Dmitry Smirnov loves crazy challenges. In his debut, he does more than combine two of l the most demanding compositions for solo violin, Bach’s D minor Partita and Bartók’s Solo Sonata. He also intertwines them by shuttling back and forth between the two, playing the movements in alternation and thus creating an imaginary unity of a work that transcends the centuries. He will additionally frame this new construct with Steve Reich’s Violin Phase, a masterpiece of Minimalism from 1967. The result is a triple portrait of three unsentimental composers that at the same time highlights their idiosyncrasies: the rhetorically influenced beat of Bach’s musical language, Bartók’s archaic phrases, and Reich’s repetitive patterns. Smirnov, who was born in St. Petersburg in 1994 and studied with Rainer Schmidt in Basel, won the Tibor Varga Competition as well as the Concours de Lausanne and today works with Heinz Holliger and Giovanni Antonini. No question: he has one of the most unconventional minds among young violinists.

Strebi Stiftung Luzern – Partner Debuts