Fernandes: Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata / Damas, Tomasik, Ray / Composer: Armando Jos� Fernandes / Performer: Carlos Damas, Anna Tomasik / Conductor: Emily Ray / Orchestra/Ensemble: San Jose Mission Chamber Orchestra / Number of Discs: 1. Armando Jos� Fernandes was a celebrated composer, musician and radio broadcaster in 20th-century Portugal. He was an integral member of the 'Grupo dos Quatro' - alongside Jorge Croner de Vasconcelos, Fernando Lopes-Gra�a and Pedro do Prado - which exerted substantial influential over Portuguese music in the mid-1900s. Violinist Carlos Damas made his solo debut aged just 15 with the Portuguese National Broadcasting Radio Symphony Orchestra. Among his more recent achievements is the release of an hugely successful CD featuring the works of Fritz Kreisler, which has been praised by The Strad as one of the best Kreisler discs on the market. Recorded in 2012. Armando Jos� Fernandes was one of the most important composers of 20th century Portugal. His musical language, based on an extended tonality, is influenced by Ravel and Debussy, with occasional hints of expressionism and even a touch of moody Shostakovich. Nevertheless there is a southern vitality in the basically romantic heart of this fascinating composer, whose works we hear for the first time on CD. Carlos Damas made his debut as a soloist at the age of 15, with the National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal. His successful career brought him all over the world, and his recordings won universal praise. The Strad named his Kreisler CD "one of the best". For Brilliant Classics he recorded works by Antonio Fragoso (BC 94158).

Classical Music

•This recording features Tedi Papavrami playing the solo violin Sonatas of Eugene Ysaÿe, an extraordinary violinist who in his time played a role comparable to that of Paganini in his. Ysaÿe dedicated each of these sonatas individually to a famous violin virtuoso of his time (Szigeti, Thibaud, Kreisler...). Maintaining an active career as a solo and chamber musician since the 1990's, Mr. Papavrami was appointed violin professor at the Haute École de Musique de Genève in 2008.

Classical Music

"Ottorino Respighi’s Sonata was completed in 1917 and by Respighi himself the following year. Many years later, Jascha Heifetz included this Sonata in his repertoire. Respighi's work remains firmly within the boundaries of romanticism. Although Schumann later entirely rewrote the stylistically diffuse FAE Sonata, the recording presented here is of the original triple-composed, Joachim-dedicated work."

Some violinists places their bets on bravura for their debut, others rely on seriousness. Tobias Feldmann, not yet 25, goes the whole hog: on his first GENUIN CD the heavyweights alternate with the bravura display pieces - Eugène Ysaye and the magical sleight of hand for violin by Franz Waxman – his Carmen Fantasy was composed for Jascha Heifetz. Commanding superior technique and natural musicianship, the multi-prize winner and former concertmaster presents himself here as a mature artist!

Violinist Augustin Hadelich is one of the fastest-rising stars of his generation. With three critically acclaimed and Billboard-charting releases on AVIE to his credit, he now delivers what promises to be one of the most important concerto recordings of the year, pairing the Violin Concertos by Jean Sibelius and Thomas Adès, the latter only the second recording of the composer's work. He is superbly supported by Hannu Lintu conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Describing his decision to couple Sibelius with Adès, Augustin says, "Programmes I like most are ones where the pieces are connected, but in a subtle way. As we listen to an apparently contrasting programme, we notice similarities--we hear phrase shapes, harmonies, rhythms, and colours in one piece that remind us of something that we heard in the other. The deep, rumbling timpani and low winds in the Sibelius concerto bridge the gap to the Adès, a work which also explores the lowest depths of the sound spectrum, creating chasms over which the violinist performs a tight-rope act. The intensely emotional first and second movements of the Sibelius, and the even more extreme and heart-wrenching second movement of the Adès, create another such connection. Both composers love playing with complex rhythms: Sibelius sticks to polyrhythms, while Adès really pushes the envelope having the solo violin and orchestra play in different meters--or even at different tempi! The dances in the last movement of the Sibelius have a counterpart in the almost tribal-sounding last movement of the Adès. There are many other such comparisons, and, in my view, combining these concertos on one recording makes each one shine in a way that they wouldn't without the other." Augustin rounds out the recording with Three Humoresques by Sibelius. The release will be supported by a major publicity and marketing campaign, and a performance of the Adès with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. critical acclaim for Augustin Hadelich "Here is a young artist with no evident limitations." - The New Yorker

No division between 'absolute' and 'applied' music -- that's the way it has always been for Manuel de Sica. Here we have the chance to explore the oeuvre of this contemporary Italian composer, best known for his contributions to the world of film; Il giardino dei Finzi Contini, the last track on the release, won an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.

Much of De Sica's work centres around the themes of pain and suffering, where music is invested with the power to help alleviate the indifference that surrounds so much human grief -- thus pieces such as In memoriam and Kojiki, the latter of which was inspired by the bombing of Pearl Harbour -- look to console and redeem. Also included on the set are the Concerto for violin and strings, which pays homage to two of the most important influences on the composer's style -- Berg and Bartók -- and Una breve vacanza, the leitmotif of the like-named film directed by De Sica's father and, by the composer's own admission, one of his most beautiful melodies. Filmusic, a three-part concertino with a Russian-inspired first movement and swirling tarantella-based finale, completes the line-up.

Performing this music is the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, one of Italy's most important symphony orchestras and which has appeared under conductors of the calibre of Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel and Kurt Masur -- to name but a few. The ensemble provides the background to a wonderfully lively instrumental fantasy in which the harp, violin, viola and piano -- here astutely performed Floraleda Sacchi, Maristella Patuzzi, Anna Serova and Michelangelo Carbonara respectively -- becomes the soloists in a fascinating, wide-reaching musical fabric. Flavio Emilio Scogna conducts.

Other information:
- Recorded 27 & 28 May 2013, Centro di Produzione Musicale della Filarmonica Toscanini, Parma.
- Manuel de Sica's music is difficult to categorise, and that in itself is its strength: it seamlessly crosses borders between "serious" and "light" music, touches on tragic events (a memoriam for the victims of the earthquake of Abruzzo and Emilia), and illuminates films. The diversity of De Sica's inspirations (Maderna, Berg, Bartók, Mancini) points at his eclectic and unconventional style. - The works on this CD are concertante works for a variety of solo instruments: violin, viola, harp and piano.
- Music of immediate appeal, a source of beauty and inspiration!
- Excellent performances by the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, conducted by Flavio Emilio Scogna.
- Liner notes by the composer and orchestra biography.

A four-work recital of significant modern-era works for solo violin. Violinist Daniel Stepner is first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet. Teaches at both Brandeis and Harvard Universities. Formerly concertmaster, Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, for more than twenty years, under Christopher Hogwood and Grant Llewellyn.

• A varied collection of contemporary works for violin. • Violinst Jacob Murphy and pianist Jameson Cooper are supported by a group of superb additional musicians.

• Genoan 18th century composer Gaspard Fritz's op. 3 sonatas display influences of French elegance and English entertainment music. • Newly recorded in 2013. • Booklet notes in English, French and German.

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto. BERG Violin Concerto • Antje Weithaas (vn); Steven Sloane, cond; Stavanger SO • AVI 8553305 (67:51)


Violinist Antje Weithaas’s pairing of Beethoven’s and Berg’s violin concertos isn’t the first, even in recent memory—Isabelle Faust did so, for example, with Claudio Abbado on Harmonia Mundi 902105 ( Fanfare 35:6). Arabella Steinbacher also programmed the two works, with Andris Nelsons conducting the WDR SO (Orfeo, 778 091, Fanfare 33:4)—which, incidentally, at 75:22, lasted almost eight minutes longer than Weithaas’s performances—and Audite released a pair of older readings by Christian Ferras of the two works with different conductors. Weithaas asks in the booklet notes for the reason for yet another recording of Beethoven’s Concerto and gives a sort of answer—she believes that she’s found something personal to say in (through?) it. She plays a violin made by Peter Greiner in 2001; and, in doing so, joins a number of intrepid artists willing to espouse the productions of contemporary violin makers. That violin itself deserves attention, because of the bright, silvery sound she draws from it, one that’s generally more than captivating (the engineers have made a contribution to its effect, of course). And, with it, she does manage, as she seems to have hoped, to express a message that, while it may in itself not be so original, yet features many nuances that do from moment to moment in the first movement, in passagework and in cantabile, repeatedly bring something unexpected for the listener to ponder. Her tempos in the first movement remain on the quick side, but that’s no hindrance to the music’s profundity, as Jascha Heifetz and Aaron Rosand have shown. She sounds at times commanding and at times like pure quicksilver in the cadenza, which introduces timpani (as did Beethoven’s own for his piano transcription of the concerto), and the effect is electrifying. (Isabelle Faust, Ji?í B?lohlávek and the Prague Philharmonia, Harmonia Mundi 90194, Fanfare 32:4, also gave an electrifying account of the cadenza.) The purity of tone that graced Weithaas’s reading of the first movement plays an even more central role in the slow one. Anne-Sophie Mutter dug for more individuality and depth in the movement’s preternaturally still sections with what sounded like warped tools; Weithaas does so without a trace of eccentricity, either stylistic or timbral. While the soloist combines fluidity in statements of the finale’s main subject matter with confident declamation in the episodes (while interspersing a large number of striking cadenzas), Steven Sloane and the orchestra make the tuttis, as in the first movement, authoritatively explosive, but at the same time achieve admirable clarity of detail. Which would be the greater arrogance, to release yet another recording of Beethoven’s work or to believe yourself capable of doing so? Weithaas may be guilty on both counts, but she acquits herself of all charges with a convincing performance that combines light and dark in a delightfully individual way.


Weithaas and Sloane also adopt a quick tempo in the first half of Alban Berg’s Concerto’s first movement, a tempo that, perhaps surprisingly, does little to disperse its mists and brings passages together for listeners in a fresh way (recall the famous, perceptually ambiguous, duck-rabbit). As in one of the outstanding early recordings of the work, that by André Gertler (Angel 3509, released on CD as Hungaroton 31635), the engineers have placed the violin within the orchestral web, and make a strong case for it belonging there. Sloane and the orchestra revel in the shifting timbres of the first movement’s scherzo-like second half but build to an almost terrifying climax near the middle. Weithaas slashes more savagely than Gertler did in the opening of the second movement’s first half (and Sloane extracts more disturbing dissonances from the orchestra than did Paul Kletzki in that recording). And they create, in the tragedy at the end of that half, a terrifying sense of existential Angst . And in embellishing the chorale tune ( Es ist genug ) that Berg spun out of his tone row, Weithaas and Sloane evince an almost chamber-like intimacy.


Previous experience with Weithaas’s recordings made the arrival of this one for review particularly intriguing, raising the highest expectations. Each and every aspect of the release (including the prepossessing tone of Greiner’s violin) has met, and even exceeded, those expectations. A recording of special merit, it deserves a place on every record shelf. Urgently recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Juozas Gruodis (1884-1948) was one of the most eminent and original Lithuanian composers of the first half of the 20th century. His emergence into the musical life of the time was as a promoter of progressive artistic ideas and, as such, he was determined to raise the level of the budding Lithuanian professional music scene to European standards. Gruodis' musical career spanned almost five decades, from the years prior to the declaration of Lithuania's independence in 1918 to the beginning of the Second Soviet Occupation in 1944.

Classical Music

During the preparations for the recording of Concertos for Children, I remembered my very first steps in violin playing and the emotions which are an inseparable part of public performances. I still have fresh in my memory the joy and excitement which accompanied me during my performances, particularly in the first stage of my musical education. I would like the enthusiasm of music-making to be shared by all young musicians, no matter how their careers develop in the future. I hope that this CD with Concertos for Children will help music-school students to prepare for the requirements of the concert stage, at the same time allowing other listeners to recall the joyful and carefree time of their childhood.'