Ehnes

Following his 2012 Chandos release of the numbered rhapsodies and sonatas of Béla Bartók, James Ehnes presents a second volume that presents the masterful Sonata for Solo Violin, BB 124, along with less significant works for violin and piano. The sonata was written in 1944 on a commission from Yehudi Menuhin, and as Bartók's last composition for the instrument, it reflects his accumulated knowledge of string writing and the organic development of ideas over his lifetime. Indeed, listeners familiar with the indispensable six string quartets and the Music for strings, percussion, and celesta may well recognize certain expressions, motives, forms, and techniques, as if this solo work in all its compression and austerity was actually a distillation or final working out of those works' essential material.

Following his 2012 Chandos release of the numbered rhapsodies and sonatas of Béla Bartók, James Ehnes presents a second volume that presents the masterful Sonata for Solo Violin, BB 124, along with less significant works for violin and piano. The sonata was written in 1944 on a commission from Yehudi Menuhin, and as Bartók's last composition for the instrument, it reflects his accumulated knowledge of string writing and the organic development of ideas over his lifetime. Indeed, listeners familiar with the indispensable six string quartets and the Music for strings, percussion, and celesta may well recognize certain expressions, motives, forms, and techniques, as if this solo work in all its compression and austerity was actually a distillation or final working out of those works' essential material.

There are two reasons to check out this disc of Bach's sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord. The first reason is that it features recordings of all three versions of the G major Sonata – the first five-movement version with three slow movements surrounded by the same Presto, the second six-movement version with two new movements that didn't appear in the first version, and the third and final five-movement version with three new movements that didn't appear in the two preceding versions.

Known for his virtuosity and probing musicianship, violinist James Ehnes has been honored with many international prizes, including a GRAMMY, a Gramophone Award, and eleven JUNO Awards.

The St. Louis Symphony and their music director Stéphane Denève present a wonderful program featuring two of the most accomplished American composers in history: Leonard Bernstein with his Serenade and John Williams with his Concerto for violin and orchestra, both performed by star James Ehnes, one of the most exceptional North American violinists. John Williams himself was present at the recording of his violin concerto, working together with the St. Louis Symphony, Denève, and Ehnes.

James Ehnes picks up the viola for his first recording of the two Brahms sonatas Op.120 of 1894, in the composer's arrangement for viola and piano. Originally written for clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, Brahms made subtle changes for the viola versions, and in so doing he greatly enriched the meagre viola sonata repertoire with these two late masterpieces. Schumann composed his Märchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures) in a few days in March 1851. They are imbued with a potent sense of fantasy - imagination runs riot, from melancholy to drama. James Ehnes plays on the 1696 'Achinto' Stradivari viola for this recording, courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music.

Sibelius studied the violin in his youth, and actively entertained the prospect of a career as a professional violinist for much of his student life. After graduating from the Helsinki Music Institute, in 1890, he went to Vienna to continue his studies, and while there he even auditioned (unsuccessfully) for a place in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. So, it comes as no surprise that the instrument plays an important place in his compositional output. What might be surprising is that he wrote only one concerto – this might perhaps be due to the difficult conception of the work.

The second volume of the Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle, from James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong,follows the critically acclaimed release of sonatas nos. 6 &9 ‘Kreutzer’.

Like many musical projects planned for 2020, the plans of the Ehnes Quartet to record Beethoven’s late quartets underwent a drastic revision. Rather than cancel the project, some ingenious technology was employed. James Ehnes takes up the story ‘Our quartet was greatly looking forward to a week of recording in the United Kingdom in August 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for us to travel to the UK, and for our UK-based producer, Simon Kiln, to travel to us. We were, however, able to take advantage of the wonders of modern technology by recording in the USA with Simon (producer Simon Kiln) monitoring the sessions in real time in London A fortunate benefit of not traveling overseas for these recordings was that the days we had scheduled for travel become additional recording days, allowing us to record all of Beethoven’s string quartets from Op. 74 onwards. The four CD’s we recorded during this intense two-week period will always be treasured reminders for us of a brief, bucolic window of artistic fulfilment during a terribly challenging period for the world’.