Fantasie

Benedetti's fourth album, Fantasie, was released on September 7, 2009. It features the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexei Grynyuk, Vasily Patrenko and Andrew Litton. Fantasie is made up from a selection of well-loved violin pieces that form her fourth violin showcase. The repertoire is varied, ultimately all popular pieces and greatly different to the repertoire on her most recent studio albums. The combination of virtuosic, gipsy-influenced pieces with introspective meditations and songs represents the two aspects of violin-playing that particularly interest Benedetti. For Fantasie, Benedetti has put aside the concerti to explore some of the recital greats, including Vaughan Williams’ "The Lark Ascending", one of the greatest works for violin which, for the last three years, has been voted Classic FM’s favourite piece of classical music in their Hall of Fame.

Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. He was awarded first prize for chamber music in 1992 and first prize for violin with a special distinction from the jury in 1993. In 1995 he won the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Then he studied with Thomas Brandis in Berlin, and later with Isaac Stern. Invited by Claudio Abbado in 1997, he continued his musical experiences as konzertmeister of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester during three summers with Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Moest and of course Claudio Abbado. In 2000 he was nominated “Rising Star” and “New talent of the Year” (French Victoires de la Musique), in 2005 “Soliste instrumental de l’année”, also by the French Victoires de la Musique, and in 2006 “Prix Georges Enesco” (Sacem).

This is a significant recording for several reasons. Sergio Vartolo has now recorded all of Frescobaldi’s keyboard music (the other issues were on the Tactus label). The Fantasie (1608) and Ricercari (1615) are the earliest of Frescobaldi’s keyboard publications (the latter being issued in the same year as the more famous first book of Toccatas), and as far as I’m aware neither had been issued complete before; so to get both together, and at super-budget price, is treasure-trove indeed. Frescobaldi fanatics need read no further. (Gramophone)

Schumann's F-sharp Minor Sonata is a hard nut to crack, but the young Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes does better than most. He pounces upon the quirky rhythmic ambiguities, clarifying and varying knotty textures with felicitous voicings. His detailing, however, never becomes fussy or discontiguous. The thickest chords resonate more tellingly than in the streamlined Pollini and Perahia recordings. Andsnes plunges into the Fantasy's murky waters, savoring but never dwindling over every harmonic and contrapuntal nicety.