Lina Tur Bonet & Musica Alchemica Antonio Vivald

The Spanish violinist Lina Tur Bonet loves big challenges: Bach, Biber, Corelli, Vivaldi. She has already dedicated two albums to the "prete rosso", which have enraptured audiences and critics alike: "devil's violinist", "rock star attitude", "Jimi Hendrix of the baroque violin" are just some of the descriptions one could read about her.

All six of Corelli's published collections of instrumental music demonstrate his exceptional skill as a violinist and composer, but it was in his Violin Sonatas Op. 5 that Corelli had the most significant impact on violin technique. The Op. 5 collection consists of 11 sonatas and a 12th sonata with a series of 23 variations on the famous 'Follia' theme. All 12 pieces contain a variety of difficult violin techniques.

This record is about reparation. History has not let two extraordinary composers meet each other. Georg Friedrich Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach came to the world in 1785, one month apart. Twice they failed to meet each other and never again would their life paths cross, instead following parallel ways. This album is dedicated to this failure.

A magical violinist, Lina Tur Bonet pays tribute to the music of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohnn. Lina Tur Bonet, concertmaster of Jordi Savall’s Concert des Nations, proves her curiosity for rare scores… This new recording, devoted to the parallel paths of the Mendelssohn siblings, will not belie her reputation! On the one hand, Felix Mendelssohn, celebrated prodigy who, at the age of thirteen, composed the Violin Concerto in D minor. Lina Tur Bonet has rediscovered the first, unpublished version of this work.

Hélène Jourdan Mourhange met Ravel for the first time after a concert in which she performed his Trio. She was an interesting, intelligent woman, well versed in the arts and culture of her time, and was a talented violinist who, however, had to stop playing years later due to rheumatoid arthritis. She then dedicated herself to musicology, reviews and other artistic activities. Not only that she was, like me, a violin player, but also shared that same disease, which I suffered in my youth. This has made me feel even closer to Ravel, and to feel a desire to make a tribute to Hélène by recording all the pieces written for her and thanks to her.

This is a 'concept-album' around Maurice Ravel and his special relation with Helene Jourdan Mourhange, a dear friend and violinist. The programme is set-up in order to take the listener by the hand into Ravel's musical world through a series of pieces which are gradually more deep and complex. The music is played on a 1935 Hautrive piano, while violin and cello are played on gut strings. The Tzigane is in the rarest version for Lutheal (Pleyel, 1910), a period prepared piano with a gipsy character.