Solo

An intense and highly sought-after cellist on the Hungarian classical, contemporary, and improvisation scenes, for his first solo disc Tamás Zétényi has selected some of the most important solo string instrument pieces of the twentieth century: this album features solo sonatas by Kodály and Ligeti. In three works by two Hungarian composers, we can trace how the solo string genre, founded by Bach, was suddenly revived in the twentieth century. Kodály’s grandiose cello sonata intones with the intimacy of a soliloquy, deploying folk-music inspiration and the new harmonic world of Impressionism alongside the Bachian prototypes.

The three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn presents her new recording of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for Violin Solo, op. 27. Inspired by the example set by J.S. Bach two centuries earlier, legendary Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe wrote the first work in what turned out to be a six-sonata cycle in June 1923. One hundred years later, Hilary Hahn “one of the essential violinists of our time” (The New York Times), has recorded the set on her own wave of inspiration – driven by the impetus of the upcoming centenary to realize one of her dream projects.

A major milestone in Philip Glass’s compositional output. Matt Haimovitz plays Glass’s brand-new Partita No 2, alongside its predecessor, "Songs and Poems," which surprised many people with its depth and ambition. It’s not hard to hear that Glass has studied Bach’s solo cello suites in depth, and he demands a similar range from the instrument. This is music of real substance, and couched in a very different style to the minimalist Glass we’ve come to know. Haimovitz is utterly inside this music and brings passion, technique, and personality.

Following his acclaimed release of the Brahms and Schoenberg Violin Concertos, Jack Liebeck returns to Orchid Classics with Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, as well as the lyrical Poème élégiaque for violin and piano, for which Liebeck is joined by Daniel Grimwood. Ysaÿe was hailed as the greatest violinist of his day until illness cut short his career as a soloist, prompting him to channel his energies into writing these sonatas dedicated to six of his most outstanding contemporaries, including George Enescu and Fritz Kreisler. Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas were inspired by hearing Joseph Szigeti play J.S. Bach’s Sonata for solo violin in G minor, BWV 1001, and Bach’s influence is palpable throughout, alongside folk idioms that reflect the nationality of each dedicatee, and more characteristic 20th-century elements such as dissonance and quarter tones. This mixture is bound together by the dazzling virtuosity one would expect from a master of the instrument. Liebeck navigates these nuances with the combination of delicacy and bravura demanded by these stunning pieces.

Kerson Leong recently participated in the award-winning Tribute to Ysaÿe (FUG758). Here is his first solo recital for Alpha. The young Canadian violinist’s career began at the age of thirteen when he won the First Prize of the Junior division of the Menuhin Competition in Oslo in 2010. In 2018 he was named artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. An associate musician at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, under the mentorship of Augustin Dumay, he has already performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Verbier Festival and Wigmore Hall. The Quebec newspaper Le Devoir, which has followed him since the start of his career, speaks of ‘the purity of intonation, the brilliance of the high notes, the power of the sound… Kerson Leong has remained as brilliant as ever, but he has added a new patina and, deep down inside himself, a new class.’

Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux explores some of the most technically challenging and virtuoso solo violin repertoire for her stunning debut recording. her programme embraces a mix of the rational and intuitive, of head and heart, in five diverse solo sonatas, each strikingly different in style and substance.

Brilinsky’s intention is ‘not to emphasize technique, but rather sound, and above all the magnificent music must be paramount. Polyphonic like Bach, Ysaÿe also gives a specific stylistic portrait of each of the six violinists the sonatas were composed for.’ Ysaÿe knew them all personally; several were associated with the Vienna Philharmonic, as he himself was, thus bringing together different European schools of violin playing. Maxim Brilinsky does not, however, approach all the great technical demands, the subtleties and individual portraits, solely in consideration of the expressive virtuosity of their dedicatees. Further highlighting association with the Vienna school, Brilinsky plays a violin made in 1862 by the Vienna luthier Gabriel Lemböck, who was also responsible for string instruments of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1842.