Per Störby Jutbring

For her first solo album on Linn – she has appeared with her Duo Pleyel partner Richard Egarr on three occasions, and more will come! – Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya has taken the bold route of recording the little-known Gottlieb Muffat. Son of Georg Muffat, who most Baroque aficionados will know, Gottlieb attained far greater success in his working life, ultimately being promoted to first organist of the Austrian Habsburg court. In this double album Alexandra has recorded the lavish Componimenti musicali per il cembalo , a collection of seven ‘suites’ that are rich in texture, emotional range and flamboyant decoration. Carefully notated in the magnificent score, the breathtaking ornamentation is there to add expressiveness to the performance. These works represent one of the pinnacles of keyboard music from the mid-eighteenth century, and deserve their place in the repertoire.

Salvatore Accardo is an outstanding Italian violin virtuoso, best known as a master of the works of Niccolò Paganini, but equally accomplished across a wide variety of repertory for the instrument. His playing is characterized by a taut, visceral tone and a disciplined musical approach that avoids self-indulgence. Having also established himself as a successful conductor, chamber musician, and teacher, Accardo may be considered one of the most accomplished and influential musicians of his generation.

Through this exciting recording, the violinist Fabio Biondi pursues his exploration of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century repertoire for solo violin. Two years after his complete recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's solo Sonatas and Partitas (V 5467), he lands on entirely unknown territory, the Assaggi by the Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758). Rarely lasting more than twelve minutes, the Assaggi is thus a fascinating melting-pot of multiple aesthetics in vogue in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Fabio Biondi champions this little known territory of the European late baroque with a voracious generosity and highly eloquent sense of phrase.

Dubeau is a graduate and First Prize winner of the Montreal Conservatory of Music. She studied at the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and later went to Romania to work with Ştefan Gheorghiu. Since that time, Dubeau has been regarded as one of Canada's most prominent classical performing artists. She has performed in concert halls in more than 25 countries and won several important international competitions. In addition, she has sold more than 300,000 records as a solo classical recording artist. Besides Dubeau, only a few other classical soloists have a certified Gold record for 50,000 albums sold in a given year.