Rachmaninoff: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 & Romances Opp. 21 & 23 Andrey Baranov, Christoph Croisé, Alexander Panfilov

• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor:
• 1 Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor 14:03
• Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9:
• 2 Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9: I. Moderato-Allegro vivace 20:17
• 3 Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9: II. Quasi variazione. Andante 21:52
• 4 Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9: III. Allegro risoluto-Moderato 08:23
• 12 Romances, Op. 21:
• 5 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 7, How Fair this Spot (arr. for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov) 01:58
• 6 Romances, Op. 38:
• 6 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 38: No. 5, The Dream (arr. for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov) 01:39
• 7 Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 38: No. 3, Daisies (Arr. for Piano Trio by Alexander Panfilov) 02:21
• 12 Romances, Op. 21:
• 8 Rachmaninoff: 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 5, Lilacs (Arr. for Piano Trio by Alexander Panfilov) 01:54
• The Seasons, Op. 37a:
• 9 Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37a: No. 10, Autumn Song (Arr. for Piano Trio by Louis Eaton) 04:52
• Total Runtime 01:17:19

Info for Rachmaninoff: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 & Romances Opp. 21 & 23

Versatile cellist Christoph Croise indulges in his passion for romantic Russian repertoire, coming together with close collaborators violinist Andrey Baranov and pianist Alexander Panfilov for a recording of works by a young Rachmaninoff. All of the works on this album were written before 1917, the year that the composer left Russia in the wake of the Revolution, and eventually emigrated to the United States.

The prodigious Rachmaninoff wrote his single-movement Trio elegiaque in G minor in 1892, when he was just 18 years old. A year later, he put pen to paper to compose his second Trio elegiaque, in D minor, on the eve of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky, to whom he dedicated the work. Both trios are imbued with an air of nostalgia and melancholy that belie the composer's youthfulness.

Christoph and his colleagues offer as encores a selection of songs arranged for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov: "How Fair This Spot" and "Lilacs" from Rachmaninoff's 12 Romances, Op. 21, part of a set written during his honeymoon; and "The Dream" and "Daisies" from his Op. 38 collection Six Romances (1916).

The album ends appropriately with an arrangement of "Autumn Song" from Tchaikovsky's solo piano work The Seasons.

Christoph Croisé, cello
Alexander Panfilov, piano
Andrey Baranov, violin

Christoph Croisé
Lauded for ‘delicate yet virtuosic’ playing (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘seamless subtleties of tone colour’ with ‘plenty of edge’ (The Strad) , Swiss-French-German cellist Christoph Croisé is quickly building an international reputation as one of the most captivating young concert soloists to emerge in recent years.

At the age of 17, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall and has since performed in many more of the world’s renowned concert halls, among them the Tonhalle Zürich, the Berliner Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Baku State Philharmonic Hall.

As a soloist, Croisé has appeared under the batons of conductors such as Michael Sanderling, Mario Venzago, Ayyub Guliyev, Alf Årdal, Maurizio Dones, Giovanni Bria and Dimitris Botinis, with various orchestras including Musikkollegium Winterthur, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Switzerland, the Moravská filharmonie Olomouc, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, ̇Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Michoacán, Harbin Symphony Orchestra and South Czech Philharmonic. Several of his concerts have been broadcast live on radio and television by Bavarian Radio, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, WQXR, BBC, RTS and WFMT, among other outlets.

He is a regular guest at prestigious festivals including the Musical Olympus Festival in St Petersburg, New York and Baku, the Lucerne Festival, Radio France Festival Montpellier, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden and Festival International de Musique de Wissembourg.

As a chamber musician he has performed with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Mayuko Kamio, Bartek Niziol, Isabelle van Keulen, Andrey Baranov, Sergey Ostrovsky, Kirill Troussov, Alexander Zemtsov, Oxana Shevchenko and Alexander Panfilov, among many others.

Croisé has taken first prize in a number of competitions, among them the Schoenfeld International String Competition (Harbin, 2016), the 2nd Berliner International Music Competition 2018 (First Grand Prize), the ‘Salieri-Zinetti’ International Chamber Music Competition (Verona, 2016) and the Migros-Kulturprozent (Zurich, 2015 and 2016), as well as Gold Medal with honours at the first Berliner International Music Competition (2017).

His debut album with Oxana Shevchenko was released in May 2015 on Quartz Classics, his second album, Summer Night, including Othmar Schoeck’s Cello Concerto, was released in February 2018 on GENUIN classics, and his third album (Haydn, Vivaldi Cello Concertos) was released in March 2019 on AVIE Records, winning the Supersonic Award from Pizzicato Magazine and the ‘Clef d’or’ for the best concerto album of 2019 from ResMusica Magazine. More releases on AVIE followed: The Russian Album with pianist Alexander Panfilov (November 2019), The Solo Album (August 2021, Presto Music ‘Editor’s Choice’) and Joachim Raff – Complete Works for Cello and Piano (February 2022, with Oxana Shevchenko).

Croisé is often involved in baroque projects as a complement to modern performance. He has worked extensively in the field, performing as soloist with Il Pomo d’Oro and working with Maurice Steger and Nicolas Altstaedt. In 2020 and 2021 he released an album and video of the complete set of Viola da Gamba Sonatas and six Cello Suites by J.S. Bach, performing on a 1720 Guarneri ‘filius Andreae’ baroque cello. In addition to performing, he has given international masterclasses in prestigious venues around the world and composes his own pieces from baroque and classical to jazz and electronic music.

Croisé began playing the cello at the age of seven under the tutelage of Katharina Kühne. Since 2007, he has been studying with Alexander Neustroev and, as of 2013, with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has additionally benefited from major artistic advice from Steven Isserlis, Michael Sanderling, David Geringas, Walter Grimmer and Frans Helmerson.

Alexander Panfilov
Described as a ‘sensitive pianist’ (The Arts Desk) and also praised for his ‘responsive’ chamber music (Gramophone), Alexander Panfilov is one of the rare artists of his generation combining an extensive solo performance career with a passion for all forms of music-making.

He was recently name the winner of the Top of the World International Piano Competition in Tromsø, Norway, having already scored top prizes in other prestigious contests, such as in Monza, Jaén, Manchester and Hastings, to name a few.

He has performed in many venues around the globe, most significantly Carnegie Hall NY, Wigmore Hall and St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, Tonhalle in Zurich, Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Philharmonias of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

As soloist he has played with top orchestras, including London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra of Milan, the City of Granada Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthus, the Artic Philharmonic, the Manchester Camerata, and worked with renowned conductors, among them Vassily Sinaiski, Brian Wright, Theodore Guschlbauer, Gergely Madaras, Paul Mann, Carlo Tenan and Vasily Petrenko. Alexander is a frequent guest at prestigious festivals such as the Interlaken Festival, the Menuhin and New Year Festivals in Gstaad, Oxford Lieder Festival, Ribble Valley Piano Week and Brighton Festival. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio SRF, Classic FM, Radio Nacional de España, and Romanian National Television, as well as on the digital platform Medici.tv. He recorded his solo debut for Naxos and has now released several chamber music CDs.

Alexander was born in Moscow and started playing piano aged six, first at the Gnessin Music School and later at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Andrei Diev. He continued his studies with Graham Scott under a full scholarship at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, and at the University of Music and the Performing Arts, Vienna with Jan Jiracek von Arnim.

Alexander is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music and a Yeoman of London’s livery company of musicians.

Andrey Baranov
One of the most successful musicians of his generation, violinist Andrey Baranov enjoys an exclusive career as an outstanding soloist and a sought-after ensemble partner, performing on main stages and festivals in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.

He is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition of 2012 and the Benjamin Britten and Henri Marteau International Violin Competitions and a prizewinner in more than 20 other international competitions, including the Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Isakadze, David Oistrakh and Moscow Paganini competitions.

Since making his debut in 2005 at the St Petersburg Philharmonia’s Bolshoi Zal under Vasily Petrenko with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Baranov has gone on to perform with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, musicAeterna Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic London and Camerata Salzburg, under the baton of conductors Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Fedoseev, Michel Tabachnik, Walter Weller, Emmanuel Krivine, Yuri Temirkanov, Kent Nagano, Thomas Sanderling, Michael Sanderling and Alexander Vedernikov, among others.

Andrey is the first violinist and founding member of the David Oistrakh String Quartet, an ensemble established in 2012 that has rapidly became one of the leading string quartets currently performing. His other chamber music partners include, among others, Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, Eliso Virsaladze, Liana Isakadze, Alexander Buzlov, Daniel Austrich, Andrey Gugnin and Kirill Gerstein.

His album The Golden Violin, released on the Muso label and featuring romantic violin pieces, won the prestigious Diapason d’Or award in 2018.

Aged just 23, Andrey was appointed teaching assistant to Pierre Amoyal at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and has since been in demand as a teacher at numerous international masterclasses. He has been invited to institutions in Bangkok, Chicago, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm, Moscow, Manchester and other musical capitals. Since 2021 Mr Baranov has served as Professor of Violin at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany and the Accademia del Ridotto in Stradella, Italy.

Born in St Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg and at the Conservatoire de Lausanne. His teachers were Lev Ivaschenko, Vladimir Ovcharek and Pierre Amoyal.

Booklet for Rachmaninoff: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 & Romances Opp. 21 & 23