Mozart Ashkenazy

Romantic Adagios II is an interesting introduction to instrumental art music, though. Decca's stable of truly great performing artists are well represented. Among them are the Academy of Ancient Music, the London Symphony, the Concertgebouw Orchesta; performers Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lynn Harrell, and Joshua Bell; and conductors Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, and Herbert von Karajan. Compositions range widely through music history, including works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Debussy. Especially lovely are the adagios from Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and Grieg's Piano Concerto.

Various Artist - Violin Adagios (2CDs) (2001)
Classical | Easy CD-DA / Flac & Cue, No Log | Cover included | 680 MB | RS
Audio CD: March 20, 2001 | Label: Decca

Continuing their Adagios series, the folks at Decca have combed the archives once again and assembled another soothing collection of beautiful melodies, Violin Adagios. This time the soulful sound of the violin takes center stage in a program of the most memorable slow-paced music written for the instrument. Opening with Kennedy's rendition of Massenet's mournful "Meditation" from Thaïs, the double-disc set continues with performances by legends like Arthur Grumiaux and Henryk Szeryng, along with newly minted stars such as Joshua Bell, Kyung-Wha Chung, and Leila Josefowicz. And all the essential composers – from Bach to Beethoven to Brahms – are represented, too, on this album in celebration of the violin, that most lyrical of instruments.

Barnes & Noble

There are two really famous Beethoven violin sonatas, the Kreutzer and the Spring. The Kreutzer Sonata inspired the story by Leo Tolstoy, which in turn became the subject of Janácek's First String Quartet, so if you're into comparative studies in the arts, there's a thesis topic for you! The Spring Sonata was featured in Woody Allen's Love and Death, among other places. And perhaps most intriguingly of all, the scherzo of the late sonata, Op. 96, turns up quite clearly in the third movement of Mahler's Second Symphony.

Chopin is best loved for his solo piano music however there have always been question marks over the orchestration in his concertos. In the first concerto, which was in fact the second to be composed, both soloist and orchestra deliver a first rate performance. Chopin’s second concerto is lighter and more piano dominated. Here the soloist Kun-Woo Paik sounds happier and more involved than in the first concerto.

Paavali Jumppanen is an internationally esteemed pianist, with a vast performance repertoire spanning from Bach to the Avant-garde. Jumppanen’s performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven’s and Mozart’s Piano Sonatas as well as Beethoven’s concertos and chamber music have won critical acclaim. Jumppanen has collaborated with numerous contemporary composers and has premiered many solo and chamber works for the piano. Of particular note are his recordings of Pierre Boulez’s complete piano sonatas at the request of the composer. This adaptability between musical genres gives a fresh reading of the core classical piano repertoire.