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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Bruch, Korngold, Chausson: Works for Violin & Orchestra
This is the 4th concerto album of Arabella Steinbacher on PentaTone. All three albums were unanimously reviewed as top of the bill. Gramophone selected the Bartok album as ‘Editor’s Choice’. Arabella constantly travels the world to perform with major orchestras, so check her concert schedule on http://www.arabella-steinbacher.com/concerts.html for opportunities to do venue sales. Arabella is always happy to do signing sessions. The new album features popular romantic works and make it a very commercial item. | 
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| |  | Prokofiev: The 2 Violin Concertos
The forces of the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko need no introduction, but add to this the huge talent of violinist Arabella Steinbacher, this recording is one to listen out for. Arabella has already established herself as a performer on the international stage, and is appearing at the Royal Festival Hall later this season. Here she performs both of Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos, and couples it with the Sonata for Violin Solo in D Major Op. 115. Her previous releases for PentaTone have received fantastic praise and have all been Gramophone Editor’s Choices. “admirers of this gifted young artist will need no second bidding to acquire this latest recording of hers, for she plays all three works with love and affection...my main criticism is the absence of any clearly defined musical leadership from either soloist or conductor” International Record Review, December 2012 “Steinbacher shapes the glorious melody in the opening movement [of the First] with great tenderness and affection and throughout the work there is a real sense of her interaction with conductor Vasily Petrenko and the highly responsive Russian National Orchestra. However the overall effect seems a little calculated...Steinbacher and Petrenko seem much more closely attuned to the emotionally ambiguous wolrd of the Second Violin Concerto” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 **** “There is fibre to the playing and theatrical highlights” The Strad “Steinbacher sounds determined to rethink these repertoire staples. Eschewing the settled eloquence of a David Oistrakh, she varies her tonal projection to highlight Prokofiev's tendency to step on the throat of his own song. The verdict? Better try before you buy, although audiophiles and surround sound aficionados should not hesitate.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Brahms: Complete works for Violin & Piano
The outstanding artist Arabella Steinbacher has chosen the Brahms Violin Sonatas for her most recent release. Her previous CD of the Bartók Concertos (PTC 5186350) received excellent reviews “a fearsomely talented violinist.” Telegraph; Gramophone Editor’s Choice; BBC Music Magazine 5* Recording “Arabella Steinbacher and Robert Kulek approach these timeless scores with a velvet-gloved tenderness and affection that dispels any sense of Brahms being an 'intellectual' composer. Steinbacher produces a sensuous sound of beguiling purity that sends Brahms's rich cantabile lines soaring aloft and receives wonderfully sympathetic support from Kulek...in terms of sheer beauty of sound Steinbacher and Kulek have no rivals.” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 **** “There's a strongly lyrical impulse in Arabella Steinbacher's playing which is suited to the intimate character of these Sonatas...Robert Kulek is an admirable duo partner and projects both the richness and clarity of texture in Brahms's writing through a carefully controlled use of the pedal, responding wit sensitivity to the subtle inflections in Steinbacher's phrasing. Pentatone's recording has real presence” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ***** “How far you enjoy this disc will depend on how you like your Brahms served up. There's much to admire in Steinbacher's sound and you may not find the deliberate tempos as indulgent as I did, in which case proceed with great haste.” International Record Review, July/August 2011 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Brahms: Violin Concerto
The Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms is for performers and audience alike one of the loveliest, most challenging examples of the genre. It was with this work that Arabella Steinbacher gave her debut in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in December 2007, the same hall where the composer himself had conducted on occasion. Arabella Steinbacher’s debut was accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Fabio Luisi, who are also to be heard on this live recording in Schumann’s Fourth Symphony. Both this symphony and the Brahms concerto were dedicated to the leading violin virtuoso of the second half of the 19th century, namely Joseph Joachim. The work soon began a triumphal procession through the concert halls. Thanks to Joachim’s numerous famed successors, it would be impossible to imagine the violin repertoire today without it. Arabella Steinbacher won the Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover several years ago, which was a starting point of her current international career. She is furthermore a worthy representative of the violin style that is celebrated in Brahms’s concerto, a style that is virtuosic without virtuosity becoming an end in itself. Thanks to her much-praised brilliant, precise tone, the listener remains aware throughout that the solo part never recedes completely into the background, even where the orchestra unfolds its most expansive symphonic arguments – such as in the presentation of the work’s themes and in the sensitive orchestration of the first and second movements. Arabella Steinbacher fully savours the works’ variety of colour and climax. In the brilliant cadenza of the first movement and in the highly spirited third, she draws on an embarrassment of virtuosic riches which is masterly. “Attention to contour and proportion, clarity of texture and the beautifully balanced and blended sonorities characteristic of Luisi's work with other orchestras are evident throughout this performance of Schumann's D minor Symphony.” International Record Review, May 2011 “The Brahms has a real sense of occasion, with Arabella Steinbacher projecting the music's different phrases in a compelling way, and a rich orchestral backing that's especially notable for the strength and significance given to Brahms's important bass-lines” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 “Hearing her Brahms performance - it was recorded live in Vienna - is rather like reading a great 19th-century novel that whirls between extremes of unfailing eloquence and lets us experience them all...Luisi and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra give the Schumann symphony a centred and vigorous performance, creating a particularly fine, mystical atmosphere during the transition into the last movement.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 **** “[The Brahms] is impressive, offering a relatively straightforward and unmannered interpretation. Steinbacher possess as beautifully warm, burnished tone and performs almost flawlessly throughout. The first movement is spacious but never indulgent, securing an almost ideal balance between the Classical and Romantic aspects of the work. Luisi extracts a wealth of interesting detail from the accompaniment and the sound has great immediacy.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Bartók: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Steinbacher’s previous release on PentaTone (Dvorak and Szymanowski Concertos PTC5186350) was very well received “Rarely has the composer’s magical ear for instrumental sonorities sounded so beguiling on disc….Steinbacher responds with playing that is both sensually alluring and headily impassioned.” The Strad. Here she brings her expertise in interpretation to the Bartók Violin Concertos. “From her Stradivarius violin, Arabella Steinbacher conjures tones so subtly beautiful and multicoloured that your jaw almost drops. Yet her passionate artistry is only the cake’s icing. The real delight lies in the bond between soloist and orchestra...the second concerto is the peach: each sonic facet glitters, each heartbeat throbs, lifting us to the stars.” The Times, 20th November 2010 ***** “She brings great warmth to the lyrical First Concerto...then in the more ambitious and challenging Second Concerto she introduces a thrilling touch of steel into her playing. The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is on fine form, with outstanding contributions from the brass section.” The Telegraph, 3rd February 2011 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Dvorák & Szymanowski - Violin Concertos
This is Steinbecher’s debut on Pentatone. She is 27 and was taught by the same teacher as Julia Fischer. Her previous recordings for Orfeo have all got great reviews. “Technically, she's supremely accomplished and refined…” The Guardian, 13th November 2009 *** “From this recording one would imagine that hers is not a big tone but it is an opulent one, cushioned by ample if well controlled vibrato. That opulence makes her playing of the heartfelt melody in the slow movement of Dvorák's Violin Concerto winningly rich. She is equally successful in bringing out the marked Slavonic flavours in the outer movements... treating the dance rhythms of the finale with sparkling lightness. ...Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto... is a difficult work for soloist and conductor to hold together with its sharp contrasts of mood and tempo, but the alliance of Steinbacher and Janowski achieves that with total conviction. ...a performance that carries total conviction.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2010 “…in a haunting performance of Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1 the solo part seems to float in over a lush orchestra. Steinbacher's tone is sweet, her playing poised - in satisfying contrast to the muscular contribution of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski. ...Dvorák's Romance in F minor, which calls for (and receives) flowing, song-like lines. ...same composer's Violin Concerto...was written in the wake of the Slavonic Dances, something that show especially in the dance-infused finale... This is a performance in which the soloist sounds as if she is leading the dance, and everyone is rhythmically buoyant in the heady climax of an enjoyable and vividly recorded disc.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 **** “Steinbacher makes a powerful case for Szymanowski's First Concerto as a minor masterpiece” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven & Berg - Violin Concertos
Two milestones of the violin repertoire that could not be more different, with painful farewells and the excitement of departing for new shores.The tension and contradictions inherent here are given full expression by Arabella Steinbacher and Andris Nelsons in interpretations of immense subtlety. “[Steinbacher's] keen, intense tone captures the anguish that lies at the heart of Berg’s concerto...With Nelsons and Cologne’s superb WDR orchestra, Steinbacher reaches into the heart of this serial but heart-rendingly lyrical work. Her Beethoven, too, eschews virtuoso histrionics in favour of an almost dream-like inwardness in the slow movement.” Sunday Times, 9th August 2009 **** “The Berg is intimate, orderly, tonally sweet but never glutinous and always neatly accommodated within the orchestra's overall texture, which is beautifully (and precisely) moulded by Andris Nelsons. …this is above all a musical reading of the score and provides a moving context for the Bach quotation that dominates the second movement.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2009 “…an unexpectedly effective coupling of two concertos that inhabit completely different worlds… Steinbacher certainly has the measure of both, delivering technically impeccable and beautifully shaped performances supported by fine orchestral playing…” BBC Music Magazine, December 2009 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Poulenc, Faure & Ravel - Violin Sonatas
French chamber music from the time of the Third epublic is remarkable for its tremendous stylistic ariety, revealing, as it does, not only Neoclassical lements but also unexpected rhythms, the sort of local colour associated with folk music and, last but not least, typically French melodies typified by their elegance and songlike character.A classic example of this style is Fauré's Violin Sonata, first performed in 1877, inspired by the Belgian violinist Hubert Léonard and now at the very heart of the new CD that Arabella Steinbacher has recorded with the pianist Robert Kulek.Written half a century later, Ravel's Violin Sonata not only places considerable technical demands on its performers, it also reflects the influence of jazz, an influence explored by the two performers with audible delight in imitating plucked instruments and blue notes.The dizzying energy generated by Steinbacher and Kulek in Ravel's Tzigane needs to be heard to be believed.This homogeneous and yet varied programme opens with a piece that may also be regarded as an epilogue to this chapter from the history of French music: Francis Poulenc's Violin Sonata was written in the 1940s in memory of Federico García Lorca and is a compact work in terms of its expressive and compositional density. Arabella Steinbacher and Robert Kulek bring to it all the necessary shades and nuances. “A particularly convincing account of the Poulenc, fully conveying the tragic intensity that underlines the music. While too much rubato tends to undermine the natural flow of the Fauré, the Ravel performances are stunning.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 **** “The Poulenc comes off best overall and there's a lovely lightness of touch about the Ravel sonata.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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"One of the most substantial contributions to the Shostakovich year." Fono Forum | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Violino Latino
"If this stunning recital is anything to go by, Arabella Steinbacher, who was 24 years of age at the time of recording last year, has a remarkable future ahead of her… I guarantee you will be emotional putty in Steinbacher's hands. Indeed, she exudes the kind of nonchalant ease and sheer class more readily
associated with the likes of Nathan Milstein and Christian Ferras. So musically satisfying is Steinbacher's playing, so exquisite her timing and dynamic shadings that her effortless technical command almost goes unnoticed."
The Strad Selection, October 2006 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine