Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61

A double-CD of Romantic Violin Concertos celebrating the art of Ruggiero Ricci, this set includes the first international release on CD of the Ricci/Boult 1952 recording of the Beethoven. Boult characterised it as ‘perhaps the most thoughtful concerto, the one which needs for the violinist to be a great man as well as a great player’. Indeed it is a thoughtful and poised reading from both soloist and conductor, coupled with classic accounts of the Mendelssohn, Bruch and Dvorak. The booklet notes by Tully Potter include a biography of Ricci and (sometimes wry!) comments by the violinist himself on the recordings.

[Beethoven] “I do not think we are likely to get a better recording for a long while” Gramophone

[Bruch] "Ricci gives very good performances indeed of both concertos; caught out nowhere, even on the margin of intonation, by their technical demands in the outer movements, he manages also to communicate both poetry and impulse to the slow movements." Gramophone

“Renaud Capuçon is one of today's outstanding violinists – less flashy than some, but a fabulously musical player who is as remarkable a chamber player as he is a concerto soloist,” wrote The Guardian in its review of the French violinist’s recent Virgin Classics CD of Mozart concertos, describing the disc as “a fine achievement”, while the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald felt that: “Capuçon's silvery tone and expressive phrasing of the slow movements … beautifully balance his brisk and exhilarating takes on the allegros and prestos….Don’t miss this one.” The BBC Music website pointed out that “Capuçon's style, perhaps because of his regular chamber work, is natural, understated and perceptive; the sound of a musician happily relaxed in his skin and not feeling the need to prove any virtuosic credentials. His performance here is lithe, graceful and refined, capturing vivacious humour with luminous upper-stringed sparkle, and colouring the slower movements with warm, musical poetry.”

Capuçon’s Virgin Classics discography is substantial, but much of the focus has been on chamber music – only two previous discs have featured him in solo concertos. Now he takes on two highly constrasting works: Beethoven’s sublime concerto, a touchstone of any major violinist’s repertoire, and Korngold’s gorgeous work, written in 1945 for one legendary violinist, Bronislaw Huberman, but premiered in 1947 by another, Jascha Heifetz. Korngold, once known primarily for his spectacular film scores, has in recent years achieved a significant presence in opera houses and concert halls – notably with his early opera Die tote Stadt and with this concerto, which in fact draws on material that the composer originally produced for Hollywood movies, Another Dawn (1937), Juárez (1939), Anthony Adverse (1939) and The Prince and the Pauper (1937).

Conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is its Music Director, the thrilling young Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who took up his post in 2008 and who is also Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra – an appointment which led to an award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in May 2009.

"Whenever a violin repertory piece needs revitalising, there’s one simple solution. Hire Janine Jansen to play it" THE TIMES

Dutch violin star Janine Jansen brings together the great concerto by Beethoven and the rarely heard concerto by Benjamin Britten.

"Two of the greatest concertos ever written" Janine Jansen

Janine records these concerti with two different orchestras to fully explore two very different sound worlds; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Beethoven) and the London Symphony Orchestra (Britten).

Janine has loved and championed the Britten concerto since she first played it nearly ten years ago, and performed both these concerti with conductor Paavo Järvi many times, both in Europe and the US.

The recording of the Beethoven concerto follows the acclaimed Beethoven Symphony cycle form the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi.

Award-winning Moldovan violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, presents a new vision of Beethoven’s complete works for violin and orchestra. She is accompanied by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées under the direction of esteemed Belgian conductor, Philippe Herreweghe.

The release offers us fresh insights into Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, op.61 based on historical evidence, using period instruments. Kopatchinskaja contributes her own adaptations of Beethoven’s original cadenzas for the piano version of the concerto. The Romances are performed here in a simple, lyrical style typical of the slow movements of late 18th-century French violin concertos. Alongside the Concerto and the Romances, the recording features the rarely recorded Fragment: the only known part of an unfinished Concerto in C major.

Kopatchinskaja’s first CD on Naïve last year, a recital with Fazil Say, received sensational reviews and was awarded the Excellentia Award of the Magazine "Pizzicato" (Luxembourg), as well as the ECHO-Klassik award 2009. Earlier this year, she was heard performing Fazil Say’s colourful violin concerto, ‘1001 Nights in the Harem’, also on Naïve (V5147).

recorded 30 Sep 1947 & 10 Jan 1952

Recordings taken from a series of concerts given in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1962.

Hailed as one of the most exciting musicians of her generation: “Dazzling…” (The Daily Telegraph); “…lavish virtuosity” (The Financial Times); her eagerly-awaited follow-up sees Batiashvili, internationally regarded as a superb interpreter of the classical repertoire and a decided champion of new music, in another adventurous collaboration with her trademark twist of unusual pairings: this time Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen coupled with Miniatures by Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze (1925-1991) featuring the Georgian Chamber Orchestra.

Most unusually, both orchestras are directed by Ms Batiashvili herself.

Ms Batiashvili was recently featured in The Guardian as one of the “four young stars of classical music you need to hear”. Now, in her mid-20s, she continues to make an indelible impression on the international music scene with stunning successes throughout Europe, North America, Australia and the Pacific-Rim territories.