Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky Korsakov

In the search for suitable and evocative words to describe a particular vocal quality, usually, for the bass voice one would expect of course adjectives like deep, black, sonorous, cavernous, thundering, impressive or even noble. Rarely is the word beautiful used. However, in the case of Alexander Kipnis, it most certainly applies. Alexander Kipnis was born into a very poor family in Zhitomir, Ukraine on l February 1891. They were very proud of the extraordinary quality of his singing voice, which attracted the attention of a visiting cantor from Bessarabia, who heard him as a soloist in the local synagogue choir. So taken was he by the boy’s natural talent, that, with a promise of some payment, the cantor persuaded Alexander’s mother to let him leave home and become a chorister at his synagogue. Alexander was befriended by one of the older singers with whom he lodged and who taught him the rudiments of music and also some Lieder. Kipnis then won a scholarship to enter the Warsaw Conservatoire, initially to study conducting, but of course he continued to sing, his voice having broken and become a bass. He decided to move to Berlin, undertaking further vocal studies with the well-known teacher Ernst Grenzebach.

This compilation is a tribute to one of the greatest bass voices ever to have recorded.

Part maverick, part genius, total virtuoso, David Garrett, 25, has been surprising people since before he was four years old. It was then that his father gave him a violin (he was having a tantrum because his older brother had a violin teacher) and, without any lessons, the toddler picked it up and began playing.

Fast forward just four years and David was already one of the foremost violinists in the world working with the most celebrated teachers and performing solos with legendary orchestras and conductors.

With his natural talent, the input of the finest music teachers in the world and a spirit unusual in the sometimes fusty world of classical music, David has emerged as fully-formed, fullyrounded – not to mention highly attractive - artist. He has already played for Popes and princes and presidents (the

German President saw David when he was just 11 and was so impressed he actually set about securing him a priceless 1718 Stradivarius: “I used to leave violins on buses and in hotel rooms when I was younger, but not this one”) but a whole new audience awaits.

The combination of flute and harp is one that has fascinated composers over the centuries, and this outstanding new recording features some of the best pieces written for these instruments alongside new and rhapsodic transcriptions of music that has been arranged admirably for the natural combination of these beautiful instruments by these very gifted instrumentalists.

The album takes its title from the pieces by Mendelssohn which open and interpolate the programme, and here also are two rare but very charming songs by Mozart, and a group of four by Gabriel Fauré, with two by de Falla, alongside music from famous operas by Tchaikovsky, Mascagni and Massenet. There is music from France by Poulenc and from Russia by Rimsky-Korsakov, and this delightful album ends with a group of appealing Romanian folk-songs. A most charming record of wide appeal.

All tracks arranged for violin & piano