Sarasate: Navarra, Op. 33

An artist of rare versatility, Angèle Dubeau has had a dazzling career in the great concert halls of the world. With a string of some 30 recordings, many concerts with renowned orchestras and as the conductor of her own ensemble, her talent, passion and musicality have won her uncommon acclaim. This collection includes virtuoso works by Paganini, Mendelssohn, Sarasate, Prokofiev and Sibelius.

Acclaimed as ‘an uncommonly brilliant young violinist’ Tianwa Yang continues her highly praised survey of Pablo de Sarasate’s music for violin and orchestra.

The Magic Flute Fantasy is a masterpiece of the genre à la Paganini, while the Gounod Fantasy (his second) is a miracle of lightness. The highly popular Navarra, the charming Muiñiera with its bagpipe effects, the bewitching Venetian Barcarolle and the Introduction et Caprice-Jota with its barcarolle-like beginning and dancing finale coming thrillingly to life on this album.

Violinists Adele Anthony and Gil Shaham share many passions. Along with their personal connection (they are married) and careers as performing artists, they both feel a deep affinity for the music of Sarasate. This legendary violinist and composer’s inspired works are enormously entertaining and irresistibly appealing, eloquently summarised by Adele as ‘works being a culmination of melody, violinistic idiom and elegance, often evocative of his native Spain’. Gil rates him ‘as one of my great personal heroes. He was a meticulous composer; his style was always full of imagination, full of melody, always perfectly clean and concise. I love this guy.’

Adele and Gil used the occasion of Sarasate’s centenary in 2008 to pay tribute to the revered master’s work. This included a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York, broadcast live on PBS in North America and to end the year’s festivities ¡Sarasateada!, an all Sarasate Festival in Valladolid, in Sarasate’s native Spain.

¡Sarasateada! included both chamber and orchestral concerts from which this release is born and this disc captures the expected and unexpected. A red blooded live performance of Camen Fantasy, Zapateado the raucous cowboy dance and Zigeunerweisen, all works which have challenged violinists for decades and never fail to dazzle. The unexpected works are some wonderful yet lesser known - Song of the Nightingale, Airs Eccosaise showing the his compositional gift, ‘his diversity and imagination’ as Adele puts it, with the disc concluding with a delightful and stratospheric duo Navarra, a folk song derived from Navarre in Spain.

The Camerata Lysy Gstaad is composed of string virtuosos from all parts of the world; it is the performing division of the International Menuhin Music Academy. These highly talented musicians, many of whom have won prestigious international competitions, appear as soloists as well as members in the chamber orchestra. The ensemble was founded in 1977 by Alberto Lysy, who is also its director. One of South America’s most famous artists, Lysy has earned a reputation as one of Europe’s most important violin pedagogues at the International Menuhin Music Academy.

The reissue of this unique collection of chamber music masterpieces, ranging from Baroque to 20-century, played by the legendary David Oistrakh, with his luminous, sonorous and deeply moving tone.

Partners include Sviatoslav Richter, Lev Oborin, Alexander Goldenweiser and Vladimir Yampolski. With his supreme technique, enormous precision in rhythm as well as extensive variety in sound, David Oistrakh is one of the most celebrated violinists of the 20th century.

This 10-CD release details some of his best chamber music recordings and is filled to the brim with first-rate performances. The compilation effectively documents the development of violin music, simultaneously revealing Oistrakh’s mastering of an extensive repertoire.

Beginning with J.S. Bach, who was one of the first composers to write for the instrument independently and whose works are given an overtly romantic appraisal by the Russian maestro, it also traverses a series of Classical compositions – including Mozart’s Sonata No.3 K306 and Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata Op.47. Most of the collection’s space, however, is taken up by a large assortment of 19th- and 20th-century music; this is undoubtedly where Oistrakh’s heart lies, and the violinist shows a strong commitment to pieces from his native country.

What is particularly evident from this release is that no matter how big or small, famous or little-known, each work is treated as a masterpiece. With largely forgotten names such as Catoire and Vladigerov sitting alongside some of the greatest composers in musical history, the compilation represents a musical feast that is not to be passed up.