovsky, C. De Bussy, A. Piazzolla, E. Bloch. Fedor Belugin has enjoyed originative interaction with such artists as N. Gutman, A. Rudin, I. Kandinskaya, E. Virsaladze, A. Baranov, D. Avstrikh, A. Vinitsky, G. Zhislin, V. Kraynev, T. Alikhanov, S. Kravchenko, P. Vernikov, S. Girshenko and conductors – T. Currentzis, M. Benumov, P. Bellugi, Е. Bushkov, M. Arkadiev, I. Lerman, A. Vorontsov.

www.fedorbelugin.com

Andrey Baranov

One of the most successful musicians of his generation, violinist Andrey Baranov enjoys an exclusive career as an outstanding soloist and a sought after ensemble partner, performing on main stages and festivals around the globe.

He is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition of 2012, the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions, and a prizewinner of more than twenty other international competitions, including Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, David Oistrakh, and the Moscow Paganini Competition.

Since making his debut in 2005 at the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Grand Hall under Vasily Petrenko and Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Baranov went on to performing with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchesra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic London, Camerata Salzburg under the baton of conductors Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yuri Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Michael Sanderling and Alexander Vedernikov, among others.

Andrey is the first violinist and founding member of David Oistrakh String Quartet, an ensemble established in 2012, which rapidly became one of the leading string quartets currently performing. His other chamber music partners include, among others, Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, Eliso Virsaladze, Liana Isakadze, Alexander Buzlov, Daniel Austrich, Andrey Gugnin, Antonio Meneses and Kirill Gerstein.

His album „The Golden Violin“, released on the MUSO Label and featuring romantic violin pieces, has won the prestigious „Diapason d’Or“ award in 2018.

At the age of 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 and as a jury member at prestigious competitions. Mr. Baranov is currently Professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany, “Academia del Ridotto” in Italy, and guest Professor at “Piccoli Virtuosi International Music Boarding School” in Switzerland and at the “Forge of Violin Artistry” in Russia.

Born in St.Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint-Petersburg and Consevatoire de Lausanne. His teachers were Lev Ivaschenko, Vladimir Ovcharek and Pierre Amoyal.