Orfeo: C711081B

Among the many artists who returned to Europe after the Second World War and chose the Salzburg Festival as the place to resume their European careers was the violinist Zino Francescatti. In 1958 he returned to Salzburg to perform Brahms's Violin Concerto under Mitropoulos (Orfeo C534001B) and to give a recital with the pianist Eugenio Bagnoli as his accompanist.As was to be expected, the programme was extremely virtuosic, but it also placed the most varied stylistic demands on both its performers, encompassing, as it did, three centuries of music.Two encores rounded off the evening, Francescatti's own arrangement for piano and violin of Chopin's Mazurka Op. 68 No. 4 and Sarasate's Zapatera. This recording from the Salzburg archives provides us with an impressive cross-section of the wide-ranging repertory of this important violinist.