Szymanowski: Mythes, Op. 30

Debut solo album from Japanese violinist Mayuko Kamio, winner of the 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Mayuko Kamio made her concert debut in Tokyo at the age of ten under the baton of Charles Dutoit, in a concert broadcast on NHK television. In 1998, having captured a prize at the Menuhin International Violin Competition (the youngest ever to win the award), she performed with the Orchestre National de Lille under Lord Menuhin’s baton.

In 2004, Kamio was awarded the Gold Medal at the Monte Carlo Violin Masters and the International David Oistrakh Violin Competition in Ukraine. In 2004, she performed with the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda in Manchester, which was broadcast on BBC Radio, and then went on to tour to Japan. In January 2005, she was invited by the Lincoln Center in New York and gave a recital to huge critical acclaim. In 2006, she gave recitals in Japan, France, the United States, in Russia, and also performed with Tonhalle Orchestra/ Eliahu Inbal and Israel Philharmonic/ Zubin Mehta.

This Enescu Festival programme is a very interesting one, beginning with a ‘stepchild’ of the repertoire. Schumann’s music for violin and orchestra, intended for Joseph Joachim, has had even less exposure than his other violin music: the Concerto was buried in a library until the 1930s, when Joachim’s great-niece Jelly d’Arányi successfully lobbied for its release, and the fine C major Fantasy had few champions – Adolf Busch was one, playing it regularly, and Fritz Kreisler went to the trouble of making his own piano transcription. That is the version played here by Oistrakh and Yampolsky and it is new to the violinist’s discography. The Franck Sonata, on the other hand, featured frequently in Oistrakh recitals and he recorded it with both Oborin and Yampolsky, also leaving us three live versions with Richter. This performance captures him ‘on the wing’ when he was still in his prime. Karol Szymanowski knew the violin well – one of his dearest friends was the Russian-born Polish virtuoso Pawel Kochan´ski – and wrote two concertos, a sonata, a set of three Myths, a Nocturne and Tarantella and some short pieces for it. Oistrakh and Yampolsky made famous studio recordings of the sonata and The Fountain of Arethusa, but this is their only known document of the other two Myths. The pieces, written in 1915–16 with the encouragement of Kochan´ski – who assisted with the exotic violinistic effects – are among the treasures of the late Romantic repertoire but need first-rate players like these to reveal all their beauties. The same can be said of Ravel’s exciting Tzigane, composed for d’Arányi. We do have other Oistrakh recordings of it, including one with Yampolsky, but it is a piece which thrives on the frisson of a live occasion and here it meets a great virtuoso who can do it justice. Extract from the note © Tully Potter, 2008

Not so long ago, Gramophone magazine asked several of today’s leading virtuosos: who is the violinist’s violinist? The answer was almost unequivocal: David Oistrakh, violinist, footballer and gentleman. Growing up and thriving in difficult and dangerous times in Stalin’s Russia, his almost superhuman patience and poise made him an ideal recording artist, but that consistency is no less evident in this historical collection of live performances which have been collected to mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth. It includes several concertos of which he was progenitor, if not dedicatee, by virtue of his strength and delicacy as an artist: the two by Shostakovich and others by Prokofiev, Myaskovsky and Kabalevsky. The favourite hall-fillers by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius are included – and Oistrakh’s partners are no less distinguished, among them Yevgeny Mravinsky, Kurt Sanderling and the great conductor-accompanist, Kyrill Kondrashin, who recognised a kindred spirit in the dedication and human warmth of Oistrakh. There is, therefore, a significant representation of Oistrakh not just as heroic soloist but as gregarious chamber musician, with friends including the pianists Lev Oborin and Vladimir Yampolsky and the cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky. Their repertoire ranges from Albéniz to Zarzycki, including showpieces such as Tartini’s ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata and Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ as well as more Oistrakh-inspired works by Prokofiev and Catoire. This is an essential set both for anyone who has some of Oistrakh’s many studio recordings and wishes to explore further, and as an introduction to one of the last century’s most inspiring musicians.

Many performances not otherwise available

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Detailed booklet-notes exploring Oistrakh’s eventful life and musical career