Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances, Sz.56 (arr. Székely for violin & piano) - CD

James Ehnes has previously explored Béla Bartók’s concertos for violin and for viola, to great acclaim. This disc is the second in his equally successful survey of Bartók’s chamber music for the violin. His accompanist, once more, is Andrew Armstrong, a pianist praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique.

The folk-inspired Sonata for Solo Violin was the last work that Bartók wrote for the instrument, not to mention the most challenging. In a departure from his usual practice, this work was written not for a fellow Hungarian, but rather for an artist born in New York where Bartók was now living: Yehudi Menuhin. Suitably impressed by a recital performance by Menuhin of his first Violin Sonata as well as Bach’s Sonata in C, he had no hesitation in accepting the violinist’s commission for a sonata that, like Bach’s, would be unaccompanied.

Almost half a century earlier, Bartók had written his Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor. It was included in a concert given by graduating students of the Liszt Academy in June 1903, when a critic, most likely not realising just how right he would prove, hailed Bartók as ‘a phenomenal young genius, whose name today is known only to a few, but who is destined to play a great and brilliant role in the history of Hungarian music’.

Additionally on this disc we have three groups of Bartók’s Romanian and Hungarian folk dances, folksongs, and folk tunes, arranged for violin variously by Zoltán Székely, Tivadar Országh, and Joseph Szigeti, often with direct involvement by the composer himself who helped fine-tune the new arrangements. James Ehnes also highlights the Romanian influences in Bartók’s Sonatina for piano, transcribed for violin by André Gertler, a student of Bartók’s.

One of the most promising violinists of the new generation, young Moldovan Patricia Kopatchinskaja makes her Naïve debut with a captivating disc that includes Beethoven’s masterpiece, the “Kreutzer” Sonata, Ravel’s Violin Sonata, Bartók’s Romanian Dances and the premier recording of the Violin Sonata by her accompanist, the outstanding Turkish pianist and composer, Fazil Say. Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, commonly known as the “Kreutzer” Sonata, was published in 1802, and is known for its demanding violin part, unusual length and emotional scope. The piece’s title comes from its dedicatee, Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered to be the finest violinist of the day. Ironically, Kreutzer never performed it, and considered it unplayable.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja was born in Moldavia (now Moldova), and studied composition and the violin in Vienna and Berne before winning first prize in the International Henryk Szeryng Competition in 2000, followed two years later by the prestigious Crédit Suisse Group Young Artist Award. She represented Austria in the ‘Rising Stars’ concert series in the main European centres and New York. In 2004 she received the New Talent-SPP Award from the EBU and in 2006 the Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk, and now plays with leading orchestras and major festivals worldwide. More information at www.patkop.ch

Born in Ankara in Turkey, Fazil Say studied piano and composition at the State Conservatory of his home city. At 17 he was awarded a scholarship enabling him to work for five years with David Levine at the Robert Schumann Institute in Düsseldorf. From 1992-1995 he pursued his studies at the Berlin Conservatory. Say’s discography includes Stravinsky’s four-hand arrangement of The Rite of Spring, in which he plays both parts himself. This recording brought him several international awards, including the 2001 EchoPreis Klassik and the German Music Critics’ Best Recording of the Year. For Naïve, he has made recordings of Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 21, 21 & 23 (V4992) and Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’, ‘Tempest’ & ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas (V5016), and his own music, Black Earth (V4954). His most recent CD, a selection of Haydn Sonatas (V5070), was released in 2007. He gives a recital at the Edinburgh International Festival on 19 August.

Philippe Graffin is the latest violinist to join ONYX, after several outstanding discs of rare French and English repertoire for labels such as Hyperion and Avie. This new recital brings together the mesmerising intensity of Gypsy violin playing with classical composers’ response to it.

Released to coincide with a notable novel called Hungarian Dances by writer and journalist Jessica Duchen. She explains: “When I asked Philippe Graffin, a treasured friend and colleague, to check the manuscript of Hungarian Dances for violinistic errors, I little dreamed he’d respond by making this recording: a CD inspired by the novel. Yet the novel was partly inspired by a CD – Philippe and Claire’s beautiful recital ‘In the Shade of Forests’, [Avie Records, rave reviews worldwide] evoking the spirit of the archetypal wandering Gypsy violinist”.

Philippe’s recital is loosely based around the book but is also designed to work as a programme in its own right with several pieces chosen only for the recording including rarities by such composers as Von Vecsey, Hubay, Scarlatescu and Arthur Hartmann.

Claire Désert is well-known in France for several solo CDs for FNAC and other labels and here plays both piano and piano luthéal, the ‘prepared piano’ that Ravel had made for Tzigane in 1919 and which imitates the sound of a Hungarian cimbalom to striking effect in many of these pieces.

Mono

The first volume of an exciting 4 CD project: the complete works for violin of the great Hungarian 20-th century composer Béla Bartók.

The first volume offers early works and transcriptions, most of them with strong Hungarian folk music influence. Later volumes will include the violin sonatas, the solo sonata and the violin concertos. Excellent performances by Hungarian violinist Antal Zalai (formerly names Szalai) and Jozsef Balog, who already proved their superb skills in their recording of the Enescu violin sonatas on Brilliant Classics 9165.

In the early 1900s the young composer had studied many of Strauss’s scores, attempting a symphony in E flat. Gradually the music of his native Hungary began influence his musical voice as can be heard in the E minor violin sonata. The Austro-German musical hold on him was slipping. He took to wearing Hungarian national clothes, and rebelled at speaking German at home. Shortly after completing the violin sonata in 1903 he left for the countryside where he became interested in the folk music and songs of his countrymen. His research with fellow composer Zoltan Kodaly of Hungarian folk music is famous, but Bartók went beyond national boundaries for inspiration, as can be heard in the Transylvanian, Romanian and Slovak folk material featured on this disc of his early works for violin and piano.

Vadim Repin plays the magnificent Stradivarius “Ruby” (1708) by kind permission of the Stradivarius Society of Chicago.

“I have nothing but praise for Tasmin Little's acutely judged sonority as well as the actual beauty of her tone.” Gramophone

The internationally renowned violinist, Tasmin Little, was recently awarded the prestigious 2008 Classic FM / Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation in recognition of the overwhelming success of ‘The Naked Violin’ – the world’s first free classical CD download. Spurred on by the success of this pioneering recording she has created a further imaginative CD concept ‘Partners in Time’ with the pianist John Lenehan. ‘Partners in Time’ looks at the music written for violin and piano throughout history and reveals the way in which different composers wrote for this partnership. The recording features works by Kreisler, Bach, Mozart, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bartók in a varied recital programme that has the feeling of a live concert.

This new release is the first in a series of recordings for BIS which will form a sustained programme of audience development for the violin’s superb and varied repertoire.

As with ‘The Naked Violin’, listeners will have the opportunity to experience the different timbres of the two beautiful and historic instruments Little plays: the “Regent” Stradivarius of 1708, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music, and her own instrument, a 1757 Guadagnini.

“Little's sincerity made for a gripping performance, her playing well-controlled yet touched with a hint of abandon…” The Strad