Massenet: Meditation (from Thaïs)

On her clarinet, Sharon Kam expresses something for which there are no words. At one with her instrument, she thrills in this compilation with a virtuosic suppleness and sensitive cantabile in a class of its own. A firework display of vivacity and emotion. This reissue includes works by Weber, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Massenet.

The music selected by Tina Chen and Hannibal for this recital is the soundtrack for a day dream, or the twilight accompaniment for a romantic dinner. The emphasis is on Melody – beautiful, finely arched musical lines that reach beyond the pressures of everyday life and transport you, to a quiet realm of song, warmly and realistically recorded in SACD, Super Audio Sound!

This recording also marks the CD debut of the charismatic, young concert violinist , Chen Yi, was the Gold Medal winner at the China International Violin competition (2008). As part of the Mendelssohn Bicentennial Celebrations, Ms. Chen was invited to perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Beijing’s new National Center for the Performing Arts. In 2010 she will perform the Nielsen Violin Concerto as part of the Danish Gala Concert in EXPO in Shanghai. This major event marks artistic dialogue between Denmark and China.

British violinist Nicola Benedetti presents her fourth album, Fantasie, a selection of well-loved violin pieces that form a stunning violin showcase. The repertoire is varied, ultimately all popular pieces and greatly different to the repertoire on her most recent discs. The combination of virtuosic, gipsy-influenced show stoppers with introspective meditations and songs represents the two aspects of violin-playing that particularly interest Benedetti, as well as showing her musical and technical development.

Upon winning the prestigious BBC Young Musician of the Year competition at the age of 16, Benedetti signed to Deutsche Grammophon and recorded the winning Szymanowski Concerto no. 1, gaining critical acclaim. The albums that followed contained world premiere works written especially for Benedetti by the pre-eminent British composers, James MacMillan and Sir John Tavener. She has established a fantastic career performing with major orchestras across the UK, US and Japan, garnering praise for her bold interpretations of concertos such as Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Glazunov and Szymanowski.

For Fantasie Benedetti has put aside the concerti to explore some of the recital greats, including Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’, one of the greatest works for violin which, for the last three years, has been voted Classic FM’s favourite piece of classical music in their Hall of Fame.

Giudo Rimonda is a highly respected violinist in Italy. He is accompanied here by Cristina Canziani and together they perform three intimate works arranged for piano and violin.

Born in Saluzzo, Piedmont, Guido Rimonda plays a 1721 Antonio Stradivari (the ‘Jean-Marie Leclair’) and a 1991 Dario Vernè. . He currently teaches violin at the Conservatory of Pavia. Born in Trieste, pianist and harpsichordist Cristina Canziani trained there at the Giuseppe Tartini Conservatory. In 1992 Canziani and Rimonda founded the Orchestra Camerata Ducale, dedicated to the music of Giovanni Battista Viotti.

Dancla’s Petite École de la mélodie, Op. 123 receives its world premiere recording, and it is coupled by the Wagnerian influenced D minor Sonata for violin and piano by Saint-Saëns' D minor Sonata for violin and piano, and completed by Massenet’s Meditation from his opera Thais performed in the arrangement for violin and piano.

French composer Dancla can be regarded as the last exponent of the classical French school of violin playing founded in the late 18th century by Viotti. One of Viotti’s favourite students was indeed Pierre Baillot, himself Charles Dancla’s most influential teacher. Petite Ecole de la melodie consists of twelve charming pieces for violin and piano and fully reflect the characteristics of the salon music popular at the end of the 19th century.

The most famous overtures, preludes and interludes from the world’s greatest operas.