THE STRAD RECOMMENDS

The Strad Issue: April 2025

Description: A striking debut from a 20-year-old Latvian violinist

Musicians: Daniil Bulayev (violin) Maxim Tanichev (piano) Soloists of the Davinspiro Camerata

Works: Bloch: Baal Shem. Enescu: Octet; Aubade. Ysaÿe: Poème élégiaque

Catalogue number: CHAMPS HILL RECORDS CHRCD175

Latvian violinist Daniil Bulayev was only 17 when he won the 2021 Windsor Festival International String Competition, of which this album forms part of his prize. He was still only 19 when he recorded it, but the intervening years had already seen the death of his father, and the formation of his Riga chamber orchestra, the Davinspiro Camerata, soloists from which join him here. Perhaps, then, it should come as no surprise to hear such mature, heart-grabbing performances of these three violinist–composers’ works.

Bulayev’s is an intense, powerful tone with a characterful, slightly nasal twang to its sweetness, articulated through a lyrical, silkily polished technique – a good canvas for Baal Shem, whose Hasidic expression gets a Technicolor rendering (his ‘Simchas Torah’ optimism tear-jerkingly radiant), tautly supported by his duo partner Maxim Tanichev.

Enescu’s Octet, written when he was just 19, crackles with urgency, its bold, Romantic language brought to life by this group of friends. Then Aubade, Enescu’s lilting miniature string trio from the preceding year, here sounding not incidental but vital. The recording, made in Champs Hill Music Room, captures the musicians in a warmly intimate sound.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER