Alena Baeva, violin – NHK Symphony, Paava Järvi, cond. – Concert of February 9, 2019 – NHK-FM, Tokyo –
Heading over to Tokyo this week for something a bit more contemporary. A concert by the legendary NHK Symphony, conducted by Paavo Järvi and featuring the Russian violinist Alena Baeva in music by Richard Strauss, Eugen Ysaÿe and Hans Rott.
Beginning with the Violin concerto in d Minor op. 8 by Richard Strauss – followed by an encore: Ysaÿe: Number 5 L’Aurore from Six Sonatas for solo violin and concluding the concert with the Symphony Number 1 by Hans Rott. It was broadcast live and recorded on February 9, 2019 as part of the NHK Symphony’s subscription series.
Born in Russia to a musical family in 1985, Alena Baeva took her first violin lessons at the age of five under renowned pedagogue Olga Danilova. From 1995, she studied in Moscow with Professor Eduard Grach at the Central School of Music, and from 2002-2007 at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. In addition to her formal education, Baeva studied in France at the personal invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich in 2003, began attending Seiji Ozawa’s Academy in Switzerland in 2007, attended the Keshet Eilon Music Center in Israel under Shlomo Mintz, and had lessons in Paris with Boris Garlitsky.
Aged 16, Baeva won the Grand Prix at the 12th International Henryk Wieniawski Competition (2001), as well as the Prize for Best Performance of a Contemporary Work. Following this, she went on to take the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Niccolò Paganini Competition (2004), including a Special Prize allowing her to perform on the 1723 Wieniawski Stradivari for one year, and was awarded both the Gold Medal and the Audience Prize at the Sendai International Violin Competition (2007).
Baeva holds an already vast and rapidly expanding repertoire, including over forty violin concerti, and is a champion of lesser known works – with recent performances promoting the concerti of such neglected composers as Bacewicz, Karaev, and Karłowicz, alongside more mainstream violin literature. Her extensive discography reflects the impressive breadth of her repertoire, with recordings including Szymanowski (DUX), to Debussy, Poulenc, and Prokofiev (SIMC), and more. Baeva’s Paris performance of Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.2 features as part of the Mariinsky Theatre/Valery Gergiev box-set DVD collection released by Arthaus Musik in 2015. In 2018, she made a recording of the Karłowicz Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (NIFC), and of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski, to be released on the LPO Live label.
Enjoy the show.
