SACDs - Schnittke

Virtually every recording released by this choir has received international acclaim and awards. Their latest recording of choral music by Schnittke has already generated excitement in both the choral and contemporary music communities. “a captivating virtuosity from the Stuttgart choir…” (Villa-Lobos) BBC Music Magazine

Unlike the piano, the king of instruments, only a small percentage of works has been written for solo violin. As everyone knows, a piano recital is a recital for solo piano. A violin recital, however, is usually a duet for violin and piano. Since the violin is mainly a singlemelody- instrument, it is always a special challenge for the violinist to study the solo works, simply because most of them comprise both the melodic line and the accompaniment normally given to the piano.....

Although it was a tradition in classical music for centuries that performer and composer were one and the same person, this custom sadly faded in the twentieth century. But we are fortunate in having some of the greatest masters of the violin, including Kreisler, Heifetz and Milstein, who composed or arranged many pieces for their instrument.

Although Kreisler composed few solo pieces except his cadenzas for a number of violin concertos, his Recitative and Scherzo-Caprice is surely one of the most popular pieces among all those famous Viennese desserts. And the Paganiniana by Milstein, so cleverly based on variations by Paganini, forms a violin master's tribute to the all-time iconic violinist.

On this recording I have also included two modern pieces for solo violin. These works by Berio and Schnittke are no conventional 'easy-listening'. But like all great modern art, they give us a new vision, allowing us to create new sound imagery from the violin.

Ning Feng

Shostakovich composed his first piano trio after being sent to Crimea to recover from tuberculosis. There he fell in love with the daughter of a Moscow professor and began to compose the trio, a passionate work representing a vital stage in his development towards his First Symphony. Years later, in the midst of the 2nd World War, he completed his second piano trio which was born out of the appalling sufferings of his fellow-countrymen and reflected the loss of his closest friend, the writer Ivan Sollertinsky, who died unexpectedly in the middle of Shostakovich’s work on the trio.

Schnittke's only piano trio originated as a string trio. Written to mark the centenary of Alban Berg in 1985, Schnittke in it ‘avoided his trademark stylistic confrontations and direct quotations, preferring subtle allusions to the world of the Viennese classics, especially Schubert’ (David Fanning). Soon after completing the trio, Schnittke suffered the first of a series of massive strokes, but in 1992 he revisited the work, dedicating the version for piano trio to his doctor, Alexander Potapov.

On a previous disc, the Kempf Trio has released two other Russian piano trios – those of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov – in performances described as ‘fiery, cogent, intelligent and wholly compelling' - Evening Standard, and ‘a triumph' - The Strad. In the present, no less impassioned and passionate programme, we hear the swan-song of this fine ensemble, which was recently dissolved.