Among the most talented violinists of his generation, Kristóf Baráti has made a string of recordings for Brilliant Classics that have been highly recommended across the board. Baráti and his fellow Hungarian partner Klára Würtz now turn their attention to a classic trio of Francophone violin sonatas from the turn of the last century. César Franck’s Belgian origins and Wagnerian leanings hardly obscure the French accent of the Violin Sonata which he composed towards the end of his life, and in it distilled the essence of his long-range harmonic thinking. The sonata’s lucid cyclical form leads the listener on a journey of restrained passions, yet still far more overt in its passions than the sonata composed by the ailing Debussy in the middle of the First World War. This is a work riven by outer sickness and conflict yet sustained from within by an enduring love for another age of French composers such as Rameau and Couperin. Debussy’s Sonata breathes with the spirit of another age, whereas Ravel’s contribution to the genre is bang up to date – the date in question being the mid-1920s – with its flavors of jazz and blues. The second movement is ‘stylized jazz, more French than American,’ according to the composer, while the frantic perpetuum mobile finale continues his fascination with intricate, machine-like structures, in which the violinist plays for 180 consecutive bars. All three sonatas require the most assured technique and refined musicianship, which they receive in this new recording from Kristóf Baráti.

In Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, the violin does not allow itself a break, continually tells it's dark story, revolves around the same thoughts, jokes and mocks, stutters, gets into the vicious circle of ostinato Passacaglia bass lines, loses itself in the loneliness of the extended cadenza and again and again falls into beguilingly beautiful singing. The Stalin regime would not have missed the fact that although a great many things run in small circles here, nothing "runs smoothly", which is why the premiere did not take place until 1955, after Stalin's death. Peter Tchaikovsky initially thought his "Symphony of Fate" was a failure and believed himself to be at the end of his creative powers. The audience's enthusiasm for the work grew with each performance. It was probably the composer's nature, plagued by self-doubt, that made it almost impossible for him to develop a self-confident attitude to his own creative power. This recording of the 5th Symphony is another milestone in Andris Nelson's Tchaikovsky cycle with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

Luigi Ludovico Madonis (1695-1777) was a pupil of Antonio Vivaldi and was regarded around 1720 as one of the most brilliant and artistic violinists of Venice. Johann Joachim Quantz praised him in his travel diary (1724-1727). In 1733 Madonis arrived in St. Petersburg, where he became a member of the court chapel. Madonis was highly esteemed at the Russian court both as a violinist and as a composer. In 1738 he published a collection of 12 violin sonatas, which he dedicated to the Russian tsarina. The present recording contains six sonatas of this collection. Madonis cultivates an individual style, which incorporates Russian elements and at the same time takes inspiration from the Italian style and in particular from Vivaldi.

This recording presents 5 violin sonatas by Vivaldi that Pisendel took with him to Dresden after his stay in Venice. We know that Vivaldi wrote these extremely virtuoso sonatas for himself around 1710. The recording also presents a world premi�re recording of a chamber concerto for violin and two movements for violin and basso continuo with cello concertato (RV 252 and RV 7a) which are also world premi�re recordings. All these refreshing sonatas are brilliantly performed by Isabella Bison, violin, Francesco Corti, harpsichord and Marco Frezzato, cello.

Philip Glass has become an iconic figure in American music. His works are often inspired by collaborations with other leading musicians, and the proposal of an “American Four Seasons” by the violinist Robert McDuffie to reflect Vivaldi’s famous masterpiece resulted in a concerto which evokes the Baroque spirit of early 18th-century violin tradition. With the Concerto’s range of moods, listeners are invited to decide for themselves which season the music evokes. The Violin Sonata sees Glass’s melodic and harmonic language haunted by the ghosts of Brahms, Faure and Franck, “the meditative-ness of this piece bringing a unique energy” for award-winning violinist Piotr Plawner.

Mark Fewer and Hank Knox are well-known personalities in Canada. Both versatile musicians, they have performed throughout North America and are known for imparting a unique signature to their performances. Offering fresh and exciting interpretation of works from the past. This collection of exciting but little-known works for violin and harpsichord is thought to have been first penned by Antonio Vivaldi in 1726. However, the works were unknown until a manuscript was found in Manchester’s Central Library in 1976 and to date, few recordings of the complete collection exist. This is the first recording of the works by Canadian artists. The Sonatas were arranged and recorded by Fewer and Knox in January 2019 at Église St. Augustin, Mirabel, QC.

No dusk: although both Sonates op.120 may be some of the last pieces written by Johannes Brahms, they still sound with the great vigor and sensitivity that belong to the great Viennese composer. B Records continues to explore his whole chamber music, with an addition of two treasures. This is a program that vibrates very close to the sometimes delicate, sometimes furious chords of the great artist. The ensemble writes: “One crazy day, a few of us decided to embark on a project which, at the time, some people deemed impossible to achieve: to perform all of Brahms’s chamber music within only a few months. Every concert would be recorded with our sights set on an unprecedented, magical objective – the complete chamber works of that great Viennese composer performed by the same musicians… We are now a company, as in the theatre, bonded by an unstoppable urge, a definite notion of boldness, a shared perception of chamber music and a love for the repertoire. We know to a T our individual playing characteristics: one player’s touch, another’s bow stroke, each other’s breathing, and so on. After hours of rehearsals and discussions, we honed our vision of the repertoire which ensured that the project is coming together nicely. This is a two-phase endeavor – the concert and the album. There are two options open to the audience: a seat at some of the finest auditoria in Europe which are part of the Belle Saison network; or a sofa in any home, where people can hear the outstanding music of Johannes Brahms… The album which you now hold in your hands is a small fraction of a large sound space which is opening up to you for the very first time.”

Violinist Carol Lieberman has had a distinguished career performing music ranging from the Baroque to modern times. This album, The Art of Carol Lieberman, Volume 2, focuses upon here performances of modern works. Carol Lieberman has been one of the leading exponents of Baroque violin performance for three decades and is equally well known for her performances of 19th and 20th century violin repertoire. She has concertized throughout Europe and North and South America, and frequently performs for radio and television, including Radio Nacional Espana, Belgian Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio. Ms. Lieberman performs as violinist of the Lieberman-Kroll Duo, the Early Music Ensemble of Boston, and is first violinist and founder of the Quartetto Tomasini, a period instrument string quartet.

Paul Juon's musical education provided him with a direct link to the German Romantic style of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and he has even been called the 'Russian Brahms.' These three violin sonatas represent an important artistic statement by this neglected master, also showing his artistic evolution. The First Sonata is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky in it's melodic beauty, the Second Sonata enriched with Scandinavian flavor in it's mercurial character and chromatic intensity. The masterful and dramatic Third Sonata evokes an epic imagined landscape full of natural and supernatural beings.

Joachim Raff enjoyed enormous prestige with a reputation as Germany’s leading symphonist of his time. He also wrote music for the violin, an instrument he had mastered when young, and for which he wrote with great sympathy. The enduring success of his first two sonatas prompted him to write three more: the charming, genial and joyous Sonata in D major, the symphonically conceived Sonata in G minor which, uniquely for Raff’s violin works, is cast in a single movement, and a Sonata in C minor that, while often melancholic in tone, is still suffused with his trademark lyricism.

Building on the success of the first two installments of their cycle devoted to Beethoven's sonatas for piano and violin (Alpha 240, Diapason d'Or of the year, and Alpha 407), Lorenzo Gatto and Julien Libeer conclude this complete series by recording the remaining four sonatas. Composed between 1797 and 1801, these sonatas are dedicated to Emperor Alexander I of Russia, except for op. 12 no. 3, which Beethoven dedicated to his teacher Antonio Salieri. Lorenzo Gatto and Julien Libeer's feeling for melody and tempo works wonders in these pieces, which they recorded in the ideal surroundings of the Salle de Musique of La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland) and the Flagey Studio (Brussels, Belgium).

The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

Traditional folk music elevated to high art: that theme binds the unique coupling of Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s latest release of the Violin Concertos by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. The multi-faceted young American Teddy Abrams conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, making for a truly international collaboration. “There are few more interesting violinists on the worldwide scene than Rachel Barton Pine; she is continuously giving us interesting and well-researched and thought-out concept albums that stimulate the imagination, reinvigorate the ears, and put wrinkles in the brain with their intellectual depth.” (Audiophile Audition)

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REVIEW:

Barton Pine's fusion of rock-solid yet scintillating technique is allied to brilliant musicianship as well as intelligent and stimulating programming. The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

– MusicWeb International

Born in Weimar, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88) was the fifth child and second surviving son of JS Bach and his first wife Maria Barbara. By his own account he had no other teacher for composition and keyboard except his father. Nevertheless, the majority of Emanuel’s earliest works owe more to the influence of Telemann and other exponents of the new galant style, while already suggesting his own progressive instinct. At the age of twenty-four, after seven years studying law, Emanuel decided to devote himself to music. In 1738 he accepted the position of keyboard player at the court of the Prussian crown prince – the future Frederick the Great. After nearly thirty years of royal service he left Berlin and moved to Hamburg, where he occupied the positions of Music Director and Cantor until his death.

Described by the Guardian as a performer of “fearless intensity”, former ECHO Rising Star Tamsin Waley-Cohen has established herself as one of the most insightful and versatile young British violinists. Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’ James Baillieu has been the prize-winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Das Lied International Song Competition, Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Tauber Competitions.

REVIEWS:

This is a very good recording. The exquisite playing of Tamsin Waley-Cohen and James Baillieu is blessed with a nice acoustic and excellent recorded sound. The booklet notes by Philip Borg-Wheeler are quite good too. I find this new recording a little heavy in style, a little traditional if you like, in a manner that preceded the original-instrument movement. It is not the (excellent) performance, but the choice of instruments that I find too big: perfectly fine for those who prefer the bigger, bolder style of playing. The original-instrument brigade need to look somewhere else.

-- MusicWeb International

The loveliness is unceasing. The Arioso theme of the Variations in A (Wq79 H535) is enough to unharden the most hardened of hearts – and these eight bars alone make the entire listening experience worth it. Baillieu’s rhythmic variation in the repeat is lined with thoughtfulness and honesty, the subtlest smell of inégale lingers over his unraveling quavers, while Waley-Cohen purrs beneath with con sordino velvet. Three discs of wonderful music-making, enough to make any father proud.

-- Gramophone

The three great Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano certainly need no introduction. These are superb performances by violinist John Fadial and pianist Andrew Harley. Violinist John Fadial serves as Professor of Violin at the University of Wyoming. At the age of eleven, he performed for President Gerald Ford and since has appeared around the globe as chamber musician, soloist and pedagogue. His performances have been praised by the critics. “Sparkling Technique,” (L’Est Republicain) “Wow! Great Stuff,” (The Washington Post.) He has toured internationally for the US State Department as a United States Artistic Ambassador, and has served as Concertmaster of the North Carolina Opera, the Colorado Festival, ProMusica Colorado, the Menuhin Festival Orchestra of Saumur (France), the Heidelberg Schloss-Spiele (Germany), and Greensboro (NC) Symphony Orchestra (eighteen seasons). English pianist Andrew Harley enjoys an internationally recognized performing and teaching career. Specializing in instrumental chamber music and song literature, he has been heard in live broadcasts on national radio and television, as well as on numerous recordings.

The most beautiful polyphonic canzoni, chansons, motets and madrigals, were used like today's pop standards in the 16th century; musicians would improvise on them, tailoring their playing and imagination to each other. The colourful and varied selection of works on this recording is made up of different combinations of voices and instruments. A special aspect, a kind of renaissance violin band stands at the centre of this project: ensembles of violins were generally used to accompany certain moments in the Mass, at banquets, receptions, princely entertainments, entries into cities and palaces, diplomatic negotiations and sacred and secular processions as well as the long hours of dancing that followed the evening meal in northern Italy from the 1530s onwards, until the 1580s and 1590s announced the arrival of the new baroque style. The word Sonadori, the name of the ensemble, is Venetian in origin; the Scuole Grandi or confraternities there employed full-time ensembles of singers and musicians. The confraternity of San Rocco was the first to replace the older instruments such as the fiddle, harp and lute with sonadori nuovi - new players - of the violin in 1531.