Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) caused a sensation early on in the 20th century with the first performance in 1913 of his ballet Le sacre du printemps (The rite of Spring). This event marked the composer as a musician of the new century and throughout his life Stravinsky remained at the forefront of the musical avant-garde, keeping abreast of musical developments right up to he time of his death. All of the works in this set of orchestral pieces were written during Stravinsky's neo-classical period, which lasted from around 1920 until about 1953, after which he adopted the serial technique first developed by Arnold Schoenberg.

Arthur Grumiaux was a prince among violinists and recorded extensively for Philips/Decca. Many of his recordings – some of them released internationally for the first time on CD – have appeared on an extensive series on the Eloquence label. Here is another – a rare 1956 performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto coupled with his highly-praised traversals of the Stravinsky and Berg concertos.

[Berg/Stravinsky]: "Grumiaux's pure style brings rare magic to both these works. To the Berg he brings above all tenderness and sweetness; to the Stravinsky he brings above all strength and dynamism. The one virtuoso, remaining his individual self all the time, effortlessly encompasses the utterly different demands of each work." Gramophone

Thomas Zehetmair, Music Director of Northern Sinfonia returns as both soloist and conductor with a new recording of Symphonies 3 & 6 by Jean Sibelius and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto. All three works were recorded at the home of Northern Sinfonia, The Sage Gateshead and follow critically acclaimed Mozart recordings with Imogen Cooper and a Brahms/Schumann CD which was CD of the month in BBC Music Magazine (July 2007).

Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3 in C major was premiered in 1907 and many argue that it is here that Sibelius’ powers first display themselves in full regalia while Symphony No. 6 (1923) is the purest, most inward, almost hypnotic of his works and in many ways the most fascinating of his symphonies. The Violin Concerto in D, very representative of Stravinsky’s neo-Classical period, received its first performance in Berlin in October 1931 with the composer himself conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Northern Sinfonia with its Music Director Thomas Zehetmair command a unique position in Europe, with repertoire spanning three centuries and regularly commissioned new works. Autumn 2008 marked the start of the Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Season and its fourth year in its own spectacular Norman Foster designed home for music, The Sage Gateshead, wthere it is central to the extensive classical programme.

"With its breathtaking Foster architecture, revolutionary intermingling of educational, community and professional music-making, and passionate support from Gateshead Council, The Sage Gateshead has quickly become the most exciting music venue in Britain — and Northern Sinfonia has raised its game to match its new home." The Times

For her previous CD on the ORFEO label, Baiba Skride recorded two highly Romantic violin works by Brahms and has now turned her attention to two 20th-century violin concertos whose composers struck out in extremely individual directions while drawing on traditional formal models.

In his single contribution to the medium, the worldly Stravinsky drew on his knowledge of the whole history of music and explicitly appealed to the model of Johann Sebastian Bach in composing a work that is rigorously structured and at the same time playful in a neo-Baroque spirit. It would be harder to find a more different approach to the template of the traditional three-movement concerto than that found in the piece by the Swiss composer Frank Martin. In its atmospheric density it recalls Martin’s setting of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, dominated, as it were, by the mysterious, fairytale-like but also capricious and lively spirit of Ariel. Baiba Skride finds the right tone not only for the veiled sonorities of this piece but also for the tremendous sense of brightness that overwhelms the writing towards the end. Her enormous stylistic flexibility also comes to the fore in the Stravinsky Concerto, to which she brings a sense of crystalline radiance. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and its principal conductor Thierry Fischer are not only ideal partners, they also complement the programme with three almost contemporary orchestral works, all of which are classic examples of the way in which composers’ understanding of form – in this case, programme music – changed in the 20th century. In Honegger’s Pacific 231 and Rugby, the orchestra impresses us with its ability to conjure up the sounds of a speeding train and of rugby players running to and fro. The orchestra completes the programme on a note of grotesque jollity with Stravinsky’s Circus Polka, the quotation-like character of which – in this case, Schubert – may also be said to hold together the programme as a whole, with its two violin works in central position, invariably maintaining the greatest originality in this act of musical re-creation.

"One of Barenboim's most striking traits is the close musical bonds he has forged with some of the world's top soloists. Artists such as Radu Lupu and Itzhak Perlman have popped up again and again on the CSO schedule… They are welcome visitors, since they all but guarantee a remarkable depth of communication between soloists and orchestra.“ (Gramophone)