Includes work(s) for piano by Luciano Berio. Soloist: Andrea Lucchesini.

The title of this double album, Bel Canto Paganini, is the key to Rachel Barton Pine’s unaccompanied violin artistry. Of course one cannot play unaccompanied Paganini without all-encompassing virtuoso equipment, and Pine’s technique is beyond cavil; just sample her deft and supple alternating pizzicato and arco articulation in the “Nel cor più non mi sento” Variations, or her extraordinary textural juggling in Duo merveille (“Duet for One”). However, throughout the Op. 1 Caprices, Pine clearly mines these showpieces for musical values, first and foremost.

For example, she observes all of the repeats. That might prove deadly in the lengthy No. 4 C minor Maestoso caprice or the No. 6 G minor trill study, yet Pine’s wide expressive and coloristic palette keeps the music alive and meaningful. What is more, she does this without resorting to exaggerated phrasings or dynamic swells.

Her slow and serious No. 13 bypasses the surface humor of the descending “laughing” chromatic thirds while emphasizing the composer’s dolce marking in figurative red ink. The fanfare-like gestures that open the E-flat Caprices Nos. 19 and 23 become provocatively wistful themes, while No. 18’s arpeggiated C major proclamations become softer, more questioning than usual, followed by descending scales that sound more like music than exercises. However, don’t expect scintillation and surface bravura, which James Ehnes serves up in tandem with sound musical values.

Interestingly, Pine lets loose and catches fire in her own Paganini-inspired Variations on “God Defend New Zealand”, proving that she could very well match Perlman, Rabin, Ricci, and Midori at their ebullient peaks. Whether or not Pine’s Paganini will suit all tastes, she unquestionably commands the ways and means to make the best possible case for her conceptions.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

Pine is principally interested in the musical qualities of these extraordinary, endlessly inventive miniatures, and there’s hardly a moment here where you get any sense of technique taking precedence over expression.

She finds a wonderfully rich range of colors. Double-stopped octaves can almost vanish into the melody (as in No 7), give a fanfare figure a heroic echo (Nos 19 and 23) or throw an eerie shadow like some operatic mad scene (No 15)—as the music demands. Her characterisation is beguiling: Pine lets minor-key melodies droop to a finish, plays teasingly with the rhythmic sideslips of No 13 and makes the famous left-hand pizzicato in No 24 burst like popping candy.

– Gramophone

Following three acclaimed releases for AVIE surveying works by Dvo?ák, Schubert and contemporary Americans, the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet turns to the seminal string quartets of Beethoven, performing the five quartets from the composer’s middle period. Formed in 1996, the Cypresses added Beethoven to their repertoire early on. Their signature sound, which is clear and transparent, built up from the bottom register and layered like a pyramid, lends itself beautifully to the Middle String Quartets – the three “Rasumovskys,” the “Harp,” and the “Serioso.” Included in this new box set - released internationally on November 11, 2014 on Avie Records - are original, extensive and insightful program notes written by Nicholas Mathews, professor at UC Berkeley. - Cypress String Quartet

The Cypress String Quartet completes their cycle of the genre’s greatest oeuvre with a two-album set of Beethoven’s six ground-breaking quartets, Op. 18, alongside a reissue of their previously self-released recording of the late quartets. For the past several seasons, the Cypresses have immersed themselves in performing Beethoven on tours throughout the United States and Europe as well as recording all 16 works plus the “Grande Fugue” (Große Fuge). The completion of their Beethoven cycle is a fitting celebration of the Bay Area-based ensemble’s 20th anniversary as well as their valedictory season.

Pianist Charles Owen presents a very personal interpretation of the Six Keyboard Partitas by J. S. Bach - works amongst the greatest in the literature for the keyboard. With this release he adds to his acclaimed discography which already includes Faure’s Nocturnes and Barcarolles.

-----

REVIEW:

Technical polish, intelligent musicianship, well-reasoned tempi, and scrupulously executed ornaments characterise Charles Owen’s Bach Partitas, along with a rounded and focused sonority largely informed by finger power and hand balance, with a little help from the sustain pedal.

– Gramophone

Tanya Tomkins, one of the foremost cellists of her generation, makes an indelible impression scaling the pinnacle of the cello repertoire, J S Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Familiar to record collectors through her appearance on Avie's release of Kummer's Cello Duets, and as a member of the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio's Mendelssohn and Schumann recordings, Tanya is equally at home in an intimate house concert setting or anchoring the cello section of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with whom she has become a familiar face to home audiences in San Francisco. A student of Anner Bylsma at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the Netherlands, Tanya was the first cellist to win the Boston-based Erwin Brodsky Competition for early music soloists, in 2001. In addition to Philharmonia Baroque, she has been a featured soloist with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, and the Oregon Bach Festival. As a recitalist, Tanya has performed at Lincoln Center and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. critical acclaim "Tomkins explored Bach's Cello suite No. 1 with a probing, ruminating, often rhapsodic approach" - Los Angeles Times "superlative performance ... A performer who combines an intense dramatic fire with Apollonian poise ... There is an international career of great renown awaiting this young woman" - Cleveland Plain Dealer "Tomkins offered as compelling solo work on period instruments as you are likely to hear. The result was spontaneous and heartfelt music making.' - San Francisco Classical Voice

Expressive, atmospheric, intelligent performance.

I was highly impressed by and still very much relish my time spent with Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas on AV 2209. Fans of this set will find all of this promise further fulfilled in this Goldberg Variations, though as a reviewer it would have been an easier task to welcome slightly less well-trodden repertoire. Pienaar’s Bach is magnificent and, to a point, individual, but does it really stand out in such a crowded field?
 
Daniel-Ben Pienaar poses as many questions as he provides answers in his deeply considered and well written booklet notes for this release. He doesn’t point to specific influences with regard to his interpretations in this great keyboard work, but develops ideas on its place and time both in the present, as well as the alliances formed between the circumstantial and the timeless – qualities and values inherent in the music itself, and the ways in which these can be approached and adapted by players over time.
 
This is a probing intellectual interpretation which on occasion displays dazzling feats of speed, but which is more often a more introverted exploration of the piece. It is almost as if Pienaar is playing for his own satisfaction, and leaving it up to us to decide whether we want to listen and take the journey with him. The compact timing reflects brisk tempi at times, but the unhurried feel of the playing and a minimum of ornamentation also allows a highly selective observation of repeats to remain a credible choice. Pienaar doesn’t work much with ‘variation within variations’, so there is no sense we are being cheated out of colourful technical insights and improvisational touches by not hearing certain bars come around for a second time.
 
Comparisons can be made ad nauseam, but looking at another recent take on the Goldberg Variations by Nick van Bloss on the Nimbus Alliance label shows how personality shades identical music into fascinatingly different manifestations. Bloss is the more extrovert of the two, seeking wit in the music and cheekily expressing it with effects like an occasional extra octave wallop in the bass. This ‘vibe’ turns his performance into more of a public experience – no less well considered than Pienaar’s, but introducing Bach to the bustle and language of the street: the call of market traders and the revving of motors. Bloss’s Bach isn’t rough and ready, but is easily the more resistant to external knocks and blows, and in this way is more of a challenge to Glenn Gould’s 1955 Goldberg Variations, the recording which gave the work and its performer such a remarkable hit status at that time.
 
This is not to say Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s recording is weak-willed and softly undemonstrative, but there is a gentler side to his playing – perhaps also a side-effect of a rather rounded piano sound – which brings out the warmth in the heart of the music rather than its big venue street-cred. There is bounce and life where Bach demands it, in the first variation for instance, and this sets the pace for the first grouping of variations which concludes with a rousing Variatio 4. Extremes of speed are a feature of some variations, and Variatio 5 is the first such example, acting as little more than a prelude to Variatio 6. Pienaar’s sensitivity to Bach’s dance style is demonstrated in a Giga which barely touches the floor, so light is his touch on the keyboard. The second grouping of variations has its finale in a robust performance of the Variatio 10 Fughetta. Central to the next group is the expressive Variatio 13, in which the little inner rubati which Pienaar uses make the performance seem that much more reflective and yes, introverted. The sound appears almost to want to stay within the case of the piano, rather than broadcast to the last row of an invisible audience. This is not to say the playing is timid, but you could equally imagine this as a clavichord performance. Variatio 14 blows away the mood created in a horizontal shower of sparkling notes, again making it a sort of prelude to the gently eloquent lines of Variatio 15, which concludes another ‘block’ within Pienaar’s structuring of the piece.
 
The conjoining of variations is a feature of a slow, almost tentative sounding Variatio 20, which serves as a launching point for an arguable too swift and brutal Variatio 21, which goes at a speed too fast for our minds to keep up. The expressive highlights of Variatio 21, 22 and 25 are all done marvellously, though without extremes of slowness or attempts to seek too far beyond Bach’s notes beyond what is already so miraculous on the page. Pienaar does dive for pearls, but not in a disproportionate sense – no need for extra breathing apparatus, though the atmosphere is breathtaking. He writes of the ‘return home’ of the Quodlibet in the way that “the use of folk songs suggests quite literally a return to shared ancestral roots.” In this way the final repeat of the Aria is more of a coda and a release, the feeling of which is palpably expressed by Daniel Ben-Pienaar.
 
As a bonus to the Goldberg Variations we are given a continuous passacaglia version of the Fourteen Canons BWV 1087, which are based on the first eight bass notes of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations. I’ve been intrigued by these little gems for a while now, but while Pienaar’s more lively moments are good you have to get used to his overly straight opening and an occasional over-prominence of the bass line in places. If you want to discover these fascinating canons have a listen to the Hänssler Bach Edition Musikalisches Opfer CD 92.133 which, along with the canons BWV 1072-78 is the version which convinced me that J.S. Bach was one of the first minimalist composers, even to the point of momentarily confounding our reviewer. Pienaar’s programme concludes with a lovely prayer-like performance of Bist du bei mir from Bach’s Anna Magdalena Notebook, the source of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, or at least where it sees its first appearance in Bach’s manuscripts.
 
To conclude, this is a superbly expressive and atmospheric recording of the Goldberg Variations. One may not quite agree with the occasional extremes of tempo, but there is little doubting the jigsaw-puzzle accuracy and attention to detail with which Daniel-Ben Pienaar has formed his shaping of this masterpiece. Subsequent to my review of the Mozart sonatas I was contacted with regard to the piano sound, which one commentator found rather ‘harsh, full of reverb, somewhat lacking in definition’. I’m still quite happy with the sound quality of this, though I partially take the point about the reverb and definition. This Bach was recorded at the same location and the reverb is less by comparison; the instrument that touch closer to the microphones, something which can make all the difference. It’s perhaps not quite ‘demonstration’ piano sound with a little more mid-range bloom than makes for perfection, but is still very good.
 
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Cellist Phoebe Carrai performed with period-instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln from 1983 to 1993, arguably the group's eclectic heyday. Carrai's spirit of adventure apparently hasn't waned in the meantime, given her curious and often unique interpretations of these familiar Bach suites. Her rendering of the opening Prelude of the First suite is inordinately broad and spacious, her subtle easing into the first note of each phrase giving the entire movement an inevitable flow and continuity. The fourth-movement Sarabande receives a similar slow, probing treatment akin to that of Jaap ter Linden (Harmonia Mundi). In contrast, Carrai's rendering of the Second suite's Courante is swift and expertly articulated, rivaling the speed and accuracy of Wispelwey (Channel) and Dieltiens (Accent) as well as modern-instrument virtuosos Navarra (Calliope) and Starker (Mercury).


At times Carrai's unconventional stylistic differences have a tendency to border on mannerism. For example, in the final Gigue of the Second suite, where Carrai's weighty, disproportionate emphasis on certain individual lines imbues the movement with an unusual lugubrious elegance, her forebearance also undermines the dance. Further, Carrai's occasional stresses on the introductory notes of the Fourth-suite Prelude simply sound bizarre. Likewise Carrai's uncharacteristically dreamy, evenly tempered renderings of the Sixth suite's two Gavottes (fast duple-meter folk dances) are among the slowest ever. Compared to my period-instrument reference performance by Anner Bylsma (Sony SEON), who sensibly completes this same movement in less than three minutes, Carrai's 4:37 is a bit of a stretch.


Avie's richly resonant sound complements Carrai's full-bodied performances. John Lutterman's informed notes are a joy to read. While not recommendable as a first choice among the many recordings of Bach's Suites, Carrai's highly personal and yes, distinguished performances nonetheless offer a genuine point of view--which is more than can be said for many less imaginative accounts that currently clutter the catalog.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

A VIOLIN’S LIFE: Music for the Lipi?ski Stradivari • Frank Almond (vn); William Wolfram (pn) • AVIE 2279 (67:37)


TARTINI (arr. Kreisler) The Devil’s Trill. RÖNTGEN Violin Sonata No. 2. LIPI?SKI Caprice, op. 29/3. SCHUMANN Violin Sonata No. 2 in d


Frank Almond pays tribute to the 1715 Lipi?ski Stradivari in a release that includes selections by composers who either owned it or had a connection to it. He’s provided a note on the privilege of playing on it, and violin maker John Dilworth has contributed the notes on the violin itself and on the program.


Almond and pianist William Wolfram begin with Tartini’s Sonata in G Minor, known by the title “The Devil’s Trill” because of a difficult double-stopped trill in the last movement (Fritz Kreisler’s ingenious cadenza for it came much later). Almond doesn’t play Tartini’s original double stops in the first movement (which he takes rather briskly) but does include some appropriate ornamentation in his sprightly reading of the second (and in the slow introduction to the third as well). He veils the devil’s trill itself with a sulfurous haze, more atmospheric than the suggestions of heavy breathing that accompany the movement; at the end he plays a shortened version of Kreisler’s cadenza. It’s a capable—even stirring—performance, but violin aficionados will perhaps be more intrigued by hearing it played on Tartini’s violin than charmed by this particular performance of it.


According to Dilworth’s account of the violin’s history, Julius Röntgen inherited the instrument from his father, Engelbert, concertmaster of Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra. The composer’s Violin Sonata No. 2 allows Almond to explore the violin’s entire range in its three movements, soaring in the melodious Allegro non troppo into the instrument’s silvery upper registers but also thundering, along with Wolfram, in its climactic passages. The brief middle movement, Con animazione , serves as a sprightly transition to the more substantial Finale, Agitato , to which the duo imparts a stormy urgency and which displays the reedy strength of the violin’s lower registers (as well as the piano’s own steely power, which the duo holds well in check—or, at least, in balance).


The inclusion of one of Karol Lipi?ski’s Three Caprices, op. 29/3, may be particularly appropriate because Lipi?ski, a follower of Paganini, also owned the instrument. Many may feel that Lipi?ski’s Caprices (for solo violin), short as those may be, outstay their welcome even in capable performances like Almond’s and represent the kind of gratuitous difficulties that Paganini’s own Caprices (or Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s, for that matter) transcend.


According to Dilworth’s note, Lipi?ski served as concertmaster of the Dresden orchestra while Schumann resided in Leipzig. Almond and Wolfram offer an urgent performance of the composer’s Second Sonata, although passages, in the first movement, at least in the violin part, sound more awkward than perhaps they need to. That sense of almost strenuous urgency continues into the second movement and beyond.


Several tributes like this one have been paid to great violins—well, almost like this one, for the program’s don’t focus on previous owners of the instrument (except in the case of Paganini, who owned the Cannon and made it famous). As in the case of Dynamic’s tribute to David Oistrakh’s violin, the Conte de Fontana Stradivari from 1702 ( The Violin of David Oistrakh , Dynamic 389, Fanfare 26:5), the recorded sound can be frustratingly insufficient. A similar difficulty seems to beset Avie’s release: If the violin’s the thing, then we should hear the violin in state-of-the-art recorded sound; and while Avie has hardly employed antiquated recording techniques, it’s to be presumed, the results make the violin seem a bit muffled and not particularly diamond-like in the middle. But, with Dilworth’s engaging notes (and Almond’s) and the generally stylish and affable performances, violin aficionados should still find it irresistible. Others may not share their enthusiasm. Recommended, therefore, to principally collectors of programs played on famous violins—not a small segment of the violin-loving population.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

1715: The famed Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari constructs what will become one of his most legendary violins. Among its first owners is Giuseppe Tartini, he of the "Devil's Trill" sonata.

c. 1817: The violin is bequeathed to Polish virtuoso violinist Karol Lipinski who inspired many works for the instrument.

2008: After passing through many countries and collections, the "Lipinski" Strad arrives in the hands of Frank Almond, through an anonymous donor.

2013: Frank Almond releases "A Violin's Life", an album that traces the provenance of the "Lipinski" Strad, with music by Schumann, Tartini, Julius Rontgen, and Lipinski himself.

January 2014: Following a concert, walking towards his car, Frank Almond is tasered by an assailant and the "Lipinski" Strad is stolen. An FBI pursuit results in the recovery of the "Lipinski" Strad a few weeks later. International media coverage goes viral, including international TV coverage, a feature in Vanity Fair, NPR, BBC, and much more.

May 2016: Frank Almond releases "A Violin's Life, Vol. 2", featuring more music associated with the "Lipinski" Strad, including works by Beethoven, Amanda Maier-Rontgen, and Eduard Tubin, poised to create another classic release.

The "Lipinski" Strad lives on.

An outstanding collection, vividly characterised and full of energy, of fine - but not over-familiar - music.

It is, of course, a fallacy - though refinements of it are still encountered quite frequently - to propose that full justice can only be done to certain kinds of music, or to certain composers, when the music is performed by what one might call ‘native’ musicians – that Tchaikovsky is always best at the hands of Russian orchestras and conductors, that Elgar and Vaughan Williams require British forces. So much of a fallacy, indeed, that one might reasonably argue the opposite case: ‘foreign’ performers can bring to music new perspectives and insights gained from experiences and knowledge which are, to some extent, outside the composer’s own tradition, and thus avoid any danger of parochialism. Just as many of the best Shakespearean productions of recent years have been the work of companies and directors from outside Britain.

Yet it is true that ‘native’ forces can sometimes provide valuable, even revelatory, reminders of things that the international interpretation of a composer may have forgotten, or been in danger of forgetting. Certainly in recent years, Italian musicians – such as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi and Giuliano Carmignola – and ensembles – such as Concerto Italiano, Europa Galante, Sonatori de la Gioisa Marca and the Venice Baroque Orchestra – have brought to the performance of Vivaldi’s music a rejuvenating fire and energy, a style of performance rich in eloquent inflections and nervous, scintillating rhythms, a manner full, in short, of Mediterranean vivacity, Vivaldi played with much of the energy and vivaciousness that characterise Italian conversation and street-life, but never at the cost of technical assurance and sophistication. Some non-Italian performances of the violin concertos can sound rather lack-lustre in the context of such as Biondi and Carmignola. But that is not the case, I am pleased, to report, in the work of Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima on this disc, the second volume of their three volume survey of the North Italian violin concerto (see review of volume one).

Chandler brings to his performances both imagination and scholarship; he has recently been the recipient of a three year fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to study the development of the violin concerto in Northern Italy in the years between 1690 and 1740. He and La Serenissima play with the kind of energy, verve and colour we have heard from the Italian ensembles mentioned earlier, and with a similar degree of apt inventiveness. In short, this British group matches up to the standards the Italian Vivaldians have set in recent years, in performances which are richly communicative and committed. The music is individualised without distortion, played very much from within, clearly the work of musicians utterly at home with Vivaldi but who never allow that familiarity to lapse into mere routine - the curse of much inferior playing of Vivaldi.

In RV 370 the ‘virtuoso’ element of the CD’s subtitle (Virtuoso Impresario) is certainly well in evidence; Adrian Chandler’s booklet note aptly points out that a copy of this concerto survives in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden, in the hand of the violin virtuoso Johann Georg Pisendel. Chandler negotiates the concerto’s demands with considerable élan, and his own cadenza, unsurprisingly, is thoroughly Vivaldian in spirit. The energy levels are perhaps not sustained quite so absolutely in RV 561, though by all but the very highest standards this, too, is a fine performance. No reservations whatsoever about either RV 134 or RV 254; in each case the central slow movement is played with loving attention to both line and colour and the closing allegros are little masterpieces of subtle rhythmic interplay, the accents by turns predictable and unpredictable, the sense of vocal-operatic phrasing attractive without ever being exaggerated. RV 243 is a slight oddity, the violinist being instructed to play without the E string (senza cantin) and to tune up his bottom string a whole tone in the finale, so as to provide a pedal note in a long passage of bariolage writing. Again the slow movement is lovely, played with winning eloquence and sensitivity.

Much of Vivaldi’s writing for the solo violin in these concertos has affinities with his writing for the opera, and it is fitting that these performances of a selection from the concertos should be interleaved with operatic arias. There is much to choose from amongst Vivaldi’s operatic compositions: so much so that the three arias from La costanza trionfante degl’amori e de gl’odii here receive their first ever recordings; in these and the two arias from La fida ninfa the soprano soloist is the admirable Mhairi Lawson. She is heard to especial advantage in ‘Dolce fiamma’ from La fida ninfa, her voice full of melting tenderness, the strings of La Serenissima supporting her exquisitely, and in ‘Alma oppressa’ from the same opera, full of stunning coloratura, a demonstration piece which spectacularly demonstrates the abilities of both composer and performer(s).

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

A New Yorker Notable Recording of 2022!

Twice Grammy-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan is “one of the world’s most remarkable singers” (Boston Globe). Nico Muhly is one of today’s most sought-after composers. Nick and Nico’s collaboration began with a commission when Nick curated a series for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in 2020. The resulting song cycle, Stranger, finds common ground in the musicians’ reflections on identity and immigration, themes that resonate as much today as they have through the centuries. This world-premiere recording of Stranger compliments Nico’s Lorne Ys My Liking, a setting of the 19th Chester Mystery Play, and Impossible Things, a triptych of poems by the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy. Nick has recorded with a roll call of collaborators: the adventurous string quartet Brooklyn Rider, shimmering countertenor Reginald Mobley, bold pianist Lisa Kaplan, and transformative Brooklyn-based collective The Knights led by brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen.

REVIEWS

The heart immediately opens at the sound of Phan’s voice … Stranger is a must. I, for one, will be listening to it over and over.

--San Francisco Classical Voice

...an album that guarantees a gripping listening experience and, first and foremost, once again shows Nicholas Phan to be an outstanding singer with clear diction and impeccable vocal delivery who excels in the song repertoire. ★★★★★

--Pizzicato

Composer Nico Muhly has been on concert bills all over the U.S. and beyond in the early 2020s, and one reason is that he has a knack for creating music for the right performer at the right time. Tenor Nicholas Phan is a rising star who here contributes an essay about his difficulties, when performing at the Singer of the World competition in Wales, in coming up with a song that reflected his "American" identity, inasmuch as he is Chinese Indonesian on one side, and Greek American on the other. He would have found the perfect solution in Muhly's seven-section Stranger, for voice and string quartet. Muhly, himself the product of a highly multi-ethnic background, sets writing about the experience of immigration from various sources, including an interview with a Sicilian woman who arrived at Ellis Island in 1911 and a letter from a Chinese American about discrimination. All are in different registers, and Muhly's sensitive handling of text adds variety even as his musical language remains consistent. Phan's commitment to these pieces is palpable, but he shifts gears effectively in the other works on the program, Lorne Ys My Likinge, a setting of the Chester Mystery Play inspired by Britten's Abraham and Isaac, and Impossible Things, which sets translated texts by poet C.P. Cavafy. Phan's duet work with countertenor Reginald Mobley in Lorne Ys My Likinge is absolutely delicious, and the accompaniment by the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and the New York chamber orchestra The Knights, is intimate and close. This marks a major step forward for Phan, and anyone who hasn't been following Muhly's music, which combines rigor with tremendous audience appeal (sample the ravishing "My Love" from Stranger), might do well to start here.

--AllMusic (James Manheim)

As long as you accept the premise of the arrangement style presented here, i.e. Romantic and virtuosic, you will love all seven works.

Sebastian Bohren’s new album La folia is an affectionate homage –to Ida Haendel, one of his heroes; to fiddlers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and to the violin itself. The Swiss violinist says, “It is also like a hall of mirrors, as some tracks invoke the spirits of two or three violinists.” From an early age, Sebastian was immersed in a lineage of violinists who favored Romantic transcriptions of Baroque repertoire, studying with a pupil of the great Ukrainian-born violinist Nathan Milstein. Later in life, he fell under the influence of violinist Ida Haendelon YouTube, watching her perform Corelli’s La folia variations. “She played this amazing virtuoso cadenza, and I was captivated. ”So arose the concept of a program reflecting the ethos of La folia, the ear-catching theme which has fascinated composers for centuries, from the Baroque era’s Tomaso Antonio Vitali and Giuseppe Tartini to latter-day Ottorino Respighi and Fritz Kreisler. Sebastian captures the sound world with sincerity, playing on two different violins, the 1710 “King George” Stradivarius, and a Guadagnini made in 1761.

REVIEWS:

A collection of arrangements in the spirit of Corelli’s La Folia sonata, but given a Romantic virtuoso twist for violin and strings. Sebastian Bohren curated the well thought-out selection and is a dazzling soloist. A quite unexpected delight.

-- MusicWeb International

Bohren is a skilled violinist, and his 1761 Guadagnini violin is a lovely instrument. He strikes a comfortable balance between HIP and Romantic styles, applying a tasteful vibrato that never seems excessive or inappropriate. He plays with affection, engages well in dialogue with the two string ensembles that participate, and demonstrates a strong technique. His playing in Tartini’s famous “Devil’s Trill” Sonata is brilliant.

-- Fanfare

In Bohren’s hands Respighi’s 1921 edition of Tartini’s Sonata in A is truly engaging, with gratifying attention to small-scale phrasing and sonorous scordatura timbres.

-- BBC Music Magazine

This year, legendary cellist Antonio Meneses celebrates his 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of winning first prize and the gold medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition. Shortly after that triumph Antonio made a renowned recording of Brahms’ Double Concerto with conductor Herbert von Karajan. He revisits the composer’s music on his 11th recording for AVIE and his first of Brahms’ two cello sonatas, generously paired with a selection of lieder arrangements. Antonio mines Brahms’ baritonal sound world, extracting the full expressive range of the cello. Similar qualities infuse a selection of seven Lieder in arrangements that sound so effective on the cello that one cannot help but wonder whether somewhere in the back of his mind Brahms had the sound of the instrument – he was, after all, an accomplished player in his youth, and it would remain central to his chamber music output throughout his life.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has travelled far and wide, as an international opera star and an Armenian who was born in Lebanon, immigrated to Canada, and is now settled in southern California. Her life is a journey that informs her new recording, La Zingarella: Through Romany Songland. “The music transcends geography,” she says. “It taps into human nature and unites us all. It’s about freedom of the spirit, about living life without knowing what tomorrow holds. It’s about enjoying every single minute.” Isabel embarked on an album of art songs that draw on Romani melodies – Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder, Dvorák’s Cigánské Melodie, Bizet’s Habanera – and while those appear here, her journey also led to a wealth of recherché gems.

The title track by French composer Maurice Yvain commingles with fellow-operetta composers Franz Lehár (‘Lied und Csárdás’ from Zigeunerliebe), Emmerich Kálmán (‘Heia, heia, in den Bergen’ from The Csárdás Princess) and Victor Herbert ("Gypsy Love Song" from The Fortune Teller). Two South American Gypsy Songs by American folk song collector Henry F.B. Gilbert set words by ethnomusicologist Laura Alexandrine Smith, whose book lends the album its subtitle. The ever-adventurous Isabel commissioned new arrangements for the songs on this album, with violin, viola, cello, and piano lending a laser beam lucidity to the music that “has a lot of fire in it,” she says with a glint in her eye.

REVIEWS:

Bayrakdarian reigns supreme here. She is nominally a soprano, but her range extends well below the treble staff. She takes on Liszt’s opening `3 Gypsies’ and the succeeding Brahms and Dvorak sets with assurance, and when she moves on to Sebastian Iradier she cleverly follows his `Habanera’ with Bizet’s, so obviously based on it and so obviously a natural improvement in carrying the opening scale further down. The latter half of the disc is excerpts from operettas: Maurice Yvain’s Chanson Gitane, Franz Lehar’s Zigeunerliebe, Emmerich Kalman’s Czardasfurstin, and Victor Herbert’s Fortune Teller. The distance from Romany originals is greatest here, and yet I hear, not cultural appropriation, but cultural appreciation.

-- American Record Guide

Bayrakdarian is in fine voice and exuberant high spirits for these mostly high-spirited selections, yet poignant or sensuous when appropriate. This exhilarating cross-cultural excursion is enthusiastically recommended.

-- The Whole Note (Canada)