Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (18431907) is famous for compositional masterpieces in a variety of different genres, such as piano concerto, orchestral suites, short piano pieces, and songs. Yet Grieg wrote curiously little instrumental chamber music. In fact, only six compositions for chamber music constellations exist, counting also the incomplete string quartet in F major. The violin sonatas thus make up half of his chamber music output, and all three sonatas are important contributions to the repertoire for violin and piano duo. No. 3, the C minor sonata, is widely considered one of Grieg's greatest works, and its tremendous popularity has indeed tended to overshadow the recognition of his two earlier works throughout the reception history of Grieg’s oeuvre.

We are proud to release the first disc of Baroque violinist Eva Saladin on Challenge Classics. For her debut on our label, Eva has chosen the scantly known sonatas by Pandolfi Mealli, an apparently marginal figure in the richest violin landscape of the 17th Century However Pandolfi Mealli was indeed a uique composer, the only one who was able to combine the Italian school of the first half of the century (Castello, Marini) with the later Austrian flowering (Biber, Schmelzer). The sonatas recorded here were published in 1660 and carry a wide range of characters and atmosphere, a diversity enhanced by the different combinations of continuo chosen by Eva Saladin.

New Jersey-born George Antheil travelled to Europe in 1922 determined to become ‘noted and notorious’. The first three violin sonatas come from this period, with the eclectic Violin Sonata No. 1 displaying the fiercely barbaric influence of Stravinsky, the more jazzy No. 2 developing experiments in ‘musical cubism’ and the Violin Sonata No. 3 achieving a synthesis of Stravinskyian rhythms and Antheil’s more song-like tendencies. The later No. 4 is built on Classical and Baroque models.

REVIEW:

There’s a distinctly Kurt Weill vibe to the first sonata. Even here, in the midst of this Weill-like music, Antheil throws in one of his patented moto perpetuo passages set to a stiff, mechanical rhythm, his trademark in the ‘20s. Even in the slow movement, Antheil indulges in stiff rhythms, microtonal string glissandi for the violinist, and utterly strange musical progressions. Only in the third movement, marked “Funèbre, lento espressive,” does one encounter a relatively normal-sounding theme – but not for long. After the first minute, it gets the Antheil treatment.

The second and third sonatas are each only one movement. The second sonata, though not truly jazz-influenced, is clearly syncopated in a sort of ragtime manner but with skewed, asymmetric rhythm patterns and constantly shifting harmonies. Interestingly, the pianist also plays drums on this one (in the last passage), and there is a brief passage in tango rhythm. I really loved this piece because it tied so many different influences together!

Although written just one year later, the third sonata already shows a development in Antheil’s style. The music is a bit more linear and cohesive and less dependent on steadily-repeated hard rhythmic riffs. Indeed, this is clearly a kinder, gentler George Antheil.

The last sonata dates from 1947–48, by which time Antheil had mellowed somewhat, but he still wrote occasional pieces related to his early works, and this particular violin sonata is one of them. Yet there is clearly a difference. Instead of writing odd themes which are juxtaposed against one another, Antheil figured out a way to remain himself yet still write music that developed in a semi-traditional manner. In a way, then, this sonata is, if not more interesting than the first two, clearly more cohesive. The early sonatas are clearly fun to listen to despite their being a bit disjointed, but this sonata has both innovative ideas and a clear form. Oddly, the last movement, a “Toccata-Rondo,” bears a striking resemblance to Prokofiev, except that at times Antheil’s rhythms appear to be running backwards rather than forwards.

Happily, Yang and Rimmer give everything they have to this project, which is considerable. AS in the case of Yang’s Ysaÿe sonatas, I have no hesitation in recommending this splendid CD.

-- The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

Following the release of The Complete Chamber Music Works of Johannes Brahms which has received critical acclaim, Pierre and Théo Fouchenneret have laid the foundation stone of a Schumann Collection with this inaugural volume dedicated to the composer’s violin works. To complement the trilogy of Sonatas for Violin and Piano is the Concerto, an essential link in the repertoire, performed with the collaboration of the Normandy Regional Orchestra and its musical director Jean Deroyer.

Frank Almond’s life is intertwined with that of his violin, the “Lipin´ski” Strad, an exceptional instrument named for the famed 19th-century Polish violinist Karol Lipin´ski and first owned by legendary 18th-century Italian composer-violinist Giuseppe Tartini, represented on A Violin’s Life, Volume 3 by his Sonata Prima in D, Op. 2, a trio sonata in all but name. The masterful Piano Trio in E flat by 19th-century Swedish virtuosa Amanda Meier connects with the instrument that had passed on to her future father-in-law Engelbert Ro¨ntgen. Another great Nordic composer, Edvard Grieg, opens the album with his great Sonata No. 3 in C minor.

The legend of the Lipin´ski Strad went viral in 2014 when, following a concert, walking towards his car, Frank Almond was tasered by an assailant and the prized instrument was stolen. An FBI pursuit resulted in the recovery of the instrument within weeks. International media ensued on the BBC, NPR, and a feature in Vanity Fair. An award-winning documentary film “Plucked” premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Frank Almond’s critically acclaimed and chart-topping recordings of A Violin’s Life are now a trilogy. The “Lipin´ski” Strad lives on.

The only available complete recording of a hugely influential set of Baroque trio sonatas by a northern-Italian pioneer of the genre. Unrivalled in its breadth, renowned for reviving countless names of the past in authoritative new recordings, the Baroque-music catalogue of Brilliant Classics welcomes a significant new name to its long list of forgotten composers: Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589–1630). Born in Brescia, dying in nearby Padova, Fontana is known for a single major publication, a collection of 18 Sonate a 1, 2, 3 per il violino o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro instromento, published posthumously in Venice in 1641. The Italian early-music Lux Terrae ensemble presents a new recording of the complete set, demonstrating its foundational significance within the rich history of the Italian trio sonata as a genre. As in the chiaroscuro technique in painting, that defines images through the play of of light and shade, Fontana uses a musical chiaroscuro that lends theatricality and dynamism to these sonatas through a dialectic of contrasts and resolutions between contrasting idioms. All 18 sonatas follow a single-movement form, divded into contrasting sections. Their melodic material breathes the cantabile air of the 17th-century canzona or the dance and sometimes recurs, invariably elaborated, to form a simple arch design. Sonatas Nos. 2 and 6, on the other hand, comprise sections that grow out of recitative-like monody interspersed with freer instrumental flourishes, but subdivisions in dance-like triple metre are rarely absent for long. Lux Terrae is led from the violin by the Italian-trained Bolivian violinist Neyza Copa, who also introduces these Baroque rarities in a booklet essay. For her, Fontana’s sonatas shine as ‘a real jewel of the early Baroque, both in terms of the stylistic evolution of instrumental composition, and the development of an idiomatic language for the violin… Fontana is probably the most important composer of early Baroque violin music.’

The Spanish violinist Pablo Suárez presents the complete collection of the Six sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach founded on one of his most profound, ambitious and personal approaches, Sei Solo. Sei Solo is a proposal including not only the performance of the composer’s original music, but also the contributions offered by the researcher Helga Thoene which are based on the discovery of the possible existence, among some of the movements, of chorales by the composer himself. For this, she has counted on the collaboration of the soprano Manon Chauvin, the countertenor Gabriel Díaz, the tenor Fran Braojos, the bass Simón Millán, and the cellist Marco Pannaría.

The delicate textures of the vocal registers, combined with the solemnity of the cello, represent a perfect complement for this original purpose. With this idea, the Madrid-born musician introduces himself into the most intimate, human, introspective and sentimental language of the German composer’s personality, grounding his interpretation on a wide spectrum of colours, essences, nuances and timbres provided both by the placement of gut strings in the instrument used (a Nicola Gagliano violin dated 1780 in Naples) and by the natural acoustics of the environment selected for this project (the interior of the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Paz in the town of Gójar in Granada). The sonority, which has been created taking into consideration characteristics quite similar to those that could be found in 18th century instruments, finds its particular personality in parameters such as luminosity, clarity, definition and direction, through a performance in which excellent technical mastery, together with marvelous control in the development of the music, allow harmonic, melodic, affective and sensorial gestures to predominate at all times.

After 9CD in memoriam "inédits et introuvables" (RH-019), this is another treasure recording of Ivry Gitlis. From the never published studio recording in Denmark. With Natalia Likhopoi (Great Russian violinist Viktor Tretiakov's wife), Gitlis plays Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor.

“Welcome to the infinite violin world of Ysaÿe's music. Everything that Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) wrote enriches our violin literature in an unprecedented way. Since each sonata is dedicated to a particular violinist, each work has a correspondingly unrepeatable, individual character. To emphasize this even more clearly, I decided to record each work in a different Viennese ambience. Multifaceted and courageous, uncompromisingly following his ideas of how the violin can and should sound – he also opens up an unlimited horizon for us, the performers, to 'embody' these sounds.” Elena Denisova; Since her first encounter with the violin Elena Denisova engaged in widening and exploring her interpretation. Interpretation does not only mean the consequent and perfect execution of the score, but also translating the musical context in a subjective but essential way for each listener. Music which can deliver “raison d'être” lives from this inherent commitment. There are no accidental symbols – not notes, not pauses –, rather everything leads to a vivid choreography by the interpreter. Each movement of the musical line is accompanied by a representative expression. These interactions were comprehended and broadened throughout many years. The two latest CD productions, Chandoshkins violin sonatas on the one hand (DEKA media, DMCD008) and Max Regers violin concerto in transcription by Rudolf Kolisch on the other (ORF, CD 351, Limited Edition). The former was presented at the newspaper “Presse” as CD of the week. Further on short films with unusual atmospheres and motives, the characterizing of four valuable violins in the "four seasons" of Vivaldi, duets with tenor Carry Persson and progressive movies like "Paganihilismo" with music by Dieter Kaufmann provide a worldwide spread of her art. Composer Dieter Kaufmann writes: “...and she is also the sensation of these production, the violinist Elena Denisova. Through her personality the violin universe comes alive, the music on the paper 'a beautiful mute with eyes full of meaning' (Sartre about Mona Lisa) steps out of its boundaries and spreads its wings through time and space.”

Nielsen’s epic Violin Concerto was premiered in Copenhagen in February 1912, by violinist Peder Møller. Nominally the work is set in two movements; both open with a slow section and move to a faster one. Whilst unusual, this could be seen as a more usual fast – slow – fast three movement form, but with an extensive slow introduction to the first movement. The music moves quickly from one idea to the next, and overall has a bold, playful and optimistic feel. In stark contrast, although written only a few years later, the fourth symphony is more cohesive and unified as a work.

Written against the background of the first world war, the work is a celebration of life itself. Just before the premier in 1916, Nielsen described it as: ‘Music is Life, and, like it, inextinguishable.’ Composed in the usual four movement form, each movement continues from the last without a break. The final movement features two sets of timpani battling each other across the orchestra. The recording was made in Bergen’s Grieghallen, in Surround Sound, and is available as a hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.

REVIEWS:

Nielsen's Violin Concerto couldn’t have a better advocate than James Ehnes: strong in his lyricism when he needs to be, alert to all dynamics and a sense of fantasy which is outstanding in the two cadenzas.

-- BBC Music Magazine

James Ehnes – that most elegant and unflashy of players – seems to relish all that is unexpected about the piece...Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic give it real backbone and play like its greatest champions.

-- Gramophone

In Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, Gardner succeeds handily. The orchestra plays outstandingly well for him in all departments and he keeps the symphony moving. This is appropriate because all the movements are connected. I found his slightly quicker tempo for the second movement convincing with the woodwinds as delectable as one would expect and the dynamics quieter than in some recordings.

-- MusicWeb International

“The artist's first task is to forget himself.” This statement, bold in its time, has been ascribed to Eugène Ysaÿe, referred to as the “King of the Violin”, who as a composer and performer considerably contributed to the modernization of violin playing. In 1923, he was so deeply impressed by J. S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, as performed by Joseph Szigeti, that within a few hours (!) he sketched a set of six sonatas as a counterpart to Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006. Ysaÿe dedicated each of his sonatas to a superb contemporary violinist, tailoring it to his style. Technically reaching the limits of the instrument, the pieces placed enormous requirements on the dedicatees (Szigeti, Thibaud, Enescu, Kreisler, Crickboom, Quiroga), yet they remain challenging for the violinists of today.

One hundred years after Ysaÿe created the set of six sonatas, this formidable task has been undertaken by the outstanding young Czech virtuoso Daniel Matejča, the winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition (2022), Telemann Violin Competition (Poznan 2020) and Jugend musiziert (Halle 2019). Matejča studied with such distinguished violinists as Boris Belkin and Christian Tetzlaff, and, after collaborating to acclaim with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, has been invited to perform with other renowned orchestras. Supraphon has shifted the 100-year-old concept to the 21st century and commissioned a composition that would reflect Ysaÿe’s sonatas, as well as young violinists’ musicality and virtuosity. Jana Vöröšová’s Obsession II is both answer and challenge. Ysaÿe’s sonatas – a cherished challenge for the young virtuoso Daniel Matejča.

On this critically-acclaimed recording, Arabella Steinbacher brings together Bruch’s world famous First Violin Concerto with Chausson’s lush Poème and Korngold’s Violin Concerto, which is gradually gaining ground as a twentieth-century masterpiece. Steinbacher is joined by the Orquestra Gulbenkian under the baton of Lawrence Foster, with whom she has developed a congenial musical partnership over the years. BBC Music Magazine commented that “there is no doubting Steinbacher’s refulgent sound or the flair of her delivery” while MusicWeb International praised “the tingling climax of this Chausson.”

After a temporary absence, this album now returns to the physical market in an affordable Stereo re-issue. Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive Pentatone discography spanning more than a decade. Lawrence Foster and the Orquestra Gulbenkian are also longstanding partners of the label.

Excerpt from review of the original SACD version of this release:

There is no doubting Steinbacher's refulgent sound or the flair of her delivery.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The Baroque dream team of Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout interpret the astonishing music of C.P.E. Bach’s Violin Sonatas in C Minor, B Minor, D Major and G Minor. The two early sonatas here from the 1730s resemble the older style of his father. Listening to these works, you can imagine J.S. Bach glancing over Emanuel's shoulders while he wrote them as a teenager at home in Leipzig. The later sonatas, written 30 to 50 years later, reveal an emancipated composer whose developed musical language embodies the 'Empfindsamer Stil', the directly emotional and rhetorical style characteristic of northern-german music of the time.

Rachel Podger writes: “It was wonderful to delve into the specific musical world that belongs to C.P.E. Bach for this recording with Kris. These violin sonatas are (quite unfortunately!) largely overshadowed by the classical Viennese sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. Part of his genius is that he is full of surprises and unpredictable turns, and this was hugely enjoyable for me during the musical partnership with the wonderful Kristian Bezuidenhout.”

REVIEWS:

Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout are performers of the highest level of technical polish, and I am especially impressed by Bezuidenhout’s imaginative and assertive pianism. Podger’s violin was built by the Genoese maker Antonio Pazarini (Pesarinius) in 1739. Excellent sound from Channel as usual.

-- American Record Guide

Across the later sonatas Kristian Bezuidenhout and Rachel Podger savor the qualities of coaxing, pleading, playfulness, and arresting quirkiness that signal their identification with the so-called Empfindsamer Stil. But nothing is ever cut and dried. The keyboard opening of the B minor Sonata, composed some three decades after its G minor cousin, sounds like a throwback to the teenage work. And, rich in Empfindsamer fingerprints, the Arioso with five variations proves to be a 1780 respray of an earlier work.

At one level, Bezuidenhout and Podger help to pinpoint the chronology, allotting a handsome-sounding copy of an 1805 Walther fortepiano to the later works and a Taskin-inspired harpsichord to the products of the 1730s. It’s just one example of the thoughtfulness with which they approach a set of performances that are as equally persuasive in the bustling, youthful incisiveness of the G minor and D major Sonatas, as in the pristinely-paced, probingly expressive whimsy of the Arioso. Their music-making is infectiously spontaneous yet tellingly ‘considered’ – seamless rapport and impeccably-judged articulation delighting in a stream of illuminating felicities. CPE Bach’s free-spirited sonatas have surely found their free-spirited match.

-- BBC Music Magazine

This is how it’s done, my friends. A completely scrumptious new release from the queen of the Baroque violin, Rachel Podger. In partnership with keyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Rachel gives to us a bit over an hour of completely entrancing music by the often underestimated Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

There should be nothing underestimated about these keyboard and violin sonatas. They are imaginative, innovative, sublime. Add to this the impeccable performances, with that breath of life Rachel delivers so well in all of her performances, the excellent partnership with Kristian Bezuidenhout, and the utterly delightful recording quality from Jared Sacks, and one has an album to savor again and again. It is a must listen recording.

There is pure joy in Podger's performances, one feels her connection with music, the composer, and her audience. Kristian Bezuidenhout is her perfect partner in these works, As with Podger, his playing is not tied to a metronome. He plays, as does she, with a degree of improvisational exploration that makes these works far more interesting than in many other hands.

Listening to them together, one feels their connection in this music. I was particularly struck by this in their excellent performance of the Sonata in C minor which fairly danced with barely contained energy in the final Presto movement – their timing together is exquisite.

The shift from harpsichord to fortepiano and back again adds great interest to the recital. With the change in instruments, the texture of the sound changes. The balance of the violin and the keyboard shifts. Hard to accomplish in a live performance, but a delightful gift across the breadth of this recording.

-- Paul Rushton of Positive Feedback

This is Naxos’s fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. He was GRAMMY-nominated for his album Violins of Hope (Naxos 8.559809) and is among the most frequently performed of living composers. The themes of these recent works are remembrance, memorialization, and hopefulness. Elegy addresses ideas of harmony and discord through contrasting thematic ideas. The Violin Concerto No. 2 follows the ‘symphony-concerto’ model with a resonant and lyrical slow movement inspired by Jewish mysticism at its core. Pulsating harmonies eventually subside into serene and hopeful writing in Of Thee I Sing, written in an act of creative transcendence to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Learn more in this Roundtable Discussion, which Arkiv co-hosted with Naxos! 

...and learn more about the release on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

REVIEW:

Listening to Jonathan Leshnoff’s hauntingly beautiful Elegy, and then going on to listen to the superbly inventive Violin Concerto, one is again reminded that Leshnoff occupies a special niche among solidly established contemporary American composers: he inhabits a world of tonality and yet manages to say something unheard before with each note of music he pens.

The sterling violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley delivers an elegantly energetic reading of the concerto, supported by Alexander Mickelthwate at the helm of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

The orchestra and maestro Mickelthwate again excel in the emotionally charged Of Thee I Sing, accompanied by the highly accomplished vocal ensemble Canterbury Voices. Leshnoff sets the text of Samuel Francis Smith’s 1831 poem America to now anguished, now healing music that depicts the impact on the country following the tragic Oklahoma City bombing.

Many composers have rightfully refused to burden their art with any moral function. Inversely shunning art for art’s sake, Jonathan Leshnoff keeps company with some composers of the past by providing music that illuminates the human condition with art that compassionately heals the spirit. This listener cannot think of a higher calling.

-- All About the Arts (Rafael de Acha)

Even a cursory listen of Leshnoff's music reveals why his music resonates so powerfully with musicians and audiences. He's no iconoclast but rather someone who builds upon established traditions with works rich in harmony, lyricism, melody, and structural poise. His is an oft-eloquent music characterized by directness of expression, rhythmic propulsion, and introspection, and all such elements are accounted for in the recent works featured on the release. It also holds the distinction of being the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's first full-length album recording since its 1988 formation. It goes without saying that their superb presentation of Leshnoff's material flatters both composer and performer.

-- Textura

The start of a major new series on Brilliant Classics – historically informed accounts of the violin sonatas by a Classical-era master of Rococo charm and invention.

Luigi Boccherini, still in his mid-20s, dedicated his Op. 5 violin sonatas to the Parisian keyboard soloist Mme. Brillon de Jouy. As a result, the keyboard is more than an equal partner with the most showy writing, in the style of the sonatas ‘for piano and violin’ by both Mozart and Beethoven. Boccherini himself thought well enough of these works to draw from them many times throughout his career. Movements from these sonatas appear in reworked guises in other chamber works and symphonies.

The other sonatas here came into being later in Boccherini’s career as arrangements of other works by Boccherini made by publishers eager to capitalise on the fame and industry of a composer renowned throughout Europe for his attractive melodic fluency Several of them are transcriptions of his cello sonatas, though whether the arrangements were made by the composer himself remains a mystery. Other sonatas were skilfully put together from his many string quintets; they made Boccherini’s music accessible to those who could not perform the ensemble works in their original versions. Brilliant Classics has produced the largest ever collection of Boccherini’s works on record with its 37CD edition, which won stunning reviews in the international press. This new set of violin sonatas becomes a vital addition to the Boccherini library of collectors. Each new album by the period-instrument violinist Igor Ruhadze has likewise attracted critical praise, not least in his regular partnership with the Russian-born pianist and harpsichordist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya. Their recording of F.Geminiani Violin Sonatas op.1 received warm critical praise.

REVIEWS:

The Six Sonatas Op. 5 for harpsichord with violin accompaniment, published in Paris in 1768, constitute the only authentic examples intended by Boccherini for this instrumental combination. The keyboard style, highly idiomatic with its scales, triplets and broken octaves, the pre-Romantic atmosphere of the slow movements as well as the quality of the melodic and rhythmic elements, excited Europe. If Boccherini did not entrust anything else to this instrumental combination, then editors remedied this by generating several transcriptions. It is this unprecedented wealth that Brilliant intends to explore here – other volumes are expected.

The pianoforte of Alexandra Nepomnyaschchaya does not dethrone, in Opus 5, that of Franco Angeleri (Tactus, 1990) who followed the autograph manuscript of Parma in the company of Enrico Gatti. The chiseled refinement like the incisive dynamic of the touch, the expressive restraint of the violin expressed in the two Italians an unequaled feeling and sharing. Among the newcomers, the seduction is more demonstrative, the contrasts more accentuated, the sensuality and the feeling more showy, as in the Allegro maestoso of No. 6 or the Allegro molto of No. 5. Above all, the Andante of No. 4, just whispered by Angeleri and Gatti, gains an indescribable beauty.

The movements of trios, quartets and quintets reduced by Mlle. Le Jeune (Vénier, Paris, 1782) are a happy surprise. The distribution of voices is skillful. The infinite delicacy of the Andante sostenuto of Sonata G 51 is truly worthy of Boccherini. Certainly, the Amoroso of the G 52 and the Allegro con spirito of the G 53 have charm. No repeat being forgotten, some movements seem a little long. Sometimes a simple foil to the pianoforte, Igor Ruhadze takes his revenge in the Six Sonatas for violin and basso continuo (La Chevardière, Paris, 1775). The Sonatas for cello and basso continuo G 20 are the most emblematic of Boccherini. It is magnificent in places (Largo de la no 5) but above all exotic (no 6, after the famous G 4). The violin, with sober and clear diction, is supported by a balanced bass entrusted to the cello continuo and the harpsichord. Looking forward to the sequel!

-- Diapason