Romantic Violin

One could hardly intuit from these fresh and flowing violin sonatas the obstacles their female composers had to face – family opposition for Mel Bonis in France and Ethel Smyth in England, professional bigotry for Elfrida Andrée in Sweden. It has taken a century and more for that initial prejudice to fall away, and they are now beginning to attract a fair hearing for their music. What ultimately matters, of course, is not whether composers are male or female but whether they write good music, and these three sonatas – melodically expansive, rhythmically vivacious, harmonically warm – point to the musical riches that further exploration of their creators’ output will uncover.

Much Ado, the solo debut album by Korean American violinist Danbi Um is as striking for the young musician's choice of "old world" repertoire as her virtuoso interpretations and the sumptuous sound she draws from her 1683 "ex-Petschek" Nicolo Amati violin. Danbi conjures memories of a musical Golden Age, a sensibility instilled in her by a roster of internationally renowned tutors.

This is a delightful disc. The minor problem is that listening to the Fiorillo, one feels that one has heard this all before. Mind you, it is a lovely piece with Mozartian elegance and super hunting horn sounds. It is very fresh in sound and hugely enjoyable. Federigo Fiorillo was born in Germany in 1755 and his date of death is uncertain. It is thought to be after 1823. He travelled extensively and wrote much music for the violin some of which may be well known to students today. Apparently he wrote four violin concertos.

Since this CD's overtly Romantic program is plainly aimed at the mass market and the works are obvious showpieces for violin and piano, some will regard this album merely as a flashy vehicle for a rising star. Yet David Frühwirth has judiciously chosen a number of obscure but delightful works to premiere here, and the pieces by the almost forgotten Jenö Hubay, Efrem Zimbalist, Joseph Achron, Ovide Musin, and Hans Sitt are charming curiosities that many will find appealing. While the names of Kurt Weill, Alexander Glazunov, Henryk Wieniawski, and Henri Vieuxtemps are indeed famous, Frühwirth has nonetheless found a few of their unknown gems to lavish with his considerable skills and flamboyant Viennese style.

These sparkling performances of Saint-Saëns' violin concertos are a fitting start to Hyperion's new series of Romantic Violin Concertos; a follow on from the highly successful Romantic Piano Concerto series.

Max Reger - Violin Concerto in A major, Op 101 / Two Romances for violin and small orchestra, Op 50
Tanja Becker-Bender / Konzerthausorchester Berlin / Lothar Zagrosek
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 402 MB | Full Artwork: 76 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Hyperion "The Romantic Violin Concerto" # CDA67892 | Country/Year: UK 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

…Performed by violinist Tanja Becker-Bender and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conducted by Lothar Zagrosek, the Violin Concerto is grandiose, lush, and expansive, epitomizing the post-Romantic preferences for large-scale forms, luxurious orchestration, and densely wrought ideas, while the Two Romances are comparatively modest in their length and transparent in content. (…) the orchestra sounds gorgeous, and the careful microphone placement keeps Becker-Bender front and center, so the elaborate scoring doesn't drown out her sound.

Great classical repertoire, discoveries, chamber music, concert literature at the very highest level: violinist Renaud Capuçon inspires as a soloist in all areas. He celebrated the power of world harmony with Bach's concertos and the modern counterpart by Peteris Vasks, allowed styles to communicate with each other with the concertos by Beethoven and Korngold as well as Brahms and Berg, and ensured one of the most high-profile large-scale chamber music projects of recent years with a complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas. He is now continuing on this path - alongside the young, multi-award-winning Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.