LATEST CD RELEASE: DUBROVSKAYA CLASSICS – ENCORES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
CD BOOKLET
CD Booklet
THE STORY BEHIND ENCORES
I was offered the opportunity to record an album and was given complete freedom with the choice of repertoire when on tour in Armenia, with my partner, pianist Sona Barseghyan, where we performed the entire cycle of 10 Beethoven sonatas.
Throughout these concerts, we and our audience were immersed in the world of deep and sizeable serious music, and as a result, at the end of the concert, the soul dictated something light and contrasting. Since we always wanted to play different pieces, we accumulated a lot of miniatures, which we decided to record as soon as we had the opportunity. So, this album is a collection of my favourite encores.
DUBROVSKAYA CLASSICS –
ENCORES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO (QUARTZ)
Ksenia Dubrovskaya (Germany) is a very interesting, sensitive, and highly attuned musician. Her interpretations—no matter what she plays, from Baroque to world premieres of newly composed works by contemporary composers—are always marked by vibrant motion, flawless virtuosity, and a perfect balance of impeccable taste and a deep understanding of the very essence of each piece.
Her precise shading of nuances, or rather, her delicate play with dynamic tones, is like „impressionistic painting with sound,“ so natural it seems like an improvisation that magically allows us to hear well-known pieces as if for the first time. This is one of Dubrovskaya’s strongest qualities. Chamber music repertoire, like litmus paper, reveals the finest qualities of a talent of this nature. In this sense, there is a true creative affinity between Ksenia and pianist Sona Barsegyan (Armenia).
DUBROVSKAYA’S ALBUM RELEASE
This disc, recently released on the Quartz label and bringing together under one cover works of various styles, eras, and directions, or rather, characters, is the perfect introduction and an almost inevitable „love at first sound“ with the young violinist, who has already managed to conquer practically the entire world with her mastery (for example, she is the artistic director of the international music festival Frantz & Friends in Gran Canaria (Spain) and leads the concert series Ksenia Dubrovskaya & Friends in Künzelsau (Germany). But Ksenia especially emphasizes that she always enjoys coming to Russia:“I was born in Russia, and my concerts are a tribute to my land for the fact that it was here that I found my beloved profession“.
Dubrovskaya confesses to an almost intimate approach to selecting works for the recording:
„I dedicate this disc to the memory of my dear parents, Elena and Oleg Dubrovsky. Each piece in the album has its own story, whether funny or sad—these are my personal memories. For example, my father passed away before the album was released; at his farewell ceremony, I played Gluck’s ‚Melody‘..“.
„Her precise shading of nuances, or rather, her delicate play with dynamic tones, is like ‚impressionistic painting with sound,‘ so natural it seems like an improvisation that magically allows us to hear well-known pieces as if for the first time.“
The miniatures, as mentioned, are truly diverse: Paganini and Bach, Glière and Debussy, Kreisler and Massenet… One might wonder what could unite such a „motley company“? But when listening to the album as a whole, it becomes clear that before us emerges, down to the smallest details, a portrait of Ksenia herself—a person who knows how to laugh and cry, to grieve and joke, to enjoy life and, through her violin, to converse with God.
And she makes us experience an entire kaleidoscope of human emotions—from the ethereal tenderness of Tchaikovsky’s Melody (Op. 42, No. 3) to the scorching passions of Granados’s Spanish Dance, from the mysterious gothic nature of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres to the heart-wrenching pain of Gluck’s Melody, which, even without knowing its personal backstory, Ksenia plays in such a way that it is impossible to hold back tears—just as it is impossible not to feel that this is the voice of Eternity itself.
But let’s come down to earth a little. This disc is practically an anthology of the most brilliant encores for solo violinists. Not only the most brilliant but also the most popular and beloved.
A flawless tactical move: before us is, one might say, a handbook of encores, which also has a purely practical significance.
Bravo from all sides!
Maria Zalesskaya
Musical Life Magazine Russia, March 2025