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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Joseph Achron: Complete Suites for Violin & Piano
Achron, J: | Hebrew Melody, Op. 33 Hebrew Pieces (2), Op. 35 Eli Zion Prelude, Op. 13 Souvenir de Varsovie, Op. 14 Coquetterie, Op. 15 Serenade, Op. 17 Les sylphides, Op. 18 Berceuse, Op. 20 Dance Improvisation, Op. 37 Scher, Op. 42 Marchen, Op. 46 Liebeswidmung, Op. 51 Canzonetta , Op. 52 No. 2 Stimmungen (2), Op. 32 Stimmungen (2), Op. 36 Pastels (2), Op. 44 Stempenyu Suite Suite No. 1 'en style ancien', Op. 21 Suite No. 2, Op. 22 Tableaux fantastiques (4) 'Suite No. 3', Op. 23 Suite bizarre 'Cycles des rythmes, Suite No. 4', Op. 41 Children's Suite, Op. 57 arr. Jascha Heifetz Pensée de Leopold Auer La romanesca |
Admired by Schoenberg (who described him as ‘one of the most underestimated of modern composers’), Joseph Achron was a boundary defying violinist-composer of extraordinary gifts. He drew on his Jewish faith to profound effect, from the early influence of his cantor father to his enthusiastic championing of the Society for Jewish Folk Music (which did for Jewish music what Bartók did for Eastern European folk culture). It’s hardly surprising that much of Achron’s music is for violin—he was a consummate player himself and a prolific recitalist. But what’s striking is how varied and exploratory his output is, delighting in experimentation, as the wonderfully named Suite bizarre demonstrates, just as much as the direct emotionalism of his transcriptions of Hebraic melodies. Who better to present this music than two artists steeped in similar traditions to Achron: Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez. “Shaham and Erez deliver outstandingly committed performances, revelling in the music's virtuosity, fantasy and heightened intensity of expression.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ***** “Arnon Erez's highly expressive, colourful playing brings out all their harmonic and textural subtleties. I'm sure this experienced team's sensitive collaboration would have delighted the composer. If you know Achron's music, you'll want to acquire this set; if he's new to you, I can assure you he's well worth investigating.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Romantic Violin Concerto 9 - Ferdinand David
Ferdinand David is principally known today as the dedicatee of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto; he gave the premiere of the work in 1845. But in his time he was also celebrated as a composer, and Hyperion is delighted to present this disc of world premiere recordings as Volume 9 in the Romantic Violin Concerto series. David was a prolific composer and his output included two symphonies, five violin concertos, a string sextet, quartets, several sets of variations and volumes of studies for violin, choral works and some Lieder. His works had considerable success in his lifetime, and their revival reveals highly attractive music of phenomenal accomplishment. Bearing in mind David’s close affinity with Mendelssohn it is hardly surprising that some of his music has a fairly Mendelssohnian character. This extends to the skilful handling of Classical forms with a rather more Romantic palette, but there is also an amiable individual character at work which produces music rich in wit and sentiment. Hagai Shaham, a regular of this series and a master of the 19th century virtuoso idiom, performs these works with his usual panache, ably accompanied by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. “Sweet melody coupled with passages of virtuosic fire, underpinned with graceful, discreet orchestral writing mark them out as ... well, enjoyably Mendelssohnian.” The Observer, 10th October 2010 “Hagai Shaham possess a relatively small-scale, sweet sound that is absolutely ideal for this repertoire. He retains his 'cantabile' composure at all times, even when the notes start flying...Shaham and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (at their most sparkling and sensitive under Martyn Brabbins) play with supreme virtuoso ease throughout).” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Dohnányi & Janácek - Violin Sonatas
Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez have been enthusiastically acclaimed for their dazzling duo performances: their infectiously relaxed bravado and continual flexibility belying their impeccable ensemble. For their latest disc they turn to two composers who are seminal figures in the development of Eastern European music during the early twentieth century. Dohnányi was one of the pivotal figures in Hungary’s musical life. He composed a number of significant pieces for the violin, including two violin concertos; his most important chamber work for violin and piano is the Violin Sonata in C sharp minor Op 21, composed in 1912. Dohnányi was by then thirty-five years of age, and the Sonata is a fully mature work showing his individual development of stylistic traits of Brahms and Liszt combined with a structural economy which reflects the close study of Brahms’s sonatas. Also recorded here is Dohnányi’s most overtly folk-influenced work, Ruralia hungarica, and a movement from his First Orchestral Suite, in F sharp minor Op 19, Romanza, arranged as a thoroughly idiomatic piece for violin and piano by Jascha Heifetz. In the first days of World War I Dohnányi’s native Hungary was invaded by the Russian army, which seemed for a time to herald the end of Austrian dominance in the region. This portentous event provided the creative spark for Leoš Janácek’s Violin Sonata (his only surviving violin sonata; two very early ones he composed in Dresden and Vienna in 1880 are lost), at least according to Janácek himself. Other works by Janácek heard in this recital include early pieces from his student years, and an arrangement of the delicate mood study ‘A blown-away Leaf’ from the celebrated piano work On the Overgrown Path. “Ruralia Hungarica draws the most compelling performance, Shaham negotiating the challenging violin pyrotechnics of the outer movements with powerhouse playing as well as delivering a wonderfully atmospheric Andante rubato alla Zingaresca.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 ***** “Shaham is in his element [in the Ruralia hungarica pieces] - the brilliant final piece carefree and dashing in style, the preceding, improvisatory Andante rubato alla zingaresca graceful and stylish...these are all appealing, finely-judged performances.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Leó Weiner - Violin Sonatas
Hagai Shaham has made himself the master of the Hungarian idiom which prevailed in much Romantic violin music. He now turns to a composer who was one of the leading figures of new Hungarian music in the first few years of the twentieth century, although largely forgotten now. Leó Weiner was regularly hailed as the great new hope of Hungarian music—in 1908 one critic prophesied that he was the Hungarian symphonist that everyone had been waiting for. But in fact he did not produce any symphonies, and it was in chamber music that he fully achieved his early promise. Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez present a selection of Weiner’s music for violin and piano—and it is easy to fathom from them why Weiner was such a much-loved figure. His music is fastidious, highly melodic and occasionally nostalgic in appeal—delightfully lyrical and sensitive. It has a highly developed sense of rhythm, especially dance rhythm, and is also highly accomplished technically, of quite admirable craftsmanship. His two important Sonatas for violin and piano are recorded here, and both demonstrate the German romanticism which penetrated his musical vocabulary. The remainder of this disc is centred on Weiner’s works based upon different kinds of Hungarian folk tunes. “Erez's percussive playing emphasises the sparse, pointillistic quality of the piano writing - the product, one suspects, of Weiner being a self-taught pianist. Some of his folk dances are included as a bonus. They're closer in style and spirit to Liszt's Gypsy-inspired Rhapsodies than Bartók's stark folk song arrangements, and done with great elegance and flamboyant ease.” The Guardian, 17th July 2009 **** “Highly enjoyable … full of charm and wit … The playing is exemplary … Shaham and Erez make the best possible case for these pieces, duly wearing hearts on sleeve where appropriate” International Record Review “taken on his own terms Weiner is a composer of much personality and spirit. There's a self-confidence to both his sonatas that is very appealing and he certainly demands much of both players...as an snapshot of Weiner's diverse talents, it's an absorbing listen.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Brahms & Joachim: Hungarian Dances
The forty-year friendship between Brahms and Joseph Joachim, violinist and composer, was one of the most significant and fruitful relationships in nineteenth-century music. Their admiration of each other’s artistry was profound and unwavering, and bore sustained creative fruit on Brahms’s side of which his Violin Concerto and Double Concerto are only the most famous examples. Joachim’s transcriptions of Brahms’s famous Hungarian Dances – originally written for piano duet or solo piano – are technically challenging for any violinist, and superbly idiomatic, constituting a kind of gypsy ‘Art of the Violin’. They represent the summit of Brahms’s ‘Hungarian’ art, and Joachim’s powers of transcription match them with violin writing of the greatest fastidiousness and authentic feeling. The brilliant Hagai Shaham, acclaimed for his recordings of Hubay, is the ideal performer. “Joseph Joachim's violin arrangements of Brahms's Hungarian Dances more often than not appear singly as concert encores, so it is good to have the whole set presented here, and especially in virtuoso performances from the Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham that get to the heart of the style.
If in musical terms Joachim's own set of variations pales by comparison, this is hardly the fault of Shaham, nor of his expert duo partner Arnon Erez: the playing fizzes with energy and suavity.” The Telegraph, 24th May 2008 “Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez complement each other perfectly here, evincing fire, fury, and sweet sadness.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 ***** “This is a magnificent… Shaham and Erez… playing together with such ease that it's easy to forget the art and care that have gone into achieving such beautiful ensemble.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Violin Suites
“Both composers are served extremely well on this beautifully recorded disc, Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez in particular giving a totally convincing performance of Bloch's well-known Baal Shem. Although on the evidence of this disc Ben-Haïm emerges as a less individual creative force than Bloch, the concluding Improvisation and Dance, brilliantly dispatched by both artists, would perhaps make a welcome alternative to Ravel's much-played Tzigane.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 ***** “Bloch's two unaccompanied suites date from 1958, the year before his death; they combine a chromatic idiom with a strong sense of tonality.
Occasionally the music seems to lack individuality – the third movement of the First Suite is almost like pastiche Bach and its final cadence is academically predictable – but more often one's attention is caught and held by the expressive melodic writing and, in both suites, by a compelling sense of continuity. Shaham revels in Bloch's demanding yet imaginatively idiomatic violin writing. In the solo suites, as well as the more extravagantly emotional pieces with piano on Jewish themes, he enters wholeheartedly into the feeling of the music yet retains a measure of balance and restraint – the vibrato isn't exaggerated and a feeling of rhapsodic freedom is achieved without sacrificing natural flow.
Bloch's popularity has waned somewhat in recent decades, and the Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (1897–1984) is even more poorly represented in the CD catalogue. His Solo Sonata, written for Yehudi Menuhin, is, however, a masterly work, not at all original in form and idiom, perhaps, but full of memorable ideas.
Shaham's playing of the central Lento e sotto voce is stunningly beautiful. And the Improvisationand Dance, a folk-style showpiece after the manner of the Bartók rhapsodies, inspires both Shaham and Erez to brilliant feats of virtuosity.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Hagai Shaham possesses the ideal kind of silver-toned, narrow-vibratoed purity to make these occasionally melodramatic pieces ring true. Rather than fall back on a well-upholstered, opulent sound, he streamlines his tone, adding a special kind of intensity to Bloch’s soaring climaxes. Shaham strikes just the right balance between interpretative cool and swashbuckling bravado in Baal Shem … the recording is excellent throughout’” The Strad  BBC Music Magazine
Chamber Choice - March 2007 |
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| |  | Grieg - The Violin Sonatas
“…in vivacious movements… the sheer verve of the playing is irresistible. The dancelike sections of the Third Sonata's finale make a similar impression and its 'big' tune is wonderfully well graded, with the cumulative, immediate effect of a fine live performance.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2006 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Romantic Violin Concerto 6 - Hubay
“…this sixth instalment in the 'Romantic Violin Concerto' series is one of its very finest. Hubay's First Concerto, in particular, combines the sweetness of Saint-Saëns and emotional poignancy of Bruch and Wieniawski, with a large dollop of Chausson-esque Wagnerisms thrown in for good measure. Hagai Shaham does wonders for these neglected scores, playing with beguiling purity throughout the range, and a heart-felt intensity that makes the most of Hubay's penchant for soaring E-string melody. Typically alert and sensitive backing from the BBC Scottish SO under the direction of Martyn Brabbins and luxury sound…” BBC Music Magazine, March 2006 ***** “You wonder why all three works are not in the repertoire of every violinist. But then not every violinist sounds like Shaham. He really is something very special indeed … one of my discs of the year” Classic FM Magazine “Here's a disc to demonstrate what an outstanding lyricist Jenö Hubay was, particularly in the first of the concertos, the Concerto dramatique, in which one good tune follows another, each of them a candidate for the sort of virtuoso figuration designed to show off the brilliance of the soloist.
Hubay himself was a formidable violinist who, to celebrate his 50th birthday in 1908, played this concerto in a concert when his other three violin concertos were played by his pupils Josef Szigeti, Franz von Vecsey and Stefi Geyer, dedicatee of Bartók's early Violin Concerto No 1.
Hubay composed that first concerto in 1884- 85 for his former teacher, Joseph Joachim, and much of the writing tends to bring to mind Howells Vocal 597 Bruch's concertos, which is no disadvantage. No 2 dates from around 1900 and though the first movement is less distinguished, with a rather rigid main theme like a patriotic song, it too is a tuneful piece. The second and third movements are even more attractive, a charming interlude leading to a sparkling Hungarian dance finale.
The Suite, Op 5 (1877-88), another concertante work for violin, starts rather unpromisingly with a gavotte which, with its square main theme and hammered double-stopping, sounds more like a march. The other three movements are freerrunning in their lyricism: genre pieces, an 'Idylle' marked Andantino, an Intermezzo and a dazzling finale full of virtuoso writing, which misleadingly opens with a brief reminiscence of the opening movement.
Hagai Shaham plays not just with brilliance but with great imagination, avoiding any idea that this is just superficial display music. As in so many of Hyperion's concerto recordings, Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish SO demonstrate what sympathetic accompanists they are, consistently giving an impression of live musicmaking.
The full and vivid recording made in Caird Hall, Dundee, equally lives up to the high standard expected in Hyperion's enterprising concerto series.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Once again the composer demonstrates what an outstanding lyricist he was, particularly in the first of the concertos, the Concerto dramatique, in which one good tune follows another, each of them a candidate for the sort of virtuoso figuration designed to show off the brilliance of the soloist. ...Hagai Shaham plays not just with brilliance but with great imagination, avoiding any idea that this is just superficial display music. ...Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish SO demonstrate what sympathetic accompanists they are, consistently giving an impression of live music-making.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2006 “With Shaham, Hubay’s legacy is in very safe hands indeed. He delivers these works with a solid technique and commanding authenticity. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins provide rather more than just support, aided by a reasonably natural recorded balance which lets
Hubay’s colouristic touches have full effect” International Record Review | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Bloch - Violin Sonatas
“Mix Bartok, Debussy and a dash of Lisztian bravado and you’ll get something very close to Bloch’s folksong-inflected, post-Romantic sound-world. Intoxicating performances guaranteed to set the pulse racing” BBC Music Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Hubay: Scènes de la csárda
Hubay: | Scène de la csárda No. 1, Op. 9 Scène de la csárda No. 2 'Kis furulyám', Op. 13 Scène de la csárda No. 3 'Maros vize', Op. 18 Scène de la csárda No. 4 'Hejre Kati', Op. 32 Scène de la csárda No. 5 'Hullámzó Balaton', Op. 33 Scène de la csárda No. 6 'Sárga cserebogár', Op. 34 Scène de la csárda No. 7 'Kosuth nóta', Op. 41 Scène de la csárda No. 8 'Azt mondják', Op. 60 Scène de la csárda No. 9 'Czinka Panna nótája', Op. 65 Scène de la csárda No. 10 'Szalatnai emlék', Op. 69 Scène de la csárda No. 11 'Szomorúfüz hervadt lombja', Op. 82 Scène de la csárda No. 12 'Piczi tubiczám', Op. 83 Scène de la csárda No. 13, Op. 102 Scène de la csárda No. 14 'On the themes of Lavotta', Op. 117 6 Poèmes hongrois, Op. 27 6 Nouveaux poèmes hongrois, Op. 76 |
“attractive music played with the sort of heart-tugging abandon that many of us only know from old 78s” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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