Private music lessons: Yuri Bashmet; Playing & Teaching Viola

Filmed here during the summer of 1990, when he was already recognised in the West as one of the world's finest violists, Yuri Bashmet was generously welcomed by the city of Montpellier along with his ensemble, the Moscow Soloists, when glasnost enabled him to leave the USSR freely, like other Russian artists and intellectuals at that time. And so here is the flamboyant violist, with flying hair and soulful glance, in rehearsal with the 'Moscow Soloists'. The film is also punctuated by performances of masterpieces: the Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata, the Brahms F minor Sonata with the marvellous Mikhail Muntian, and Benjamin Britten's Lachrymae. Whatever Yuri Bashmet plays, whatever he does, there is always the same impression of urgency and concentration...

Full DVD available here: http://store.harmoniamundi.com/yuri-bashmet-playing-and-teaching.html