Kristóf Baráti
Violin
Decorated in 2014 with the Kossuth Prize, the highest cultural award in his native Hungary, violinist Kristóf Baráti has garnered international acclaim for his skilled and intelligent readings of Bach’s entire solo violin oeuvre. He performs solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe and Béla Bartók, and the Partita No. 2 in D minor by Bach.
Artist Images
Program
Decorated in 2014 with the Kossuth Prize, the highest cultural award in his native Hungary, violinist Kristóf Baráti has garnered international acclaim for his skilled and intelligent readings of Bach’s entire solo violin oeuvre. Baráti makes his Washington, DC, debut at the Phillips presenting two solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe, Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, and the Sonata for Solo Violin by Bartók, composed in 1944 for Yehudi Menuhin.
Program
Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931)
Sonata for solo violin No. 2
Sonata for solo violin No. 3
J.S. Bach (1685–1750)
Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004
Intermission
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Sonata for solo violin
About the Artist
Kristóf Baráti was born in Budapest, Hungary, yet part of his childhood in Venezuela. He began his violin studies at the age of five and made his first solo performances with the leading Venezuelan orchestra age eight. At the age of eleven he was invited to Montpellier to give a recital at the prestigious Festival de Radio France.
His studies continued in Budapest with Miklós Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tátrai at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. During this period he won first prize at the Lipizer Competition in Italy and second prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. In 1997 his career took a new turn after winning third prize and the audience prize of the highly prestigious Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels.
After this success he redefined his violin technique with teacher Eduard Wulfson, whose knowledge was influenced by great violinists of the 20th century such as Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Henryk Szeryng. In 2010 Baráti won the highly praised Paganini Competition in Moscow.
Baráti performs in important concert halls around the world with major orchestras (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Russian National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, etc.) ungaand conductors (Kurt Masur, Marek Janowski, Charles Dutoit, Jiri Belohlavek, Yuri Bashmet, Yoel Levi, Andrew Manze, Zoltán Kocsis, Gilbert Varga, Iván Fischer, Yuri Temirkanov, Eiji Oue, Pinchas Steinberg). His chamber music partners have included Natalia Gutman, Gábor Boldóczki, Evgeniy Koroliov, Mario Brunello and Michel Portal. In 2009 and 2010 he recorded the first two Paganini concertos and Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin for the Berlin Classics label. His recording of the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas with Klára Würtz was released by Brilliant Classics in September 2012.
Baráti has received numerous awards such as Elba Festival’s Best Performer, the Prima Award and the Liszt Award, the most prestigeous prize for classical music in his native Hungary. Baráti plays the 1703 “Lady Harmsworth” made by Antonio Stradivarius, kindly offered by the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.
Watch and Listen
Kristóf Baráti performs the fuga from Bach’s solo violin sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001.