Bulajevs and Friends. Schubert, Schumann and Brahms

At the end of the year, in the intimate atmosphere of the Chamber Hall, we will meet the music of the German and Austrian Romantic era, which reconciles us with the harshness of winter and suits the promise of Advent. These will be dreams that lead to lands of fantasy, barely glimpsed half-words of love, tenderness like the sweetest marshmallow, and beauty like the freshest nectar.

The talented Latvian violinist Daniils Bulajevs, together with like-minded musicians, the Hungarian cellist Dóra Kokas and the Estonian pianist Irina Zahharenkova, has chosen four composers for this concert program, united by similar artistic ideals, and three of them are also linked by love and friendship.

Franz Schubert was born at the end of the 18th century, is a little older than the others, and in the penultimate year of his 31-year life he composed two monumental piano trios, which with their depth of thought and indescribable beauty already touch slightly on other spheres.

Robert Schumann drew inspiration for his “Fantasy Pieces” from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Kapellmeister Kreisler and the otherworldly, dreamlike drawings of the 17th-century printmaker Jacques Callot. Having married the dazzling pianist Clara Wieck, who was nine years younger, he, in a way astonishingly progressive for his time, gladly allowed his wife to compose as well, as much as was possible for the mother of a large family and an internationally acclaimed stage star.

Clara Schumann’s moving “Three Romances” are one of her last works, written in the year when the marriage came to a dramatic end because of Schumann’s incurable mental illness.

Johannes Brahms, whose work is represented in the program by a piano trio composed at the age of 21, was a close friend of the Schumann family and until his death, it seems, silently and passionately loved Clara Schumann.

Daniils Bulajevs is one of the brightest Latvian violinists of his generation, who has been performing as a soloist with orchestras in Latvia and abroad since early childhood, has taken part in international festivals, and has won top awards in several competitions. Since 2026, he has been the concertmaster of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

Daniils has won laurels and taken first prizes or Grand Prix in prestigious international competitions around the world.

In 2022, Daniils founded his own chamber orchestra Davinspiro Camerata and became its artistic director.

Daniils Bulajevs received the Great Music Award 2024 in the category Event of the Year as the performance director for the concert staging of Astor Piazzolla’s operetta Maria de Buenos Aires at the Cēsis Concert Hall, while his debut album Daniil Bulayev: Enescu, Bloch, Ysaÿe was nominated for the Kilograms of Culture award of the year. This year Daniils is also a resident artist of Latvian Radio 3 Klasika, and in the autumn he will perform with his orchestra in the Brahms Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

At present Daniils plays a high-quality Florian Leonhard Fine Violins instrument.

Dóra Kokas is one of the brightest and most versatile cellists of her generation. Born into a family of musicians and raised in a musical environment, she took part in her first cello competition at the age of seven. In 2016, Dora graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where her mentor was the legendary cellist Miklós Perényi.

In 2018, Dora won 3rd prize at the Harbin International Cello Competition, in September 2016 she won 2nd prize at the 23rd International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria, and in September 2014 she earned two special prizes at the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in Budapest.

Dora Kokas is an experienced chamber musician. She began her career in the string quartet genre at the age of seventeen as the cellist of the Kelemen Quartet. She plays a cello built in 1730 by Domenico Montagnana, kindly loaned to her by the Hungarian State Collection.

Irina Zahharenkova is one of the most outstanding Estonian pianists of her generation. She began studying the piano at the age of four, later received her education at the Estonian Academy of Music and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and further studied with such world-renowned masters as András Schiff and Angela Hewitt.

Irina Zahharenkova is a laureate of many prestigious international competitions in three keyboard categories: piano, harpsichord, and fortepiano. She won 1st place at such international music competitions as the 2006 Bach Festival in Leipzig, the Alessandro Casagrande Competition in Italy (2006), and the George Enescu Competition in Romania (2005).

Irina actively performs both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, as well as with orchestras in Europe and Asia.