“Paganini of the 21st century,” “a musician … possessing the most melodious sound among all
the existing string performers,” “…his art reaches the borders of supernatural” – these are some
of enthusiastic epithets that domestic and foreign music critics endowed Daniil Borisovich Shafran.
His creative career of more than 60 years made up a whole era in the Russian and world performing arts of the 20th century.
“That was a musician you could take to paint a portrait of not just a genuine intellectual
of St. Petersburg or the last romantic, but also a workaholic in the finest sense of the word – a man
who was literally chained to his cello and who imagined no life without constant communication
with music,” wrote music journalist Artyom Vagraftik about Daniil Shafran.
