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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Saint-Saëns: Music for Violin and Piano, Vol. 1
Fanny Clamagirand (violin) & Vanya Cohen (piano) “I like nothing better than chamber music,” Saint-Saëns once wrote to a violinist friend and, indeed, he did much to promote the genre in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. Prominent among his works for violin and piano is the technically challenging 1885 Violin Sonata No. 1 which balances passion with clarity. The Triptyque of 1912 shows his mastery of melody, rhythm and metre, and elsewhere in this first volume one finds numerous examples of his instinct for charm and characterisation. | 
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| |  | French Impressions: Joshua Bell
This is Joshua Bell’s first CD of Sonatas on Sony Classical and it is a passionately nuanced interpretation of works from Saint-Saëns, Franck and Ravel. Joshua Bell is one of the world’s most successful violinists and has won multiple Grammy awards, was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize and named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. Bell was recently named Music Director for the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields becoming the first person to hold this title since Sir Neville Marriner founded the Orchestra in 1958. Often referred to as the “poet of the violin”, his 2004 album Romance of the Violin was named the “Classical CD of the Year” by Billboard Magazine, with Bell named “Classical Artist of the Year.” The three Sonatas chosen for this disc are very different though linked extraneously through their inherent national style: The Saint-Saëns sonata remains one of the most exciting sonatas in the repertoire; the feverish finale is guaranteed to bring the house down. Bell’s recording of César Franck’s Violin Sonata allows him to pay homage, through his mentor Josef Gingold, to the two great artists who created this undying masterpiece. Written 125 years ago, at the height of the French Belle Epoque for the wedding of his friend, the virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe (with whom Gingold studied). Ravel’s more fantastic sonata offers a kaleidoscope of different thrills, as seen in the unexpected yet beautiful blending of genres in the slow “Blues” movement of his sonata. “French Impressions is the culmination of my last decade of exploration and performance with pianist Jeremy Denk, and I hope that with this recording we can affect the listener with the same joy and spiritual enrichment that these masterpieces have provided us with over the years.” Joshua Bell “Joshua Bell plays with fire and finesse, with Denk a powerful ally. Franck's dark-light violin sonata, mysterious, ardent and far more than the sum of its parts when played as majestically as here, forms the centrepiece of this seriously beguiling disc. A first essential purchase for 2012.” The Observer, 8th January 2012 “a spirited, varied, sensitively imagined recital...[Bell and Denk] are on equal terms artistically, responding to one another with spontaneity and unanimity in the interpretation of nuances that give their playing a sense that they are inside the music.” The Telegraph, 18th January 2012 **** “Bell attacks the will o' the wisp final movement [of the Saint-Saens] with a featherlight string of 16th notes that's quite dazzling.” The Independent, 27th January 2012 *** “Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk, a notably well-matched team, give idiomatic performances of these three sonatas...They're especially adept in maintaing the flow of the musical narrative and, with it, the music's emotional flux....Bell is especially impressive in the moto perpetuo finale - not only thrillingly precise but full of colour and variety, too” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012 “You’d be hard pressed to find a version of Ravel’s Sonata which offers as much fun as this one; you can visualise Joshua Bell winking as he negotiates the second movement’s insouciant smears and pizzicato notes...This is a great performance [of the Franck], especially in the steady Allegretto of the last movement...Sony’s sound is immaculate.” The Arts Desk, 4th February 2012 “Denk identifies the use of colour as being key to the Frenchness of these pieces, and Joshua Bell is certainly not short of timbral variety in this exquisitely played recital. It even beats his compelling Franck disc of 20 years ago. The playing is more relaxed and Bell's delicious use of portamento is achingly beautiful. He is sensitively accompanied by Denk, who has a wonderfully deft touch, captured in excellent sound.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 ***** “With Bell, you expect a clear, full sound and immaculate technique. What is more surprising is the fluidity he reveals in Saint-Saëns' Sonata No 1 and Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano. Jeremy Denk's understated pianism has had a wonderful effect on Bell, loosening him up.” The Times, 19th February 2012 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | French Violin Sonatas
Antje Weithaas (violin) & Silke Avenhaus (piano) Following their highly acclaimed performances of the violin and piano sonatas by Schubert and Brahms, Antje Weithaas and Silke Avenhaus present this beautiful CD of music of French chamber music. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Saint-Saëns: Music for Violin
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| |  | Saint-Saëns & Strauss: Violin Sonatas
Joao Paulo Santos (piano), Bruno Monteiro (violin) “There is some absolutely lovely music making to be cherished here...These well respected Portuguese artists play with flair and commitment...Santos and Monteiro are both outstanding artists...for the Saint-Saëns alone, this disc is a keeper” Classical Net, February 2013 “There is never any question with Monteiro as to his complete musical absorption of the material or the passion and sweep of his performances...Monteiro plays everything with a smoldering intensity...I felt Monteiro was even stronger in the Strauss than the Saint-Saëns, bringing out tremendous drama...In my zeal to laud Monteiro I should not overlook the excellent playing of pianist Santos” Fanfare, 2013 “Monteiro´s approach, so full of verve and boldness, [is] echoed by his pianist, and tend[s] to sweep listeners off their feet.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2013 “There is no question about the quality and broad appeal of these two Sonatas, and the performances themselves are very persuasive...[Monteiro and Santos] have performed and recorded together many times, developing a good rapport that approaches telepathy...[Monteiro's ] tone is warm but never saccharine against the cool neutrals of Paulo Santos's pianism Sound quality is good, the church ambience spacious and pleasantly humid” MusicWeb International, January 2013 “In the hands of the talented Portuguese violinist Bruno Monteiro, accompanied by the equally gifted pianist Joao Paulo Santos, they receive an emotionally sensitive, richly balanced, and lyrically reading that captures all the elegance, storminess, wistfulness, and power found in these broadly painted chamber works. Monteiro brings a warm, beautiful, singing tone to these recordings and casts a radiant glow over complex emotions expressed in these works” Strings Magazine, April 2013 “Technically all is present and correct [in the Saint-Saëns]...Monteiro responds better to the full blooded Romanticism of Strausss Sonata, and it´s more fluid form helps in to trace the contours of the work. He is clearly excited by what must be one of the most gratifying of all violin melodies, in the second movement. Monteiro is in suitable ardent, heroic mode in the finale” The Strad, March 2013 |
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| |  | French Fantasy
Maria Bachmann (violin) & Adam Neiman (piano) The New York Times hailed Maria Bachmann as “a violinist of soul and patrician refinement”, and The Boston Globe as “astonishing in every musical and technical regard.” Adam Neiman has performed as soloist with many of the world’s great orchestras and is a highly-acclaimed recitalist. This recording presents the duo performing a collection of French masterpieces by Debussy, Franck and Saint-Saëns. “Bachmann and Neiman take great care over phraseology and dynamics but their too-elastic take brings concern...The most successful performance is that of Saint-Saëns’s D minor sonata where a balance between Heifetzian dynamism and patrician Gallic reserve maintains a good eyrie on the music.” MusicWeb International, April 2013 |
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| |  | French Violin Sonatas
Lorraine McAslan (violin), John Blakely (piano) | |
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| |  | Saint-Saëns: Piano Trios
Paul Rickard-Ford (piano II) & Catherine Hewgill (cello) The Australian Trio | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Jascha Heifetz plays French Music
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| |  | Petite École de la mélodie
Guido Rimonda (violin) & Cristina Canziani (piano) 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. “Rimonda and Canziani are talented young artists, playing with such rhythmic zest it could easily have listeners dancing. This is light music at its most attractive, with the pieced nicely varied.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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