Audax Records

Bach’s Sei Sonate a Cembalo certato e Violino solo seem to stand in isolation. In fact, however, they took up numerous suggestions from contemporaries and acted as models for Bach’s sons and pupils. Johannes Pramsohler and Philippe Grisvard expand this ground-breaking cycle with works from Bach's circle. The result is three profound and virtuosic recitals that offer for the first time an overview of the impact of Bach’s revolutionary sonata model on his immediate successors.

Pieter Hellendaal was one of the star violinists who - like Geminiani and Veracini - appeared as a soloist during the intermissions of Handel’s operas in London. Exploring Hellendaal’s sonata manuscript in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, Johannes Pramsohler brings to light a composer firmly rooted in the Corellian tradition, yet reminiscent of his teacher Tartini in his melodic invention and of Locatelli in his stunningly virtuosic cadenzas.

True to the motto “Stay curious,” Audax Records offers a second excursion through the catalog of Greek-born composer Hélène Covatti and her husband Robert Dussaut. After an album devoted to the songs of the couple (ADX13722 with Adriana González and Iñaki Encina Oyón), here the Brüggen-Plank duo presents their works for violin and piano, some of them in premiere recordings. With extensive experience in the twentieth-century repertoire, Marie Radauer-Plank and Henrike Brüggen approach this music with flair and an impressive palette of colours and complete the album with works by composers close to the couple in Paris during the inter-war period.

Audax Records presents the second album by the Guatemalan soprano Adriana González (winner of Operalia 2019) and the Basque pianist Iñaki Encina Oyón. One can again take delight in a discovery: the complete recording of the songs of Isaac Albéniz. Following the chronological order of the compositions, the duo traces the short, but varied life of the most important Spanish composer and waymarker toward the twentieth century.

In the year of social distancing, the Mariani Piano Quartet dedicates itself to a today almost forgotten friendship and embarks with Audax Records upon a voyage of discovery in which the piano quartets of Johannes Brahms are juxtaposed with those by Friedrich Gernsheim.

Two of today’s most exciting artists on the international opera scene meet for a very personal project. Audax Records has followed Adriana González's career since its beginnings and offered carte blanche to the artist who invited Marina Viotti to join her for this program devised by Iñaki Encina Oyón. A florilegium of French duos by composers such as Fauré, Franck, Chausson, Massenet, Gounod, Lalo, Delibes, Viardot, Widor, Paladilhe, Devéria, Chaminade and Puget, including several world premiere recordings.

For its Audax debut, the Duo Bruggen-Plank explores Beethovens last violin sonata in its historical context.

After early French violin concertos with Johannes Pramsohler and North German cello concertos with Gulrim Choï, it is now the turn of Ensemble Diderot’s harpsichordist to distinguish himself in this genre: Philippe Grisvard has chosen the repertoire of composers from the court of Frederick II, thus continuing Ensemble Diderot’s comprehensive exploration of the style of the Berlin School. The decision not to include Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in this program facilitates the rehabilitation and rediscovery of composers whose contribution to the concerto genre is no less important. The result is a completely new program of virtuoso works in which the spirit of Bach father and son shines through time and again.

The music recorded here encompasses a period of around a hundred years. The earliest works come from the time around 1600, which is considered one of the most profound watersheds in musical history.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his Partita in D minor for solo violin, BWV 1004, from the year 1717 to 1723. It has been suggested that this partita, and especially its last movement, was conceived as a tombeau in memory of Bach's first wife Maria Barbara Bach (who died in 1720). The partita contains five movements, given in Italian as: Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabanda, Giga and Caccona.