Tchaikovsky: Valse-scherzo in C major for violin & orchestra (or violin & piano), Op. 34

After his acclaimed recording of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, for Onyx Classics, and current Gramophone CD of the Month [on Chandos], James Ehnes once again collaborates with Vladimir Ashkenazy for a Tchaikovsky programme, recorded live in Sydney. This CD contains Tchaikovsky’s complete works for violin and orchestra, plus a delightful bonus of the 'Souvenir d’un lieu cher' accompanied by Ashkenazy on piano.

With this release, distinguished Russian violinist Sasha Rozhdestvensky and acclaimed Swiss pianist Josiane Marfurt offer the only available collection of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s music for violin and piano that can be considered truly “complete.”

The original score to the composer’s transcription of his early song for these instruments – Oh! Chante Encore, Op. 16, No. 4 – was long believed lost, until Rozhdestvensky discovered it recently at the National Library of France in Paris. This delightful and engaging work is offered here in its world premiere recording.

Rozhdestvensky’s playing is noted for its rare technical wizardry, gorgeous tone, and plenty of Russian “soul.” Emerging young pianist Marfurt is rapidly building a glowing reputation as both a top-tier soloist and chamber artist. As regular chamber partners, they form an ideal Tchaikovsky “team” – able to realize the composer’s distinctive melodic-harmonic beauty, lush sound and searing sentiment to perfection.

Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti is recognized for her musical elegance and grace. Her playing has been described as “breathtakingly rich in tone and color” (St. Petersburg Times).

Praised by The American Record Guide as a “brilliant soloist” and The Oregonian for “a performance that glowed with inner warmth...” she has received numerous accolades for her musical artistry and technique. Many of her performances have been streamed online and broadcast on FM radio, including Performance Today. Her extensive solo and chamber music appearances have taken her across the United States and abroad, performing in such venues as New York’s Weill Recital Hall, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, Tampa’s Morsani Hall, Gonfalone Oratory in Rome, Italy, and Edinburgh Castle.

Praised for her “big piano presence” (American Record Guide), Elizabeth Pridgen has distiguished herself as a soloist and avid chamber musician. Ms. Pridgen has recently joined the Georgian Chamber Players and is a member of Trio RPM with violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti and cellist Christopher Rex. A graduate of the Juilliard School and Peabody Conservatory of Music, Ms. Pridgen is currently a Distinguished Artist and Piano Chair at the McDuffie Center for Strings and holds the G. Leslie Fabian Chair of Music at the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University.

Robert McDuffie has appeared as soloist with most of the major orchestras of the world. He gave the World Premiere, with the Toronto Symphony, of Violin Concerto No. 2, “The American Four Seasons” - a work written by Philip Glass for Robert McDuffie. McDuffie is a GRAMMY® nominated artist, whose acclaimed recordings include the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber, Rozsa, Bernstein, William Schuman, and Viennese favorites. Robert McDuffie holds the Genelle and Mansfield Jennings Distinguished University Professor Chair at Mercer University in his hometown of Macon, Georgia. He is also the founder of The Rome Chamber Music Festival.

Recorded by Multi-GRAMMY award winning engineer Leslie Anne Jones, this album is truly a sonic feast for lovers of the violin and chamber music.

Midori has yet to celebrate her 40th birthday, but has been performing in public at the highest level for over 30 years. This remarkable recording was made when she was just 13 years old, and has been one of the benchmark versions of this concerto ever since.

Paganini’s First Concerto is given in its complete version, and is the most popular of his six violin concertos, displaying not only his extraordinary virtuosity, but also his great gift for melody.

‘A splendid new version of Paganini’s Violin Concerto in D, the most famous, because of the enticing lyrical theme of the first movement. Midori, an astonishingly accomplished 13-year-old, is fully equal to the work’s formidable technical demands and one is never made to feel uncomfortable when she is dealing with the pyrotechnics of the upper tessitura … Midori offers good performances of two Tchaikovsky morceaux de concert, producing some ravishingly melancholy timbre in the Sérénade mélancolique.’ Gramophone, AUGUST 1998

Recording made in 1987

Booklet notes