Sassmanshaus Violine

Anca Vasile Caraman was born in Romania and began studying the violin at the age of 4 in her hometown with Prof.

Benjamin Schmid has long been recognised as one of the most versatile violin virtuosos of our time, at home in both the classical and jazz genres.

The Fantasias for solo violin composed by Georg Philipp Telemann (Magdeburg, 14th March 1681 – Hamburg, 25th June 1767) were published in 1735, approximately ?fteen years after the Sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. We do not know if Telemann knew Bach’s masterpieces, but surely he did not have the same speculative concerns as Bach; indeed Bach tended to reconstruct the polyphonic texture on a monodical instrument thanks to a game of real sounds and underlying notes. On the contrary, in Telemann the pleasure of exploring the possibilities of the instrument prevails, as well as identifying original technical and expressive solutions, to enhance the performer’s capabilities, with the aim of fascinating, surprising and involving the audience.

Niemand spielt Paganini so virtuos wie die berühmte Geigerin Ane Larrazábal. Doch dies war ihr letztes Konzert – nach der Aufführung des Capriccio Nr. 24, des schwierigsten Geigenstückes aller Zeiten, findet man sie stranguliert in den Räumen des Konzertgebäudes. Auf ihrer Brust prangt in blutiger Schrift das arabische Wort für »Satan«; und ihre einzigartige Stradivari mit dem geschnitzten Teufelskopf ist unauffindbar.

Awarded the quarterly German Record Critics' Award, this disc brings the chamber music from the period between 1968 and 1982, which reveals Ligeti's development that is particularly impressive with the old-fashioned harpsichord and the Continuum entrusted to it. The piece has an unreal opalescence, literally whirring and flickering. Sheets of sound transform threateningly – quite unlike the more grounded, Hungarian-tinged pieces. The works for piano duo suddenly present a standard theme of painting as a musical subject: the self-portrait! The full title of the composition translates as "Self-portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin is in there too)." Ligeti does not deny the irony here. In his Trio, obstinately enough, he does not assemble a classical set of instruments but instead includes representatives of different "families," juxtaposed more or less irreconcilably: violin, horn, and piano.

Benjamin Schmid has long been regarded as one of the most versatile violin virtuosos of our time, at home in both the classical and jazz genres. Following his album of jazz violin concertos, Schmid now returns with the Salzburger Bläserphilharmonie under the direction of Hansjörg Angerer with works by Friedrich Gulda and Kurt Weill. Gulda opened a new era of musical freedom with his "Concerto for Violoncello and Wind Orchestra" (here in the version for violin) at its premiere in the Vienna Konzerthaus in 1981.

Buxtehude’s Opus 1 and 2 Sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord belie the composer’s common image as austere and sober. They instead delight the listener with what Johann Mattheson, writing in 1739, called their « unfamilar progressions, hidden ornamentation, and ingenious colourations ». It comes as no surprise to learn that the sonatas were a great success when they were first published in Germany in the 1690s, in the midst of the fashion for the ‘stylus fantasticus’ (described by Athanasius Kircher in 1650 as “…especially suited to instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject. It was instituted to display genius, and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues.")