Foerster: Violin Concertos

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Full marks to Ivan Ženatý and Jirí Belohlávek for bringing these fascinating works to public attention. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Sep 2008
Catalogue No: SU39612
Label: Supraphon
Length: 65 minutes

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Foerster, J: Violin Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 88

Work length31:29

$3.15

$4.05

Ivan Zenaty (soloist)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek

I. Allegro moderato

Track length17:27

$1.05

$1.35

II. Andante sostenuto

Track length4:25

$1.05

$1.35

III. Allegro grazioso

Track length9:37

$1.05

$1.35

Foerster, J: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 104

Work length33:48

$3.15

$4.05

Ivan Zenaty (soloist)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek

II. Andante sostenuto

Track length13:46

$1.05

$1.35

III. Andante moderato

Track length7:39

$1.05

$1.35

IV. Allegro

Track length12:23

$1.05

$1.35

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The Times called it a “superbly played concert:” Ivan Ženatý and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlavek performed Foerster’s first violin concerto at London’s Barbican Hall in December, 2007. The concerto was written at the urging of Czech violin virtuoso Jan Kubelík, the dedicatee of the work, and the soloist who premiered it in Chicago in 1910. The second concerto, recorded in the studio, is a somewhat neglected part of the solo repertoire, not being a work for the presentation of superficial violin virtuosity. Ženatý, however, succeeds in delving beneath the piece’s surface and uncovering its introverted beauty for the audience. Thus these pieces appear together for the first time ever on this album, produced in cooperation with BBC Radio 3.

The combination of Foerster’s music with a soloist and conductor of this calibre could be called a truly fortunate constellation. Belohlávek is a conductor of worldwide reknown whose years of musical activity have earned him the position of a specialist in the Czech symphonic and operatic repertoire. Under his guidance, the London orchestra rings with the tones, colors and ardor traditionally associated with Czech ensembles, while Ženatý’s playing is characterized as always by passion and virtuosity in the service of the composition.

The unique first recording of Foerster’s complete violin concertos in a spectacular performance by Ivan Ženatý and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.

Reviews

September 2008

Full marks to Ivan Ženatý and Jirí Belohlávek for bringing these fascinating works to public attention.

17th August 2008

If [Foerster's] melodies are not intrinsically memorable, these finely wrought concertos get ideally idiomatic, rhapsodic performances from Zenaty and the BBCSO under Belohlavek.

5th September 2008

[The Violin Concertos] are intensely lyrical works, mostly conventional in form but gorgeously expansive in the best of their melodic writing. The performances seem beautifully judged, and the soloist Ivan Zenaty has the perfect pure-toned expressiveness the music needs.

Foerster: Violin Concertos

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