There is, of course, no shortage of Romantic-era violin concertos in the instrument's standard repertoire. None of them found with any regularity on the concert stage, however, hail from Denmark. This DaCapo album demonstrates that there are indeed examples that come to us from the Scandinavian country, and even that some of them are inexplicably excluded from the modern canon.
Hyperion’s Romantic Violin Concerto series reaches volume 8 and the music of the Belgian composer Henry Vieuxtemps, himself widely considered the finest violinist in Europe after the death of Paganini. Listening to the repertoire recorded here, he certainly deserves to be ranked among the most important composers for the violin in the mid-nineteenth century. Vieuxtemps never indulged in sheer virtuosity for its own sake; instead in his concertos and chamber works he brought a more classical dimension to the violin repertoire in place of the technically brilliant variations and fantasies on popular operatic themes that were so popular with audiences.
On this release, pianist Lorna Griffitt and violinist Haroutune Bedelian present a program of works by Robert and Clara Schumann. Dr. Lorna Griffitt began her performing career at 16 as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra under the direction of Robert Whitney. She received her doctorate from Indiana University under the tutelage of Menahem Pressler. Dr. Griffitt enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue both in the United States and in South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Her performances include appearances in New York at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, a live broadcast from Washington DC on NPR's Performance Today, and a solo recital at Indiana University's Auer Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. Violinist Haroutune Bedelian is a professor at the University of California at Irvine, and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London. He has performed in major cities, festivals and concert halls throughout North and South America, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East and has appeared in numerous radio and television broadcasts.