Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti is recognized increasingly across the globe as a musician of extraordinary quality with a vast expressive range and impeccable technique. Applauded repeatedly for the poetry and eloquence that he brings to his playing, he has been described as “a true tonal aesthete of the highest order”. In 2022 Deutsche Grammophon released the recording of his performance of Bach’s solo Sonatas and Partitas on the newly launched Verbier Festival Gold label.
In recent seasons, Baráti has performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, at Kissinger Sommer with the Liszt Chamber Orchestra and in 2019 he was the featured soloist in the opening concert of the Verbier Festival. Baráti has played with orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, Oslo Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, Orchestre National de France, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and Hague Philharmonic orchestras. Highlights of his 22/23 season include his debut with the Stavanger Symphony performing Eötvös’s Alhambra Concerto with the composer conducting, return engagements with the Bournemouth Symphony, NDR Hannover Symphony orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic both at home and at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Hall, as well as many performances as soloist and conductor across Hungary.
A regular recital and chamber music player, Baráti has performed across the world with partners such as Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Enrico Pace, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Zoltán Kocsis and Kim Kashkashian amongst others. He was a regular performer at the White Nights Festival and has performed at the Seattle Chamber Music and Aspen Festivals. In 2022 he makes his debut at the Tsinandali Festival, Georgia, with Julien Quentin.
Baráti has an extensive discography which includes the five Mozart concerti, the complete Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with Klára Würtz, and Ysaÿe solo sonatas for Brilliant Classics, and Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin on the Berlin Classics label. Of his disc of encores “The Soul of Lady Harmsworth” recorded in 2016, Gramophone magazine said “for those who like to hear the violin played at its sweet and acrobatic best, then Baráti is out of the top drawer.”
Having spent much of his childhood in Venezuela, where he played as soloist with many of the country’s leading orchestras, Baráti returned to Budapest to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and was later mentored by Eduard Wulfson, himself a student of Milstein and Menuhin. Still resident in Budapest, Barati performs regularly across Hungary and together with István Vardái, is Artistic Director of the Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival. Baráti plays the 1703 “Lady Harmsworth” Stradivarius, by kind arrangement with the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.
