Duos Impossibles

Years before he took Paris by storm as a brilliantly witty composer of operettas, Offenbach was celebrated across Europe as a virtuoso cellist. It is this lesser-known aspect of his creative personality that is explored by Giovanni Sollima and Andrea Noferini, who have spent years immersing themselves in the technically intricate but always lyrical and extrovert pieces which Offenbach wrote for his instrument.

Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima (born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1962) is regarded by many as a post-minimalist, and indeed one hears in some of his compositions the rigorous and formalistic elements of other composers who built upon the foundations of Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

Celebrated violinists Maria Milstein and Mathieu van Bellen pair Bela Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins with Luciano Berio's 34 Duetti per Due Violini. Bartok's miniature masterpieces have inspired and delighted countless young musicians.

Celebrated violinists Maria Milstein and Mathieu van Bellen pair Béla Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins with Luciano Berio’s 34 Duetti per Due Violini. Bartók’s miniature masterpieces have inspired and delighted countless young musicians. Although written for children, these duos are far from childlike: original harmonies, striking dissonances and lively rhythms are employed to create music with emotional depth, some being profoundly tragic, others fierce, lyrical, wild or fiery. Few works capture the vitality of folk music as vividly as these. Like Bartók, Berio composed his 'Duetti' as teaching pieces, dedicating each of the 34 duos to a friend, colleague or composer, beginning with Béla, an homage to Bartók. The pieces offer a kaleidoscope of styles, reflecting Berio’s personal connections with the dedicatees.

Kristóf Baráti is held in the highest esteem by conductors such as Gergiev, Dutoit, Saraste, Janowski and he plays with many of the finest orchestras across the world.

Béla Bartók composed his 44 Duos for two violins primarily as a pedagogical series for young students, but the collection has become increasingly popular with accomplished violinists for recordings and as recital fare, and it is usually played in its entirety, due to the brevity of the individual pieces. Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu present the 44 Duos on their debut album for Decca, and their eloquent and highly expressive playing proves that the work is as musically satisfying as the artistry they bring to it, and as listenable as Bartók's Mikrokosmos for piano, another work for students written in the same period.

Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir was born in Denmark, of a Danish mother and Icelandic father, and grew up in Iceland. Upon graduation from the Reykjavík Music Conservatory, she furthered her violin studies at the Universities of Indiana and Toronto where her teachers were Franco Gulli and Lorand Fenyves, and at the Banff School of Fine Arts.