Clarika Salut Luc

Clarika livre un septième album tantôt fougueux et intrépide, tantôt doux-amer, mais toujours captivant. On y retrouve la liberté d'écriture et la justesse de ton qui sont sa marque de fabrique depuis plus de vingt ans, pour la première fois soulignées par de somptueux arrangements de cordes. Une production qui porte la patte de son réalisateur, le génial Fred Pallem.

Salut Salon folgen einem wunderbaren Konzept: Das Klavierquartett bestehend aus vier virtuosen Instrumentalistinnen. Sie haben sich vor über 10 Jahren zusammengetan, um auf ihre Weise so lange ihre Art von Musik zu machen, wie sie daran Spaß haben. Ihr überaus erfolgreiches Jahr 2014 krönen sie nun mit der Weihnachts-CD »Christmas with Salut Salon«.

‘If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I’ll tell you without hesitation – it’s Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!’ So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.’ Nicolas Dautricourt continues: ‘This Concerto, with its unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.’ In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d’amour for his fiancée Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received its premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frédéric Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.

Sueye Park introduced herself to the general public in 2017 with no less a calling-card than Paganini’s 24 Caprices for solo violin. On the present disc, the South-Korean violinist (born in 2000) has a pianist on her side, namely Love Derwinger, himself known from a number of recordings. The repertoire is also a more varied offering this time, with violin favourites such as Elgar’s tender Salut d’amour and Tchaikovsky’s Mélodie, as well as more virtuosic fare, for instance in the fireworks of Wieniawski’s Scherzo-Tarantelle. Sueye also includes two solo works on the disc: Ernst’s much-loved Last Rose and – in a nod to her previous disc – Paganiniana, Nathan Milstein’s fantasy on themes by Paganini. Performed with equal measures of poetic sensitivity and effortless virtuosity, this is a recital to dip into as well as to listen to from start to finish – from the fiery passion of Pablo de Sarasate’s Introduction et Tarantelle to Contemplation, Heifetz’ transcription of Brahms’s song Wie Melodien zieht es mir.

‘If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I’ll tell you without hesitation – it’s Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!’ So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.’ Nicolas Dautricourt continues: ‘This Concerto, with its unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.’ In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d’amour for his fiancée Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received its premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frédéric Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.

The French harpsichord school reached its pinnacle in the first half of the 18th century, as composers published substantial numbers of collections focusing on dance, portraiture, and character pieces. At this time, Aristotle’s guiding principle for the arts–the imitation of nature–had taken on subtle hues, with a focus on subjects such as creating musical portraits of friends or prominent figures, depicting facets of human existence, among them love, and mimicking the noises of everyday life.The extreme diversity of timbre, tune, and rhythm found in birdsong has always fascinated musicians.

Gautier Capuçon rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the leading French cellists of the 21st century by his 20th birthday. Like Mstislav Rostropovich before him, Capuçon is also an accomplished pianist, but his keyboard tastes expand beyond the realm of classical music and include jazz. What is remarkable about Capuçon is what he managed to accomplish so quickly: by his mid-twenties, he had won two important competitions and appeared on nearly 20 major recordings with artists like Martha Argerich and Myung-Whun Chung, among many others. His choice of repertory has been broad, taking in standards by Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms and lesser-knowns from the 21st century, such as Erwin Schulhoff, Hanns Eisler, and Éric Tanguy. In 2022, Capuçon created the Fondation Gautier Capuçon, an outreach program to assist young classical musicians. The following year, he issued the album Destination Paris.