Tartan Turban

If a composer writes 24 caprices for the violin, and if he himself is also a uniquely virtuoso violinist, then a comparison with the 24 caprices by Paganini is inevitable: Henri Marteau was not only appreciated and revered as one of the greatest violinists of his time, but his compositional work was lost in the background. He shared this fate with Niccolò Paganini, who was also experienced during his lifetime more as a ""warlock"" of the violin than as a serious composer and musician. So, if this comparison is almost inevitable, it must be mentioned that Paganini himself, with his main work published in 1820, also took up the example of other composers, such as the Etudes and Caprices of Rodolphe Kreutzer. The subtitle of Henri Marteau's Caprices: ""d'exécution transcendante"" is also very revealing. Moreover, Marteau has his miniatures accompanied throughout by the piano, unlike Paganini, who uses the violin alone. The violin virtuoso Ingolf Turban considered his own violin class at the Hochschule München predestined for this first recording of all 24 of Marteau's caprices. So together they dared to do the almost unbelievable: all twelve students in his class were involved in this mammoth task, the absolute peak of which, of course, lies in the very elaborate piano accompaniment. Here he engaged the pianist Tomoko Nishikawa, who confidently took on this mammoth task!

Though he is most often remembered for orchestrating Liszt's tone poems, Swiss composer Joachim Raff's own compositions are nevertheless quite interesting with much to recommend them. The Fourth Grand Sonata subtitled "Chormatische Sonate in einem Satze" lives up to its title by being intensely chromatic and in one thematically unified movement, lasting better than a quarter hour. The Fifth Grand Sonata is a big-boned, four-movement work lasting nearly half an hour with romantic themes, muscular developments, and powerful climaxes. The Sonatillen, originally a set of classical pasticcios for piano solo later adopted by the composer for violin and piano, is a charming little suite in five movements lasting less than 20 minutes.

Bruch, Strauss and Busoni one would think that the works of such famous composers have all appeared on recordings. There are still a number of gaps, however, which come to light time and again. These three violin concertos are absent or only weakly represented in current recording catalogs; one can rightly speak of them as discoveries. Bruch’s Second Violin Concerto, although much more interesting than his Concerto in G Minor, has long remained in its shadow.

The combination of organ and violin dates back to the Baroque era. Many of the sonatas for violin and basso continuo can be performed on the organ just as well or even more colorfully than on the harpsichord. Henri Marteau builds entirely on this tradition with his Fantasy for organ and violin op. 27, recorded here for the first time. The violin virtuoso and pedagogue, celebrated worldwide, was also a very prolific composer and, in addition to chamber music, wrote two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony, an opera and several organ works, for which he was inspired by the soft romantic registers of the pneumatic organ of the time in his adopted home of Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia let.

Interest in Spohr is on the rise –a fact demonstrated not only by our new recording of his complete symphonic oeuvre but also by the outstanding reputation rightly earned by our edition of his complete violin concertos. Spohr’s striking originality as a composer and violinist are reflected in these works from the middle and late periods of his life, presented here as world première recordings. The title Grand Duo concertant was given by Spohr to place equal virtuosic demands on both Violin and Piano, neither instrument has a subordinate role.

Born in the Champagne countryside in 1837, Théodore Dubois developed his talents at the Reims Cathedral, which explains why the Catholic sacred sphere influenced him throughout his life. Even today he continues to be known in France above all as a composing organist and a composer of sacred music for liturgical use who compiled a massive oeuvre. He also continues to be much discussed in educational circles as the author of the standard manuals in music theory of a strictly conservative nature. We are now releasing three of his violin compositions, which, by contrast, have been neglected and wrongly forgotten by posterity. His Violin Concerto was dedicated to none other than the violin legend Eugène Ysaÿe.