Yury Kramarov, viola - Mozart, Brahms, Debussy (2001)

Yury Markovich Kramarov (1929-1982), one of the best representatives of St. Petersburg viola school, the outstanding Russian musician and teacher, has contributed a great deal to the development of the national viola art. In 1952 Kramarov, still a student at the Conservatoire then, was invited to fill the post of the viola group concertmaster of the Leningrad Philharmonic Society orchestra. Simultaneously he started teaching at the Conservatoire. From that time on performing and pedagogical arts were constantly present in his creative life and complemented each other. From 1956 through 1963 he was the viola group concertmaster in the famous Mravinsky Orchestra. In 1957 the young musician won two important and convincing prizes at the All-Union and International competitions in Moscow. Being a brilliant soloist, having performed with best national orchestras and conductors (Ye. Mravinsky, N. Rakhlin, A. Yansons, K. Eliasberg), Kramarov nonetheless was always drawn towards chamber music. Such leading figures of the Russian performing arts as I. Braudo, M. Vaiman, B. Gutnikov, V. Liberman, M.Rostropovich played together with Kramarov. The musician performed with great enthusiasm in the quartets named after Taneev, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Glazunov. A very broad-minded musician, Kramarov actively cooperated with Leningrad composers, prompting them to create viola music. What's more, he was always anxious to enrich the classical viola repertoire. Thus, he rearranged J. S. Bach's viola suites, J. Brahms' waltzes, D. Chimaroza's sonatas, etc. Kramarov edited and textually proof-read W. A. Mozart's Concert Symphony, that you'll find on this CD. Beginning from the 1960-s Kramarov spends a lot of time working as a conductor and leader of the Leningrad Conservatoire chamber orchestra, later as a leader of the same kind of orchestra in Petrozavodsk. Some of his pupils became famous conductors. It would be enough to name such as Yu. Simonov and V. Altshuler. Kramarov's pedagogical talent as the creator of the original viola school is convincingly confirmed by a whole line of prize- and diploma-winners at the different international and AII-Union competitions (V. Stopichev, V. Shulga, M. Kugel,I.Malkin, 0. Balabin and others). Most of the viola group concertmasters in Petersburg orchestras are former Kramarov's pupils as well. Kramarov lived a not very long life, but he managed to accomplish such a lot, that his performing and pedagogical arts added a golden page to the history of the national musical culture.

Liner Notes by Andrei Petropavlov