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.
