Festival Website

On July 7 legendary rock vocalist Graham Bonnet released a new live album and home video captured during his acclaimed performance at Frontiers Rock Festival III in Trezzo (Milan), Italy) on April 24, 2016. Accompanied by a stellar band, featuring founding member Beth-Ami Heavenstone on bass, South American guitar sensation Conrado Pesinato on lead guitar, and Mark Zonder (known for his work with WARLORD and FATES WARNING) on drums, Bonnet masterfully delivered a thrilling "best-of" set which included songs from his stints with bands such as RAINBOW, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, ALCATRAZZ, IMPELLITTERI, and, of course, his solo material too.

On July 7 legendary rock vocalist Graham Bonnet released a new live album and home video captured during his acclaimed performance at Frontiers Rock Festival III in Trezzo (Milan), Italy) on April 24, 2016. Accompanied by a stellar band, featuring founding member Beth-Ami Heavenstone on bass, South American guitar sensation Conrado Pesinato on lead guitar, and Mark Zonder (known for his work with WARLORD and FATES WARNING) on drums, Bonnet masterfully delivered a thrilling "best-of" set which included songs from his stints with bands such as RAINBOW, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, ALCATRAZZ, IMPELLITTERI, and, of course, his solo material too.

A countryman of Bela Bartók and a sometime teacher to both György Ligeti and György Kurtág, Sándor Veress emigrated to Switzerland from what was then part of Hungary in 1949. Settling in Bern, he collected various prizes and teaching posts while working in relative obscurity on who knows how many pieces–most of which have been unavailable. This collection is made up of a pithy trio of compositions dated 1938 (Six Csárdás), 1951 (Hommage à Paul Klee), and 1952 (Concerto for Piano, Strings, and Percussion), and they show what a deftly melodic force Veress was. He's thrilled by blustery string wafts, especially in the concerto, where the percussion adds drama and immediacy. But he also favors sweetly chipper string formations, which surprise the ear during the homage to Klee, especially given the dissonances fostered early on by the twin pianos. The closing piano miniatures of Six Csárdás are counterpoint-rich gems, played with sharp precision by András Schiff.

Dvorák’s Violin Concerto has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts on disc, one that it entirely deserves. Its critics (starting with Joachim and Brahms) dismissed it for not adopting the usual sonata-form first movement structure, instead welding the truncated opening to the gorgeous slow movement. But really, how many violin concertos are there where you can really say that the best, most characterful and highly developed movement is the finale? And what could possibly be bad about that? Clearly Fischer and Suwanai understand where the music’s going: the performance gathers steam as it proceeds, and really cuts loose in that marvelous last movement. Suwani displays a characteristically polished technique and fine intonational ear (lending a lovely purity of utterance to the slow movement), but she’s not afraid to indulge in some “down and dirty” gypsy fiddling in the finale, or in the two Sarasate items that open the program.