Paganini: La Campanella - CD

Violinist David Garrett’s long-lost fifth album for DG is a true treasure-trove of youthful interpretive genius. 14 documents the extraordinary and prodigious talent of the then 14-year-old Garrett – still the youngest male artist ever to sign to the Yellow Label, and now a global celebrity who fills stadiums with fans of his distinct brand of classical and crossover magic.

This album offers a glimpse of where it all began: the teenage Garrett performing a bouquet of popular yet technically challenging violin hits, including Paganini’s La Campanella, Dvořák’s Humoresque, Schubert’s Ave Maria, Kreisler’s Liebslied and Tartini’s famous Devil’s Trill sonata.

It shows why today’s icon of classical cool was destined to collect 600,000-plus Facebook fans, 5 million-plus YouTube hits, and sell over 750,000 copies of his Rock Symphonies album alone.

Violinist Rudens Turku presents his fifth album for Avie, Sweet Remembrance, a personal selection of virtuoso miniatures and encores.

Since making his recording debut for Avie in 2005 with the sonatas of Brahms, Franck and Schumann (AV2080), Albanian-born, Munich-resident violinist Rudens Turku has amassed a devoted following and fan base for his effortless virtuosity and innate musicianship.

Following albums devoted to solo works, duos, and concertos, Rudens returns with a personal selection of miniatures and encores for violin and piano. Sweet Remembrance – the subtitle of Jascha Heifetz’s arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Song without Words - ranges from the romantic Salut d’amour by Elgar, Schön Rosmarin by Kreisler and Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, to the energetic Scherzo from Brahms’ F-A-E Sonata and Shostakovich’s exhilarating Preludium. Interspersed with miniature masterpieces by great violinist-composers such as Paganini, Sarasate, Kreisler and Wienawski, the album boldly concludes with Ysaÿe’s commanding Second Sonata, itself written in remembrance of another great violinist, Jacques Thibaud.

Michaela Paetsch Neftel and Wieslaw Pipczynski perform favourites from the virtuosic violin repertoire including Vitali's Chaconne, Paganini's Campanella, Kreisler's Liebeslied and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. All are excellently suited to an accordion accompaniment.

This is a follow-up to Hekkema’s CD Paganini Caprices for Saxophone, also on MDG. The saxophonist has made the arrangements of this wide ranging repertoire himself.

Paderewski was perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most highly paid, pianist who ever lived. In the years between 1890 and the First World War his fame reached levels now only reserved for the biggest pop stars and when he became prime-minister of Poland after the end of the war his deification was complete. He resumed his career in the 1920’s and continued to perform until his death. Unfortunately most of his recordings were made later in life and do not capture his playing in its prime, a fact which has somewhat damaged his posthumous reputation, so it is particularly important that these earliest recordings, which can redress the balance, are made available complete for the first time. This is playing very different in style from what we are used to today, but aside from its historic importance, taken on its own terms it is quite clear what a great communicator Padereswki was. And it’s good to be reminded in works like Liszt’s La Leggierezza study that at this point in his career there was nothing lacking in technique either.

Several titles included are taken from Paderewski’s own test pressings of unissued discs held at the International Piano Archive, University of Maryland, and this is their first release. A must for collectors!

One of the finest violinists of all time, Ricardo Odnoposoff was born in Buenos Aires on February 24, 1914, the son of Russian immigrants. Following early studies in Buenos Aires and Berlin, he was accepted at thirteen to the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he studied violin with Carl Flesch from 1928 to 1931 and composition under Paul Hindemith. At the end of these studies, his career was inaugurated by an appearance, at 17, as a featured soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Erich Kleiber. An examination of his recorded legacy reveals a supreme artist, equipped with a brilliant technical command.