The French composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, unlike his near-contemporary Bach, wrote music, and much of it, that, opposing the profound, inward-looking manner of Bach, exhibits a cheerful, somewhat superficial outlook very much interested in worldly matters of kings and courts. In the end, his efforts paid off handsomely, earning him today's equivalent of two million dollars during his life. His bold idea heard here, one that violated the composing precepts of his age, of scoring sonatas for two melodic instruments, are rounded off by later works of others using the same instrumentation.

This new SOMM release features two perennial favorites, the Glazunov and Dvorak Violin Concertos. They are often recorded together, deriving their inspiration from Russian Bohemia's musical heritage whilst still remaining close to Brahmsian Viennese traditions. Greek-born violinist Efi Christodoulou has been reviewd by The Strad as "a powerful violinist, demonstrating a high level of technical achievement" Efi is developing a career in the UK where she has recently given recitals at St. John's, Smith Square and Wigmore Hall.

Classical Music

Born into a musical Latvian family violinist Baiba Skride won First Prize at the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition, held annually in Belgium. Ms. Skride’s natural approach to her music making has endeared her to some of today’s most important conductors and orchestras. Following her debut at the BBC Proms with the Oslo Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko playing the Szymanowski Concerto No. 1, The Times noted, ‘Latvian violinist Baiba Skride sailed over the orchestra with long lines of melody, silver and sweet.’ She was immediately re-invited, and at the 2014 Proms played the Stravinsky Concerto with the BBC Symphony and Ed Gardner. Baiba Skride debut recording with Orfeo of the Szymanowski Concertos and Myths was nominated for the 2015 BBC Music Magazine Awards in the Concerto section. For her Orfeo CD follow up she has recorded two Scandinavian violin concertos truly exciting, fresh and innovative – Jean Sibelius’s well-loved concerto and Carl Nielsen’s unjustly neglected companion work – with the Tampere Philharmonic and conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Franziska Pietsch and Detlev Eisinger make their audite debut with the three sonatas for violin and piano by the great 19th c. Romanticist Edvard Grieg, who himself rated these three sonatas as amongst his best works. Violinist Franziska Pietsch gave her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin aged eleven, after which she regularly performed as a soloist in the GDR until leaving East Germany in 1986, enabling her to pursue a career in the West. Pianist Detlev Eisinger gave his first piano recital at age thirteen, his busy international career now almost three decades long.

Opposites in worldliness, Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) and Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) had in common their ages and the German tradition of music making and composing. Busoni, a tonality adherent, wrote with respect on atonality; Pfitzner lashed out in a fit of disrespect for both. Their violin sonatas have in common a virtuosic, difficult piano part, expected from the virtuoso Busoni, not so much from Pfitzner, merely a competent pianist himself. Both works are in three movements; Pfitzner’s however, is the more conservative work, written 20 years later. Played by Dauenhauer-Kuen.

Adrian Chandler, who founded the period-instrument ensemble La Serenissima 21 years ago, has produced a dozen enlightening, acclaimed, and award-winning albums for AVIE. After many years of anticipation, Ade turns his attention to the touchstone of Vivaldi’s concerto output, The Four Seasons. As one has come to expect, he brings something unique to an interpretation brimming with vitality and originality. Putting this most popular of classical works into context, Ade rounds out the recording with Vivaldi concertos for bassoon, including the famous La Notte, and world premiere recordings of two concertos for the violin in tromba marina, a hitherto obsolete instrument that was used during Vivaldi’s lifetime.

Music Director Emmanuel Krivine and the Luxembourg Philharmonic devote this CD to two emblematic, major works from late in Béla Bartók’s life: the Second Violin Concerto (1939) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1944). + For the Violin Concerto, both Zig-Zag Territoires and the Orchestra invited the Albanian-born Tedi Papavrami, an international soloist of high repute, artistic and intellectual standards to record this 20th c. masterpiece + Mr. Papavrami’s recent recording of Eugène Ysaÿe’s complete violin sonatas for ZZT received tremendous press notice, astonishing the critics.

This two-disc set, offering four, fine British 20th c. violin concertos by the composers Bax, Dyson, Veale and Bliss, is released in tribute to the late violinist Lydia Mordkovitch (1944-2014). • After her 1979 British debut, Ms. Mordkovitch became one of the first artists to record for Chandos, founded the same year. • During her UK residency of nearly thirty-five years, she devoted many of her sixty recordings to British repertoire. • A “charismatic performer and a faithful interpreter of a composer’s wishes.” (Guardian) • “… real flair and richness of tone…” (Gramophone) • Recorded 1995-2006.

Niccolò Paganini has been a figure of inspiration and speculation for countless musicians after him. Marieke Schneemann is by no means the first to play Paganini’s finger‐breaking Caprices on the flute, with all the necessary transpositions that requires, not to mention a virtuosity at least matching that required to play them on the violin, but she is the first to do so on a ‘period’ flute: a wooden conical ring‐keyed flute by Louis Lot, Paris, 1860. Ms. Schneemann has been first and foremost a musician in the Netherlands flourishing historically informed, period instrument movement.

You’re right, the world probably doesn’t need yet another Four Seasons, but if it did, this new production from the newly launched house label from the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra would definitely justify its existence by the effervescent, crisp, technically assured playing of violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and the equally vibrant, articulate orchestral ensemble. Back in the late 1980s I received a recording from an orchestra’s newly launched label—interestingly the orchestra was another "Philharmonia", the Philharmonia Virtuosi—and the repertoire was, you guessed it, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I had the same reaction then: do we need another version of this over-recorded warhorse? But it turned out to be one of the more exciting things I’d heard in months, and the recording propelled the orchestra and its new label to happy success for the next decade or so.

Blumenstock and the Philharmonia Baroque inject these familiar pieces with exceptional dynamism and dramatic force, but without resorting to anything vulgar or cheap. This is honest music-making, allowing us to hear these works as just great, virtuosic violin concertos—and if you doubt their ability to still excite, just listen to the opening Allegro of “L’estate” RV 315, or to the Presto of the same work. Hopefully the fortunes of that earlier Philharmonia Virtuosi release will translate to the same result for this first-rate orchestra, conductor, and soloist. Bravo!

– David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

With this recording of a selection of Franz Liszt’s music for violin and piano, Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen aim at expanding our understanding of the prolific composer whose style, especially later, evolved in a manner far ahead of its time. Liszt composed his first music for violin and piano as early as 1832, returning to this instrumental combination throughout his life. Some of the pieces are re-workings of earlier compositions. In the early Grand Duo concertant pure virtuosity and the joy of playing are to the fore, but in the late works Liszt takes us on a journey into his own innermost soul.

Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger, recently sought after in Israel by their most prominent orchestras, launches his latest recording with Jerusalem Symphony and conductor Doron Salomon. Felix Mendelssohn’s violin concerto in e, Op. 64 and Niels Gade’s violin concerto in d, Op. 56, whose general familiarity could not be more diverging, nevertheless have common ground in musical design as well as in personal and artistic matters: Gade, a close friend of Mendelssohn, substituted and later succeeded him in the position of Leipzig Gewandhaus chief conductor.

Augustin Hadelich’s first major concerto recording paired the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Thomas Adès (AV 2276). Universally acclaimed, it was nominated for a Gramophone Award, was one of The New York Times’ Top Classical Albums of the Year, and was chosen by National Public Radio as one of the broadcaster’s 50 Favorite Albums of 2014, a list that included all genres of music. Augustin follows up with another provocative pairing, the ever-popular and melodious Mendelssohn with Bartók’s iconic Second Violin Concerto. Augustin revels in the concertos’ contrasts, as well as the similarities that emerge when the works are played together. Augustin’s penchant for programming has quickly caught on; as BBC Radio 3’s CD Review noted of the Adès-Sibelius coupling, “It all makes perfect sense in this performance of [Adès’] ‘Concentric Paths’ which in turn makes more sense of the performance of the Sibelius Concerto. It really does work as a double header.” Augustin’s latest, in which he’s superbly supported by his frequent collaborator Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, is sure to strike a significant chord as well.

Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 23 in A minor seems to portray the darker side of love, it's unfulfillment, whereas the later Op. 24, the so-called spring sonata - as a sort of characterization of a loving heart's feeling of spring - references the sweet, beautiful aspects of love. Irnberger and Michael Korstick furthermore present the variations Se vuol ballare WoO 40 on a theme from the opera Le nozze di Figaro, which Beethoven dedicated to his beloved Eleonore von Breuning, which leads to all those pieces having been written thinking of beloved women. The likes of J�rg Demus, Evgueni Sinaiski, and Paul Badura-Skoda, as well the Israel Chamber Orchestra / conductor Roberto Paternostro and the orchestra 'Spirit of Europe' / conductor Martin Sieghart have stressed the young Thomas Albertus Irnberger's musical skill. Michael Korstick studied with J�rgen Tr�ster in Cologne, Hans Leygraf in Hanover, and Sascha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School. For his CD recordings, he has been awarded the 'Echo Klassik Prize', the Prize of German Record Critics, several times and the MIDEM Classical Award.