Romantic Violin

This four-disc set provides listeners with a fantastic introduction to the Romantic piano quintet, showcasing lesser-known gems of the genre, alongside a few more recognisable offerings.

Normally, one thinks of pearl-divers as of people from the Southern seas, typically the Tropical ones. Certainly, the ice-cold waters of the polar and subpolar seas are not those most immediately associated with pearl-fishing. And, indeed, the “pearls from the Northern Seas” represented in this Da Vinci Classics album are intangible and invisible, as they represent the domain of the audible.

Playing the 1716 Booth Stradivari, violinist Arabella Steinbacher plays Johannes Brahms’s three Violin Sonatas, as well as the Scherzo he contributed to the FAE Sonata, with a prepossessing tonal command, captured and reproduced by PentaTone’s engineers, who have balanced both performers close up yet communicating a sense of the venue’s spaciousness (the recording took place in September 2000, at the Concertboerderij Valthermond). In the Vivace ma non troppo of Brahms’s First Violin Sonata, Steinbacher mixes strength and tenderness, exhibiting a wide dynamic range that the recorded sound has transmitted to the listeners. Robert Kulek’s introduction and accompanying figures at the second movement’s opening also reverberate warmly in the ambiance underneath Steinbacher’s sound, especially thick and honeyed in these passages (even at times recalling Mischa Elman’s fabled tone).

Louis Spohr was a slightly younger contemporary to Beethoven and was the only main contender to Paganini as a violin virtuoso. His earlier violin concerti here are a good example of his style and how it was in great parts similar to that of Paganini's. The performance and direction is well done. More gifted than Paganini in terms his greater diversity of compositions and ability for instrumental arrangement, Spohr's obscurity is somewhat more the product of academic questions on his originality in method and application and his merit for them in contrast to Paganini's whose genius talent was unquestionable.

Growing up in his native Dublin in the 1850s and ‘60s, Stanford was no stranger to high-quality chamber music, even if the visits to Ireland’s capital by pre-eminent executants of the genre were sporadic. As a teenager he recalled with some affection and excitement the solo recitals of Anton Rubinstein, Sigismond Thalberg and Charles Hallé, and string players such as Camillo Sivori, Ludwig Straus, Henry Vieuxtemps, Alfredo Piatti and of course Joseph Joachim, a friend of his father. Hearing Joachim play Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata and unaccompanied Bach at semi-private concerts left a deep impression on Stanford (himself a budding violinist), as did Joachim’s appearances as the leader of Levey’s (his tutor’s) quartet. As a result of these formative experiences, Stanford became a devotee of chamber music.

After his acclaimed recording of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, for Onyx Classics, and current Gramophone CD of the Month [on Chandos], James Ehnes once again collaborates with Vladimir Ashkenazy for a Tchaikovsky programme, recorded live in Sydney. This CD contains Tchaikovsky’s complete works for violin and orchestra, plus a delightful bonus of the 'Souvenir d’un lieu cher' accompanied by Ashkenazy on piano.

Dvorák's music for violin and piano comes from many periods in his career. An early Sonata in A minor of 1873 is lost. Of the works which do survive, several, including the Notturno and Four Romantic Pieces, are skilful arrangements of earlier works (the Notturno is a reworking of the central section of the E minor String Quartet, while the Four Pieces were originally written for viola and piano).

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936), by virtue of his dates and the fact that he continued to compose into the 1930s, only narrowly qualifies for inclusion in a series devoted to 20th century music. Musically his style looks back to the previous century when Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin held sway in Imperial Russia. At that time Glazunov represented an effective bridge between their nationlist tendencies and the more cosmopolitan outlook of Tchaikovsky.

Robert Schumann - Complete Works For Violin And Orchestra
Ulf Wallin / Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie / Frank Beermann
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 316 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: BIS # BIS-SACD-1775 | Country/Year: Europe 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

This SACD is a delight! (…) If you are not familiar with Schumann’s violin concerto, by all means avail yourself of this excellent BIS SACD – I think you will be happy to make its acquaintance.

"Heartbreak" Romantic Encores for Violin - Nearly 20 years in the audiophile and classical music scene, it has been regarded as one of the must-haves listening albums for testing high-end audio, and has been selected as one of the editors-in-chief of the Audio Forum "Liu Hansheng CD List", which is unanimously recognized by the professional senior music community…