Pablo Sarasate

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.

According to the composer and conductor Clarence Lucas, writing in 1935, “of the merits of d’Ambrosio… he always maintains his standard of elegance and never becomes commonplace”. By the way d’Ambrosio’s instrumental music was highly appreciated by contemporaries and played by the most acclaimed interpreters of his time, though nowadays seems hélas almost neglected. Alfredo D’Ambrosio (Naples, June 13, 1871-Paris, December 28, 1914) was a Neapolitan violinist and composer studying in Naples Conservatoire with Eusebio Dworzak, Ferdinando Pinto, Enrico Bossi, then in Madrid with Pablo Sarasate and in London with August Wilhelmj.

In the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Itzhak Perlman has been acclaimed as being among the leading violinists before the public, and, without doubt, has been the most visible of them in media venues, from recordings and radio broadcasts to television and film appearances. No other concert violinist and few other serious musicians have achieved the widespread exposure and popularity attained by Perlman.