For this programme, Duo Diversitas has selected or created sophisticated arrangements that embody virtuosity and musical expression. In focusing on great composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, Marisa Minder and Evgeniya Spalinger explore the artistic refinement, lyrical grace and technical sophistication of the guitar and flute. The one original work for this combination is Hans Haug's Capriccio, a modern classic that alludes to Baroque procedure but within the context of exciting contemporary harmonies.

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

Following her lyrical and witty complete recording of Mozart’s Keyboard Sonatas, issued by naïve in March 2023, Yeol Eum Son invites Svetlin Roussev to join her in enfolding himself in the enticingly subtle harmonic intricacies of Germanic post- Romanticism.

For their second recital as a duo, the Bulgarian violinist and the Korean pianist follow the course taken by works written over a period of slightly more than half a century by composers or famous performers upon whom Richard Wagner exercised crucial influence. They take on almost every genre – cinema, opera, chamber music, transcription – treating it in the lyrical, large-scale manner of the Bayreuth master. During their unexpected, fascinating journey, Svetlin Roussev and Yeol Eum Son chart a variety of pathways, from Waxman to Strauss.

So many different worlds! To begin, two figures who made their indelible mark on the music written for Hollywood. Of German-Polish origins, in 1946 Franz Waxman (Rebecca, Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, Prince Valiant) wrote, at Jascha Heifetz’s request, a paraphrase on themes from Wagner’s Tristan et Isolde, actually an adaptation of a section of the score he composed for the film Humoresque (Warner Brothers, 1947). In summary, a manifesto in music of an impossible love – to which, at the end of the disc, an extremely rare transcription one of the better known Wesendonck-Lieder, credited to the great virtuoso Leopold Auer, forms a response.

The programme continues with Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a child prodigy in Vienna during the 1910s. The famed Mariettas Lied – the best-known moment in his opera Die tote Stadt – and the sublime nocturne from his incidental music for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (the Scene in the Garden) remain as much moments of lyric intensity as truly cinematographic, deliciously intoxicating love scenes. But lovers also know how to frolic, and if already in Korngold they readily do so, the three more light-hearted pieces by Fritz Kreisler will place them in everyday, commonplace scenarios, where laughing reigns.

The keystone of the programme is unarguably the magnificent Sonata for Violin and Piano that Richard Strauss composed in 1887. He was 23 years old, and still heavily influenced by Schumann and Brahms, even Grieg. Svetlin Roussev and Yeol Eum Son make its case with radiant commitment, sensitive to the spirit stirring in the young Richard, then already in love with the soprano Pauline de Ahna, who would become his wife.

Beyond Wagner, this highly original album above all celebrates that moment of falling in love when, overwhelmed, the heart quivers, to the point of being transformed.

It is no exaggeration to call Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) one of the two or three most significant Austrian violinists in music history. Decades after his passing, his name remains a vibrant touchstone for music lovers worldwide. Viennese pianist Andrea Linsbauer, who has long immersed herself in Kreisler's enduring legacy, now unveils a singular project with the album "Fritz Kreisler's Heirs". Here, she gathers five of Austria's most celebrated violin virtuosos today Benjamin Schmid, Ekaterina Frolova, Leonhard Baumgartner, Christian Altenburger and Daniel Auner to offer their deeply personal interpretations of Kreisler's miniature masterworks. That these artists have been Andrea Linsbauer's recurring duo partners for years is evident in every note: each performance resonates with the intimacy of shared musical dialogue, honoring Kreisler's own spirit of reinvention.

A force to be reckoned with (The New York Times), violinist Miclen Laipang makes his solo recording debut on Delos with a very personal recital. Featuring music that has accompanied him over time, "Deep River" traces a path through styles and places that have been meaningful throughout his life. Like a flowing river, this program moves from it's source through different landscapes, crosses borders, and opens onto new encounters as it continues forward. It mirrors a life shaped by movement between countries, cultures, and musical worlds. Works such as Deep River and Nobody knows de trouble I've seen bring echoes of home, representing Miclen's childhood and the United States, while Widmung, Liebesleid and Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes are associated with his time in Germany and Austria, and Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 with his current home in France. Partnered by pianist Nigel Yandell, Miclen performs on the Antonio Stradivari "Charles Castleman, ex-Marquis de Champeaux," generously loaned by the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.

It is difficult to imagine a more touching sound than the gentle voice of a cello accompanied by the sweet tones of a Spanish guitar. In fact, for Nicole Peña Comas and Damien Lancelle, these two instruments sound so amorous together that they require an entire album to express all facets of love: passion, tenderness and lust, the burning desire of new lovers and affection for friends and family. Masterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Liszt or Robert Schumann as well as undiscovered treasures by August Nölck or Amy Beach have been selected and arranged for cello and guitar because they all set love to music.

A brilliant violinist with virtuoso flair, effortless technique and wonderful artistry. Bronislaw Gimpel has made many recordings and his legacy is also preserved on many radio broadcasts, such as those in this album. Born in Lvov, Poland, in 1911, Gimpel began the violin at 5. His first public appearance came in 1919, when he played the Mendelssohn Concerto. His international performances began at 14, when he performed the Goldmark Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic. He immigrated to the United States in 1937 and Otto Klemperer invited him to be the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which he also occasionally conducted. He remained there until 1942. In the latter half of the 1940s he was a frequent soloist and conductor of the ABC Radio Orchestra in New York. In 1950 he formed the Mannes-Gimpel-Silva Piano Trio which had a great success. In 1956 he returned to Europe where he re-established a substantial concert career and his engagements included guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic. He returned to the United States in 1967 to take up a position on the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut and returned once again to Europe in 1973 to teach at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Gimpel passed away in 1979, at the age of 68.

The members of the Hegel Quartet grew up in different parts of the 'New World': Australia, USA and Canada. In search of the roots of the musical traditions in which they grew up, each of them made their own way to Europe during their studies. It was pure coincidence that they met in mid-life, having already absorbed so much of the legendary musicians who make the European concert scene so rich. Composers Fritz Kreisler and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, like so many other Jewish artists, escaped the turmoil of the World Wars in the last century and eventually became citizens of the United States. These two great artists, and many others in similar life situations, created a thriving cultural paradise in their new homelands - for example, in South America, Canada, or Australia - that produced generations of artists. Even at the height of his success as a Hollywood film composer, Korngold greatly missed Vienna and its opera houses, and it seems that he died of a broken heart after unsuccessfully trying to re-establish himself in 1950s Europe. The Hegel Quartet’s new recording of these works is also accompanied, in a modest way, by a desire to repatriate, as it were, Kreisler and Korngold to their beloved Europe by four emigrants from the opposite direction.

Born in Zurich 1988, into a traditionally Jewish family, Anne grew up in Zurich, Washington D.C. and Basel. She started to play the violin at the age of six and was immediately drawn to the beautiful sound of this instrument. After graduating from Music-Gymnasium in Basel, Anne pursued her studies at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) with the renown teacher Nora Chastain. Another important influence she gained from an Erasmus year in Munich, studying with Ingolf Turban, famous for his virtuoso violin playing. In 2013 and 2015 Anne finished her Masters of Performance and Masters of Pedagogy with distinction. The album recording 'The Essential Hebrew Violin' with arrangements for violin and chamber orchestra recorded for the first time was inspired by a concert Anne Battegay played in 2020 on the occasion of the European Day of Jewish Culture at the Zwinglihaus in Basel.

Martha Argerich and Ivry Gitlis, two of the the greatest musicians of all time, have performed and recorded together many years. Included here is a collection from their live performances given in European festivals

"After Hours" is the new concept album by the Faure Quartett. The world famous piano quartet consists of the same for members since íts founding in 1995. They present an album full of encores from composers such as Debussy, Strauss and Dvorak. These pieces are lined by original compositions dedicated to the ensemble by composer friends such as Jarkko Riihimaki. Two other friends, clarinettist Matthias Schorn and soprano Annette Dasch, make appearences as soloists. Encores defy the convention and have the potential to be surprising and engage the listeners in a special way and exactly that is what this album does.

'The repertoire we have chosen for this album consists mainly of pieces that have been with me since my childhood.' With this recital, Johan Dalene, accompanied by Peter Friis Johansson, offers us a selection of popular violin pieces that have accompanied him since his early years. After hearing them in the family car on long journeys, he went on to learn them and then play them in competitions and in concerts. He Johan Dalene now gives us (and himself) a treat and continues the tradition of great violinists such as Heifetz, Perlman and Vengerov, who have all made recordings of favourite encores and recital pieces. Finally to record them himself proved to be an 'extremely inspiring and challenging project', says Dalene. The programme is built around three virtuoso works, Tzigane (Ravel), Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (Saint-Saens) and Carmen Fantasy (Waxman), alongside which more reflective pieces by Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Falla and Kreisler have been included. Also featured is a rarely played miniature by Swedish composer Amanda Maier - a work which, according to Dalene, 'is a gem full of spirit!' A programme that celebrates the multiple sides of the violin, at times virtuoso, at times lyrical, always seductive.

Modern Solo Violin Music

Idil Biret wanted to record the many waltz transcriptions of Godowsky and others. Chief among these was the transcription of the Johann Strauss' waltz Kiinstlerleben by Godowsky which she had performed at many concerts in the l 970s and the Blue Danube Waltz. However, there was another project scheduled before that; four Haydn Sonatas, some of the most beautiful among the many he composed. When Idil suddenly fell ill in 2021 both projects were abandoned. Then, miraculously a stupendous recording of her performance of Kiinstlerleben in New York in December 1975 surfaced on the internet which led to reembarking on the project in a somewhat different way. The result is this CD, a compilation of Biret's past performances of Waltzes and Dances from many composers including Bartok, Berlioz, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Ravel, Stravinsky and, of course, Leopold Godowsky - his piano transcription of the Strauss waltz Kiinstlerleben "Metamorphosis on Themes from Artist's Life"

To close the 2004 Kontrapunkt releases Denmark’s leading violinist Søren Elbæk joined by Morten Mogensen on piano presents the “ultimate violin recital”. From the Heifetz arrangement of Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita” to Massenet’s “Thaïs – méditation” the CD is packed with the famous melodies brilliantly performed.

A veritable musical metaphor for the suicide of Europe that was the Great War, both apotheosis and apocalypse. We also hear evocations of Schubert, Liszt, Mahler and Kreisler, all imbued with a kind of nostalgia that belongs only to this mythical city. - Aurélien Pontier

Dedicated to the last years of Imperial Vienna, which gave rise to an artistic effervescence unique in European history. The program opens with a piano transcription of Strauss's Die Fledermaus and ends with Ravel's La Valse.