Each of the three violin concertos by Telemann on the seventh volume (but not the last!) of our complete series merits separate consideration in view of its singular musical character and special transmission history. In two cases stylistic descriptions and evaluations are bound up with the question of the authenticity of these compositions. This applies to the Overture Suites TWV 55:A8 and TWV 55:A4. Our expert booklet author Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann regards the attribution of the first suite to Telemann as entirely justified, even though it perhaps involves a rather early example of this composer’s concerts en ouverture. The interpretation of this work by the Wallfisch Band is a multifaceted and just as virtuosic rendering that makes a compelling case for this fine one-of-a-kind piece situated between the concerto and suite genres – a work that absolutely has to be included in a complete recording! Although the second overture suite really should be assigned to the ranks of the anonymous, Adolf Hoffmann categorically labeled it as a piece by Telemann in his dissertation on the orchestral suites (1969) and classified it as a “masterpiece” by this composer. The solo violin is highly effectively employed along with a finely developed feeling for tone-color effects, and the movements are ambitiously elaborated in length and form. No matter how plausible the case for Telemann’s authorship may be – these works enable us to participate in a fascinating journey back in time to European music culture around 1720.

Today Lena Neudauer is in great demand as a musician who delights an international public with the clarity, power, charm, and emotional depth of her violin playing. For this reason, following her successful interpretation of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto for cpo, we now are also very delighted to have obtained her services for the interpretation of three violin concertos by Antonio Rosetti: she has a special place in her heart for this charming composer, and her stupendous virtuosity enables her to rise to the challenge of the high technical demands of his concertos. Movements of exuberant freshness flow and overflow with performance joy, and these three concertos once again display Rosetti’s tendency to endow the first movements of his solo concertos with extensive orchestral introductions and richly diverse musical material. This is listening pleasure of a special kind!

Over many decades the enduring impression internationally was that between Fryderyk Chopin and Karol Szymanowski there had been no significant composers in Poland. However, when this country was not a state, it brought forth other highly talented musicians who stood the test of European comparison with flying colors. Two of them were closely acquainted personally through a teacher-pupil relationship and warm ties of friendship: Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Zygmunt Stojowski, and for some years now the compositions of the two have enjoyed new esteem. Paderewski’s Sonata op. 13 may rightly claim a place side by side with famous works by Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and César Franck. Paderewski immediately demonstrates his command of the latest developments in the European art of music. The beginning of the first movement combines a piano accompaniment of stormy animation with a violin theme of sweeping breadth that on the one hand could have been taken from a symphony by Bruckner and on the other hand could represent a minor variant of the concluding apotheosis in Grieg’s Piano Concerto. The violinist Wladyslaw Górski offered Stojowski insights into his instrument’s capabilities when the composer was a young man, and Stojowski’s first violin sonata, a most highly effectively composed work, documents this expert tutelage.

Prokofiev first became fascinated by the violin upon hearing the playing of his private teacher, Reinhold Glière. A dozen years later Prokofiev wrote his Violin Concerto No. 1 – a work of contrasting open-hearted lyricism and whimsical playfulness that features a wild central Scherzo with dazzling technical gymnastics. By contrast, the Violin Concerto No. 2 is emotionally reserved and sardonic with an inspired plaintive and long-arching slow movement. Composed to an official Soviet commission for an ensemble piece to be played by talented child violinists in unison, the witty and upbeat Sonata for Solo Violin can also be played by a single performer.

REVIEW:

Tianwa Yang is currently on a roll with single-composer collections for Naxos (look up her Sarasate and Rihm), and this elegantly captured all-Prokofiev effort is especially strong.

First up is the Violin Concerto no. 1. Yang’s silvery legato sweetness is a perfect match for this intensely lyrical work, and the orchestra is equally alive to the score’s brightness, pace and array of translucently scored colors. The fairy-like recapitulation of the first movement’s opening theme is a delicately luminous knockout from everyone. Equally effective is Yang’s sharp-edged clout when the Scherzo takes an acerbic turn.

The Second Concerto offers an opportunity to appreciate Yang’s darker warmth, and the luxurious, heady vibrato and romance she brings to its central movement’s soaring lines. Then the buoyant playfulness and folk pep of her Solo Sonata is a reminder of the qualities that won her a 2015 ECHO Klassik Award for her solo Ysaÿe album. If you want to cover both Prokofiev concertos in a single album, no need to hesitate here.

-- The Strad

Belgian violinist, conductor and composer Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) has been recognized as one of the greatest violin virtuosos of the 19th and early 20th centuries; regarded as the “King of the Violin” by Nathan Milstein, his legacy has inspired generations of musicians. Ysaÿe was also a composer whose works feature revolutionary modern violin technique, unique expressive devices, profound musicality and harmonic originality, which eventually served as the bridge between the era of the Romantic virtuoso and contemporary music. It is odd, then, to realise that many of his works remain unknown, unpublished and unrecorded. This album presents for the first time several works for violin and piano ranging from 1885 to 1924, and a previously unknown Violin Concerto in G minor from 1910, which was orchestrated by Sabin Pautza.

Romanian violinist Sherban Lupu is internationally known; he studied in London with Yehudi Menuhin and other leading teachers and has a very busy career. He is accompanied here by the bright young pianist Henri Bonamy (who was Professor of Piano in Seoul, Korea and now teaches in Munich) and the fine orchestra of Liepāja, Latvia. The conductor is Paul Mann, who has made a name recently with many recordings for Toccata Classics.

One of the 19th century’s most important music critics, Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904) noted in his memoirs (Aus meinem Leben, vol. 2, Berlin 1880) in the section “On Johannes Brahms”: “A young Hercules at the parting of the ways. Will he turn to the left, to the utterly Romantic, to music that knows no bounds and no restraints – or to the right, on the path of our Classical composers? He has chosen the latter, and having introduced to us (in 1862) his Handel Variations, his G minor Piano Quartet, his B flat Sextet, we could no longer doubt that in Brahms we had been vouchsafed a figure who was not merely a promising genius, but a master in the noblest sense of the word. A master who had the ability to cast original, modern content in Classical form. And at the same time a piano virtuoso in the grand manner whose manly, intelligent delivery takes wing freely above consummate technique.”

On her second volume of Polish violin works, Jennifer Pike presents works by Bacewicz, Poldowski, and Szymanowski. Renowned for her “dazzling interpretative flair and exemplary technique” (Classic FM), violinist Jennifer Pike has taken the musical world by storm with her unique artistry and compelling insight into music from the Baroque to the present day. (Chandos)

“Schubert’s music is always associated in my imagination with a journey in a horse-drawn carriage. Outside, the scenery is flowing by. Cities, mountains, rivers, lakes, villages. At times the carriage slows down, then it speeds up again, but I always have that feeling of being on a journey. Not on foot and not on horse, but in a carriage on wheels.” (Elena Bashkirova) The year 1816 ushered in a series of new beginnings for 19-year old Franz Schubert. He had applied for a music teaching job in Laibach (and soon would probably be overjoyed in secret that he was turned down, thus avoiding the task of school teaching, which he abhorred). He sent Goethe a notebook with songs of his pen, hoping, in vain, that he would be allowed to dedicate them to the “prince of poets”. He dreamt of his future wedding with the soprano Therese Grob. And he composed incessantly, including his three sonatas “for fortepiano and violin”, his first chamber music works for violin. Schubert probably intended these sonatas as music for domestic use: perhaps for Ferdinand, his favorite brother, who, one year thereafter, arranged them for orchestra with Schubert’s approval. Or perhaps they were destined for the convivial circle of friends who gathered on a regular basis to make music, read out loud to one another, and have lively discussions. Schubert also took up the violin himself at times: in his school days, he had been the leader of the orchestra at the Vienna Stadtkonvikt (Municipal Seminary), where he was a pupil. He thus may have played these sonatas himself on the violin. We do not know. The sonatas were only published in 1836,many years after Schubert’s death: publisher Anton Diabelli gave them the title “sonatinas”, and the name has stuck until today.

Antonín Vivaldi (1678-1741) was 27 years old when his Opus 1 collection of 12 sonatas first appeared in print in 1705. Whether or not they represent his earliest acknowledged compositions, they certainly mark the start of a glittering career, bearing already identifiable Vivaldian fingerprints while also drawing on a heritage of Italianate chamber music exemplified by the trio sonatas of Corelli. The form of these early works resembles a suite rather than the three- and four-movement pieces determined by tempo marking which soon became standard practice for the sonatas and concertos composed by Vivaldi in such profusion. In all but three of the Opus 1 Sonatas, a freely developed prelude introduces a sequence of three dance movements such as sarabandes, gigues and gavottes. Solemnity and lively intimacy sit side by side, in an ingenious synthesis of church and chamber modes of expression. Vivaldi’s Opus 1 reaches a grand climax with a free-standing set of variations on the most popular melody in 18th century Italy, ‘La Folia’. This grave and antique chord-sequence of Spanish origin inspired the 20-something composer to handle the familiar instrumental line-up in a bold new way, liberating the bass line from a supporting role and giving some especially brilliant canonical dialogues to the two violins. The sonata demonstrates the degree to which vocal writing inspired Vivaldi’s slow movements and paved the way for his future ventures in opera. The album is completed by two sonatas from the Opus 5 collection published in 1716, and six more sonatas without an opus number (RV 60, 68, 71, 71, 74 and 77 in the Vivaldi catalogue), all scored for the same combination of instruments.

Previous installments of the Beethoven sonata cycle from Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen have met with wide acclaim. Described as ‘conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ in BBC Music Magazine, the albums have received a Choc in Classica and the recommendation of German website klassik.com, respectively. This the third and final volume brings together Beethoven's last three works in the genre, composed between 1801 and 1812. The center-piece is the ninth sonata, the famed ‘Kreutzer Sonata’. 

This album by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia conducted by Ville Matvejeff presents three works by Éric Tanguy (b. 1968), one of the leading composers in contemporary French music with two outstanding soloists, clarinet Pierre Génisson and violinist Júlia Pusker. The Clarinet Concerto was written for French clarinetist Pierre Génisson to accompany Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. However, this melodic and lyrical work in three movements does seek to establish an analogy with Mozart’s work. Tanguy’s 2nd Violin Concerto, revised in 2003, is built on a very classical form, is set in three movements and includes the archetypes of a traditional concerto, including a big cadenza, as well as the fast–slow–fast construction with the purpose of finding a balance with modern times. The concerto is performed by Júlia Pusker, prize-winner from the 2019 Queen Elizabeth violin competition in Brussels. Matka (‘journey’ in Finnish) is a symphonic piece written by Tanguy for Sibelius’ 150th anniversary and commissioned by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia. The work is a spiritual tribute to Sibelius, a composer that has inspired Tanguy for many decades.

“Nowadays, three hundred years after the autograph of Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato, these solos are still a benchmark for the entire literature, not only for violin, but also for any other instrument used as a solo to shape a thought, gathering all its possibilities of sound, all its technical resources. A model and term of comparison for each composer, a trial and inspiration for any interpreter who will face Bach’s cosmos and have to discern and choose amongst the possible stylistic options emerged in three centuries, ranging from the management of vibrato to the type of instrument and bow to create a personal interpretation and shape it in the fleeting moment.” (Roberta Pedrotti)

One could hardly intuit from these fresh and flowing violin sonatas the obstacles their female composers had to face - family opposition for Mel Bonis in France and Ethel Smyth in England, institutional conservatism for Elfrida Andrée in Sweden. It has taken a century and more for that initial prejudice to fall away, and they are now beginning to attract a fair hearing for their music. What ultimately matters, of course, is not whether composers are male or female but whether they write good music, and these three sonatas - melodically expansive, rhythmically vivacious, harmonically warm - point to the musical riches that further exploration of their creators' output will uncover.

This new release from Dux presents Violin Concertos by composer Tadeusz Paciokiewicz. Paciokiewicz used to say that “even the best craftsmanship and compositional skills are only a means to achieve the goal of expressing a work”. In every composition by Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz, there is a multiplicity and changeability of moods. The character of his music oscillates between the poles of extreme emotions, using refined nuances. The composer received many awards and distinctions for his pedagogical and artistic activity. Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz wrote the following about his works: “The most characteristic features of my style include, above all, the symbiosis of homophony with polyphony and the use, especially in themes, of all twelve notes of the scale. The use of the full twelve--note scale does not imply, however, any connection with the dodecaphonic technique. I tend to lean towards the atonal style, without sacrificing tonality, which I use quite individually. In my works, I prefer classical forms: sonata, concerto, symphony, rondo, or variations. I also often use baroque forms, such as passacaglia, fugue, or cantata. Emotionality is an inherent feature of my com-positions, without which the music is dead and boring, and boredom is actually the enemy of art.”

How would have Bach composed if he had had access to modern instrumentarium: a violin with Tourte’s bow that produces a higher volume of sound, a trumpet with an entire chromatic scale or a contemporary grand piano? Would he be inspired by the art of virtuosos of today, such as the Leipzig ensemble of Collegium Musicum, as he was known to have composed for distinguished artists? Would he forgive pop or computer game composers for using his music? How would he judge changes in the key of pieces, which played a vital role in the intellectual and emotional rendition of music according to Baroque rules? Or else, would he adjust to the vibe of our epoch and make use of samples instead of real performers? In any case, he would definitely appreciate the interpretations by Jaroslaw Nadrzycki, Krzysztof Kaczka and L’Appasionata, a Verona-based chamber orchestra. The energy that these young musicians display while playing Bach’s pieces would certainly match the composer’s spirit. If we observe Bach’s portraits for which he would pose in a dignified wig as we listen to his grand music, we might think that Bach was a placid and serious man. Yet not once did his contemporaries have to cope with his fits of anger or turbulent character; on the contrary, he must have also been high-spirited and humorous, which we may deduce from his numerous pieces.