Nemanja Radulovic

“This album presents the core of the violin repertoire – Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Kreutzer Sonata,” says Nemanja Radulović. While these Beethoven masterpieces have been recorded countless times, Radulović’s approach to each of them has an element of innovation. For the concerto, he has expanded Double Sens, the chamber ensemble he founded in 2008. “I wanted to retain the special character of Double Sens as an ensemble which plays without a conductor and explores new ways of interpretation … In our recording of the concerto, we wanted to convey a range of emotions – courage, risk, joy, love, rage, sadness, nostalgia, and magical serenity and tenderness.”

Nemanja Radulovic takes on Tchaikovsky for his second Deutsche Grammophon release, promising a personal approach to one of the warhorses of the repertory, the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. The album's most unusual feature is the full-scale reworking of the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, recast here for viola, string ensemble, and piano by Radulovic collaborator Yvan Cassar and played by the violinist's (or here, violist's) own Double Sens ensemble.

“This album presents the core of the violin repertoire – Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Kreutzer Sonata,” says Nemanja Radulović. While these Beethoven masterpieces have been recorded countless times, Radulović’s approach to each of them has an element of innovation. For the concerto, he has expanded Double Sens, the chamber ensemble he founded in 2008. “I wanted to retain the special character of Double Sens as an ensemble which plays without a conductor and explores new ways of interpretation … In our recording of the concerto, we wanted to convey a range of emotions – courage, risk, joy, love, rage, sadness, nostalgia, and magical serenity and tenderness.” Rather than playing the grandly scaled Kreutzer Sonata in partnership with a pianist, he performs it here in his own arrangement for solo violin and five-part string ensemble. “While remaining faithful to Beethoven, I allowed myself to exercise my imagination.”

Le duo violon et harpe est plutôt rare. On a davantage l'habitude d'associer la flûte à la harpe, alors que les sonorités du violon et de la harpe se marient à merveille. La harpiste Marielle Nordmann et le violoniste Nemanja Radulovic qui sont amis de longue date et se produisent souvent ensemble, nous offrent (enfin !) un enregistrement de leur belle collaboration. Dans cet album les transcriptions sont majoritaires, car le répertoire original pour cette formation est assez restreint. On trouve même la célèbre Méditation de Thaïs de Jules Massenet (au départ pour violon et orchestre) dont on ne compte plus les adaptations..

The Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulovic has attempted to broaden the appeal of classical music through his charismatic image and innovative programming concepts. He has founded two ensembles of his own to aid in the realization of his ideas. Radulovic was born in Nis, Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia, on October 18, 1985. He took up the violin in 1992, and by 1996 he had won a Belgrade Youth Award. The following year he won the Talent 1997 prize from Serbia's Ministry of Education, and that was followed by a series of youth awards around Eastern Europe and in France. Radulovic enrolled at age 13 at the Hochscule für Musik Saar in Germany, returned to Serbia for further study at the University of the Arts in Belgrade, and moved to Paris in 2000 for more work at the Conservatoire Nationale in Paris. Radulovic has also taken master classes with Yehudi Menuhin, among others. He won the top prize at the Joseph Joachim International Competition in Germany in 2003, and he was named Discovery of the Year at France's Victoires awards in 2005.