CONCERT REVIEW: Cape Town Concert Series Andrey Baranov with Andrey Gugnin.On Saturday 21 June, 2025. At the Baxter Concert Hall. Artists: Andrey Baranov (Violin) and Andrey Gugnin (Piano) Szymanowski Mythes Op.30 & Nocturne and Tarantella op. 28, Shostakovich Violin Sonata Op.134, Strauss Violin Sonata Op.18. ALBERT COMBRINK reviews
Continuing it’s 70th anniversary year celebrations, the Cape Town Concert Series once again lived up to its mission statement” to provide the best possible chamber music that is available in the country at that moment. Luckily for Cape Town, the South African concert tours of the two artists coincided and a gap was found for a duo-recital. Baranov is here for the 20th Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival which kicks off in a few weeks, and he played a Formidable Brahms Violin Concerto with the CPO. Gugnin played Rachmaninoff 1st Concerto with the KZNPO, and inexplicably was not heard anywhere in solo recital, leading to the opportunity to have these two powerhouse musicians on stage in Cape Town.
Baranov introduced 2 selections from the 3 Mythes, Op.30, by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882 – 1937). The two myths were: La fontaine d’Arethuse (The Fountain of Arethusa) about the nymph Arethusa escaping the rapacious pursuit of the god Alpheios by magically turning into a fountain, and Narcisse (Narcissus), meeting the hapless Narcissus, held captive by the gaze of his own beauty, at the river in which he spotted his reflection for the first time.
A crystal-clear sense of the line of each phrase
Szymanowski seems to be, artistically at least, a hop skip and a jump past Scriabin, late Ravel, coloured by a visit to Romania, with some Enescu-like exoticisms to further emphasise that this is not merely an outgrowth of impressionism. The difficulty in performing Szymanowski, is not being seduced by this bewildering fog of colours and textures, which could lead to a mulit-coloured trip – but one ultimately doesn’t end up anywhere particularly important.
Enters Gugnin, a pianist who already has Enescu, Liszt and Scriabin in his impressive discography. Like an Eastern European Ondine, the pianist unveils the water in mid flow, and the sweetness of Baranov’s violin, beguilingly joins to sing Arethusa’s song. What followed was a quarter-hour of multi-coloured magic, with both players exploiting the multi-colours of their palette to the full.
The music never became a self-indulgent pursuit of effects, or a shapeless impressionist fog: both artists had a crystal-clear sense of the line of each phrase, and ultimately the emotional and narrative arch of each of the fairytales. We were immediately drawn into a hushed world where the softest pianissimo was as important as the biggest fortissimo climax. Audiences were taken aback by this opening. After the first work, applause wanted to break out, but there was still a second myth to go. There was a tingle in the audience, and we knew we were in for something special.
Shostakovich Violin Sonata Op.134
Baranov introduced the Shostakovich Violin Sonata Op.134 in a short but heartfelt statement about how important this music, and its message, still is – both about what it says about the composer’s relationship with the Russian regime, as it speaks to modern audiences, and of course, Russian performers.
Baronov plays on a violin owned by the dedicatee of this sonata, the Russian violinist David Oistrakh. The instrument is capable of providing a big-boned full-bodied sound, when required for Concertos of larger concert-works. The great violinist Igor Oistrakh was Shostakovich’s friend and recital partner, and often collaborated with him on technical aspects of the violin works. The composer wrote his Second Violin Concerto for Oistrakh’s 60th birthday, but committed the faux pas of getting the date wrong – he was a year early! He made amends by setting to work on a substantial Violin Sonata for Oistrakh. Instrument aside, the playing was superb.
Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata of 1968, is not an easy work for a general audience. Filled with pain, fear and darkness, with a first movement composed in Schoenberg’s “Twelve-Tone Method” – the work was, in the past, more often admired than loved by audiences. But today, But you could hear a pin drop. Shostakovich was fascinated by finding ways to express Death in music, and often used Jewish music as a reference to inhumane treatment. Blending these into one work, is uniquely “Shostakovich”.
No technical obstacle
What stood out throughout the performance, was how ridiculously obvious it was that the music held no technical obstacle whatsoever, and that the two artists were solely on a journey to explore every phrase for its maximum expressive content. The abstract canvas of the first movement was presented in a way which allowed full focus on every single nuance and texture, and despite the stark nature of the work, the mind never wondered.
The swirling Klezmer dancers that arrive in the second movement. The duo kept a tight rein on the work which explodes in double-tempo volleys from both, which were always expertly handled. Shostakovich relishes rhythmic, tonal and dynamic angularity, resulting in an emotionally exhausting steeplechase with military undertones. A slow, sparse and controlled “Largo” last movement revealed both artists comfortable with a composer whose works both have recorded on CD. Te variety of colours as striking.
Baranov swapped violins, coming on stage for the second half with a 1682 Guarneri violin, with a slightly smaller tone, but unique in its warmth and beauty. Orchestral textures abound in Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E Flat Op.18. What was impressive though-out the recital, was that the piano never overplayed the solo violin, no matter how dense or busy the music became. Gugnin has the uncanny ability to gauge the exact moment when a rise in volume would be welcome, and how to keep dynamic energy in flow, while somehow taking the foot off the volume-pedal. Brilliant. Simply brilliant. The sonata also provides a half-hour of delightful melodies and ecstatic romanticism, delivered in fistfuls of notes. There was something about the character of Octavian, the ardent young man in Strauss’s opera “Der Rosenkavalier: adolescent ardour, first love, enough energy to take on the world and win the girl, and also the start of the maturity that will reveal all of these, as passing fancies in a life lived to the full. This work felt “played to the full”, with rhythmic bite and drive, and a long but exciting and inevitable build to the ecstatic climax.
Nocturne and Tarantella op. 28
Some more Szymanowski closed the recital: the “Nocturne and Tarantella op. 28”
Szymanowski had grown up in a rather conservative and strict environment, both personally and professionally, and his travels seemed to unlock an ever-increasing desire to explore. He was a brilliant pianist and set the same challenges for the pianist as he did for the violinist.
Young Szymanowski started life imitating the great Polish musical hero, Frédéric Chopin, and his first concert-trips to Germany opened up the works of Strauss to him, and he became more experimental, tonally and harmonically. However, it was on trips to Sicily and Taormina that – his biographers love to write – “he embraced his sensual side wholeheartedly” – musicologist speak for coming out the closet.
Scenes from Greek mythology pop up in much of Szymanowski’s writing: sexual awakening, sensuality, mystery and an interest in creating “otherworldly” effects pour off the pages in copious notes. The new personal freedom is undoubtedly reflected in a new music styles. The Op.28 works seem initially to be cut from the same cloth as the work opening the programme, but eruptions of Hispanic dance soon introduce a brand new musical colour of Szymanowski, possibly only unlocked on his recent travels.
Szymsanowski had a permanent disability of one of his legs, resulting from a poorly treated disorder as a child. Because of it he was disqualified from military service in World War 1, but as his sexuality blossomed, his anxiety and struggle with his disability intensified, and many of his works of this period deal with dance in some form or another – the dance often becomes symbolic of ecstasy, idealism, perfection and aspirational happiness. In thuis performance we were treated to an intense emotional world, from the ardent lovesong of the opening, to the wild dance and erotic energy of the finale, and the audience was swept up in the headlong adrenaline rush to the climax.
After enthusiastic applause, we were treated to a substantial encore, the full Mozart: Violin Sonata In E Minor, K 304, the two movements of which take hardly a quarter-hour, but felt like a gift richer than any virtuoso toybox could have given us. How to describe this encore? Mozart as I have never heard it before. Written after his mother died, there is something about the E-minor that lends itself to mourning and consolation.
Most performances of this work run away with the virtuosity, trying to make the most of what is, in essence, a humble little diversion for two instruments, not designed for a concert stage, but rather a domestic setting. What we had, was intense, small, tender, highly detailed without being fussy, and a duo that quite simply brought tears to the eyes with a grace note.
The range of colours of the entire recital was extraordinary. The depth of feeling was extraordinary. Gugnin did something with the Una Corda pedal that occasionally seemed to add an entirely new instrument to the performance, and Baranov plays with a range of colour and phrasing that is nothing short of extraordinary.
Introducing the encore, Baranov said “Today we have played you a lot of notes already, so now we will play you Mozart, where the notes are nothing big. They just…… are”.
That sums up a very, very special concert.
Upcoming showcase
The next CTCS concert is on 16 August 2025. It features the Baxter Trio: Francois du Toit on piano, violinist Farida Bacharova and Graham du Plessis on cello. The concert takes place at 11am in the Baxter Concert Hall, Rondebosch. About the programme: Rachmaninoff: Elegie, arranged for piano trio. Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66. Interval. Debussy: Piano Trio in G major
Piazzolla: Summer from The Four Seasons
Read more here.
What: Cape Town Concert Series review – Andrey Baranov violin, Andrey Gugnin piano
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