Bartok Violin

This pairing of concertos by Tchaikovsky and Bartók is the Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov’s first CD release as an exclusive Virgin Classics artist. The 24-year-old Ukrainian already features in the catalogue as the subject of a documentary released on DVD in 2006, Bruno Monsaingeon’s Natural born fiddler, while his interpretation of George Enescu’s Violin Sonata No 3 can be heard on a CD of the Romanian composer’s chamber music which became available in 2009. Recorded in Autumn 2010 with the Tonhalle Orchester conducted by David Zinman, this new concerto programme combines great works from the 19th and 20th centuries, both containing elements of folk music.

Bela Bartok and George Enescu were born in same Year - 1881, Bartok in the Austrian-Hungarian city of Nagyszentmiklos (today Romania), Enescu in the Moldovian town of Liveni-Botosani (today Romania). Both pieces on this recording are youth works of theirs - 1900 (Enescu Octet) and 1907 (Bartoks 1st violin concerto). Both works were neglected - Enescus Octet for nearly a decade due to the challenges of the piece (being premiered in 1909) , and Bartoks concerto was neglected by its dedicatee, the violinist Stefi Geyer (who was also his young love), and was published only after her death, in 1956 (being premiered in 1958). Bartok and Enescu both died in self-chosen exile - Bartok 1945 in New York, Enescu 1955 in Paris - yet both were respected and admired for being contributers to the development of their countries’ culture and art, particularly as great «ambassadors» for the folk music.

Over the years, Bartók’s two Violin Sonatas have enjoyed outstanding advocacy on disc, not least from Isabelle Faust and James Ehnes. This new, superbly recorded SACD release certainly matches, and in places exceeds, their white-hot intensity. Barnábas Kelemen and Zoltán Kocsis respond with almost improvisatory spontaneity to Bartók’s rhapsodic invention, yet ensure that the structural integrity of this tough and intellectually challenging music is never compromised…….

Erik Levi @ classical-music.com

Anne-Sophie Mutter's Bartók Second is clearly one of the best around. The first movement is a difficult piece to bring off, if only because the beginning is so simple and tuneful compared to later developments. Mutter proves an excellent guide to the music's ongoing development, never losing site of that folk-like opening and always returning to it as if to say, "See, it was there all along!"

Anne-Sophie Mutter's Bartók Second is clearly one of the best around. The first movement is a difficult piece to bring off, if only because the beginning is so simple and tuneful compared to later developments. Mutter proves an excellent guide to the music's ongoing development, never losing site of that folk-like opening and always returning to it as if to say, "See, it was there all along!"

Violin virtuoso Gil Shaham's first-ever collaboration with conductor Pierre Boulez is historic music-making of the highest artistic caliber. In the 27-year-old Shaham, Grammy winning maestro Boulez has found a soloist equally able to deliver the goods on the large and musically free Concerto, as well as the gypsy dance inspired Rhapsodies. Both conductor and soloist received a stellar reception when they performed these works live in concert last December.