Andras Agoston is a Romanian (some
would say Hungarian) violinist and teacher born (in Cluj) on March 17, 1947. (Cluj is about 230 miles northwest of
Bucharest.) For the most part, Agoston
has made his career in Eastern Europe but is recognized the world over, though
mainly by audiences who keep very close tabs on the world of classical
music. To the general public, he is
definitely not a household name and there is scant information about him on the
internet. Nonetheless, he is a very
brilliant and unique artist. He first
studied in his native city with Paula Kouba, Peter Zsurka, and Istvan
Ruha. An audio file of the famous
Handel-Halvorsen passacaglia with Ruha on viola is located here – in my
opinion, it’s the best recording of this work available anywhere and it’s not
even a studio recording. (Ruha’s viola
playing is also simply phenomenal.) After
graduating from the Klausenburg Music Academy (in 1972?), he taught there for
20 years. Between 1991 and 2001, he was
concertmaster of the Philharmonia Hungarica, an orchestra (mainly composed of self-exiled
Hungarian musicians) which was initially based near Vienna, Austria. The orchestra later settled in Marl, a small
city about 30 miles northeast of Dusseldorf, Germany. It became famous for its recording of the
complete Haydn symphonies – one of only three orchestras to produce such a
project. The recording project received
every award imaginable. However, the
orchestra recorded much more music than this – a total of about 130 discs. The Philharmonia Hungarica was funded by
Germany between 1956 and 2001, after which it ceased to exist. Agoston continues to give master classes and
perform throughout Europe. As far as I
know, he is still based in Marl, Germany.
What violin he plays is unknown to me. Here is a YouTube file in which he plays the Brahms double
concerto.
Victor Tretyakov (Viktor Viktorovich Tretiakov) is a Russian violinist,
teacher, and conductor born (in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia) on October 17, 1946. He is known for an extraordinary
technique. Though Russia was his home
base for the first fifty years of his career, he has performed with (almost) every
major orchestra in the world and toured far and wide as a soloist, recitalist,
and chamber ensemble musician. He has
been awarded every major prize and been given every honor Russia offers its
artists. Tretyakov began studying the
violin at age 5 in Irkutsk (Siberia) with a teacher whom I could not trace (please see comments below). At age 10 (1956), he entered the Central Music
School in Moscow where he studied with Yury Yankelevich (pupil of Abram Yampolski and
among whose students are Leonid Kogan, Vladimir Spivakov, Ilya Kaler, and
Albert Markov.) At age 19 (1966), during
his first year at the Moscow Conservatory, he won first prize in the
Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1969, he was
named soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic.
He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory one year later (1970.) He was 23 years old. However, he continued to study with
Yankelevich. His first performance with
the Berlin Philharmonic was on October 17, 1981. He played the Brahms concerto on that
occasion. He was 35 years old. In 1983, he became artistic director of the
USSR State Chamber Orchestra which later became the Moscow Chamber
Orchestra. He gave that post up in
1991. From 1986 to 1994, he served as
President of the jury for the Tchaikovsky Competition. He also taught at the Moscow Conservatory for
many years but I do not have the dates. In
1996, he moved to Germany to teach at the advanced school for music in
Cologne. He was 50 years old. He has also held master classes all over the
world. His most famous pupil is probably Roman Kim. Here is a YouTube audio file in
which he plays Paganini’s concerto in D.
With Yuri Bashmet (viola), Natalia Gutman (cello), and Vassily Lobanov
(piano), he formed a piano quartet whose name I do not know. Among other violins, he has played a 1772
Nicolo Gagliano violin and a gorgeous modern violin by Alexander Hazin. His discography is not extensive (it fills ten CDs) but it
covers all of the standard concertos and sonatas.
