Paganini: Cantabile for violin & piano/guitar in D major, Op. 17, MS 109

The Japanese violinist Keiko Yamaguchi plays on her debut solo album a selection of sonatas for violin and guitar from the “Centone di Sonate per Violino e Chitarra” of Niccolò Paganini.

Accompanied by guitarist Rosario Conte on a 19th C. romantic guitar, she gives Paganini’s music a special and intimate touch. This music was not intented to be performed on big stages but rather for private amusement and relaxation. As Rosario Conte puts in in the liner notes: “It is Paganini’s chamber music which shows us his glowing, enthusiastic, and yet humble soul. It relates to us the close relationship between folk music and the Italian belcanto tradition, and it tells us of the tiny world into which Paganini was born, of his city, Genoa, with its narrow streets and alleys branching out between the mountains and the sea.“

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.

The Heinrich-Albert-Duo continues its European tour, concentrating on the golden age of the guitar in Italy in the early nineteenth century. This is a splendid display of guitar artistry.

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.