Josefowicz

You'd get differing answers to the question of whether John Adams is America's greatest living composer, but he's the one to whom the country turned in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The demand for new work from him has only increased since he achieved senior citizen status. Fortunately, he's been able to meet that demand with distinctive large-scale works. Consider 2016's Scheherazade.2, recorded here by the violinist who premiered the work, Leila Josefowicz, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under David Robertson. The piece succeeds on several levels. It is, outwardly, as close as Adams has come to writing a big Romantic violin concerto, and it will no doubt be welcomed into the concert repertory as such. Yet go into it more deeply, and it seems less a concerto than – well, what, exactly? Adams calls it a "dramatic symphony." English critic Nick Breckenfield has compared it to Berlioz's Harold in Italy, with the soloist representing an individual making her way through a series of adventures that may have a threatening tinge.

Composed in 1993, the John Adams Violin Concerto is already a contemporary classic. Some reviewers say it is the best violin concerto written in the past 50 years. This new recording by Leila Josefowicz is the last word on what are now many recordings by some of the world's finest players. She first recorded the Violin Concerto in 2002 with John Adams, the composer, conducting. What makes this new recording the best? Josefowicz "owns" the piece having performed it in concert over 100 times since the premiere!

Esa-Pekka Salonen - Out of Nowhere - Leila Josefowicz (2012) {Deutsche Grammophon B0017521-02}
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© 2012 Deutsche Grammophon | B0017521-02
Classical / Modern Classical / Concerto / Violin

Renowned as one of the world's leading conductors, Esa-Pekka Salonen is also a gifted composer of highly expressive, colorful, and idiomatic music that has found a growing audience. His Violin Concerto (2009) won the 2012 Grawemeyer Prize and was composed for Leila Josefowicz, who performs as soloist with Salonen and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on this Deutsche Grammophon release. The dazzling virtuosity of the violin part translates into equally flashy writing for the orchestra, and it's apparent that Salonen wrote with a conductor's ear for all the instruments' capabilities, not primarily for the violin above an indifferent accompaniment.

Success was assured for Leila Josefowicz in her 1994 recording debut, for the 17-year-old violinist had performed these works several times before and had perfected her interpretations through constant preparation and presentation. Along with her boundless energy and self-confidence, Josefowicz's skills have placed her at the forefront of violin virtuosi, and this recording is a fascinating record of her precocity. Tchaikovsky's Classically oriented violin concerto is as bright a showpiece as exists in the repertoire. However, Josefowicz's mastery of the brilliant scales and arpeggios is almost secondary to her soulful shaping of the purely melodic material that is at the heart of this intensely lyrical piece.

Composer John Adams' album Road Movies contains five pieces that Adams' considers "travel music, (…) passing through harmonic and textural regions as one would pass through on a car trip." Indeed, during Leila Josefowicz's spirited and appropriately brusque reading of the "40% Swing" movement from the title work, one hears what sounds like a passing auto in the left channel. Is it mere coincidence or the album concept channeling onto the master tape?

American violinist Leila Josefowicz has performed John Adams’ 1993 Violin Concerto almost 100 times. It’s a work that makes huge technical and expressive demands on the soloist, and Josefowicz squares up admirably to the challenges. The restless, 15-minute opening movement is a vehicle for her dazzling, rhapsodic solo playing, as she flits here and there, anchored by the steady rhythms of the orchestra. Ancient meets modern when Adams then toys with the Chaconne form—Josefowicz soaring sweetly, mournfully above a recurring bass—before the final visceral, fiery moto perpetuo movement that grows ever more frenzied as it races to its climactic bars.

35-CD super-budget limited edition box set the perfect way to build your library of essential listening!Comprehensive overview of the violin including concertos, sonatas and even encore pieces.Includes world famous artists such as Joshua Bell and Gidon Kremer.