Alina Ibragimova PAGANINI 24 Caprices

 

24 CAPRICES

 

Nils Mönkemeyer / L'Arte del Mondo / Werner Ehrhardt VIVALDI - PAGANINI - TARTINI

 

VIVALDI - PAGANINI - TARTINI

 

Francesca Dego / Francesca Leonardi IL CANNONE

 

IL CANNONE

 

Pascal Valois NAPOLI 1810

 

NAPOLI 1810

Hilary Hahn VIRTUOSO

 

VIRTUOSO

 

Charlie Siem / Itamar Golan BETWEEN THE CLOUDS

 

BETWEEN THE CLOUDS

 

Xuefei Yang CLASSICAL GUITAR BY YANG XUEFEI

CLASSICAL GUITAR BY YANG XUEFEI

Xuefei Yang HEARTSTRINGS

HEARTSTRINGS

Marcello Fantoni NICCOLÒ PAGANINI Ghiribizzi

GHIRIBIZZI

Gennaro Cardaropoli / Alberto Ferro BEETHOVEN_PAGANINI_STRAVINSKY_SAINT-SAËNS

BEETHOVEN_PAGANINI_STRAVINSKY_SAINT-SAËNS

Fabio Biondi / Giangiacomo Pinardi PAGANINI Sonatas for Violin and Guitar

                                                SONATAS FOR VIOLIN AND GUITAR

Vilde Frang / Michail Lifits PAGANINI - SCHUBERT

“I have heard an angel sing,” wrote Schubert after he heard Paganini play in Vienna in 1828. Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, juxtaposes and links works by these two violinist-composers, who lived vastly different lives, yet are musically connected. Both found inspiration in the human voice and Frang sheds new light on Schubert’s demands for virtuosity and on Paganini’s sensitive musicality.

Vilde Frang, partnered by pianist Michael Lifits, has assembled a programme that juxtaposes music by two violinist-composers of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert and Niccolò Paganini. While they lived vastly different lives and inhabited diverse aesthetic worlds, there are links to be found between them.

Through the juxtaposition, Frang wants to highlight Schubert’s capacity for virtuosity and Paganini’s musicality and sensitivity. “It’s the contrasts that appeal to me,” she says. For her, the key connection between Schubert and Paganini is the inspiration they both found in the human voice. The album includes variations that Paganini wrote on themes from operas by Rossini (Tancredi) and Paisiello (La molinara), and the ‘grand caprice’ that the violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst – considered Paganini’s greatest successor – based on one of Schubert’s most thrilling songs, Erlkönig. It sets a poem by Goethe that tells of a frantic night-time horse-ride by a father and his young son, who is tempted by a wicked spirit, the Erlking. When they reach their destination, the child is dead. “This Erlkönig is a gift to the violinist. There is such precision and accuracy in Ernst’s transcription – it works so well that it sounds like it was written for the violin. And then there is the challenge of characterising the galloping horse, the father, the son and the Erlkönig himself.”

Paganini, born in 1782, achieved enormous success as a virtuoso performer. He lived until 1840, 12 years after Schubert’s death at the age of just 31. “There is an extreme contrast between Paganini, who became a living legend, and Schubert, who tragically did not achieve the fame he deserved,” says Frang. In Spring 1828, just months before his death, Schubert saw Paganini give a concert in Vienna, where the violinist was causing a sensation. He bought tickets for himself and two friends – probably with money that he had earned from a successful concert given in his benefit on 26th March. Unfortunately, Schubert’s concert received little coverage in the Viennese press, perhaps because Paganini was stealing the musical limelight at the time. After Schubert heard Paganini play in Vienna in Spring 1828, he wrote “I have heard an angel sing.”

Frang cites Paganini’s influence on Schubert in such works as the Rondeau brilliant in B minor, D 895, and the Fantaisie in C major, D 943, both of which were probably composed for the young violinist Josef Slavík. When Frédéric Chopin heard him play, he wrote: “He played like a second Paganini, but a Paganini rejuvenated, one who with time will surpass the first ... He makes the listener speechless and brings tears to one's eyes.” Sadly, Josef Slavík died in 1833 at the age of just 27.

“There is a lot of virtuosity to be found in Schubert’s music for violin, but it is also very finely and delicately made,” says Vilde Frang. “He can be five years old in one phrase and 75 years old in the next, or both ages in the same phrase. When you play his music, it can feel like walking on eggshells. Rather than trying to make the music happen, you have to let it happen.

“As for Paganini, he could be a very lyrical composer too. After all, he cherished the art of the song, and composers like Brahms, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Lutosławski all found inspiration in his work. I’d like to associate him with sincerity, purity and a sense of nobility. There’s an almost religious purity in some of his Caprices, and his Cantabile, which I play on this album, is a bit of a sacred moment: it’s rather like a prayer.”

ACCARDO PLAYS PAGANINI - COMPLETE RECORDINGS

6CDs presenting Salvatore Accardo's legendary Paganini cycle for Deutsche Grammophon, including the complete violin concertos recorded with Charles Dutoit and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Noted for his exquisite, beautiful playing and a technical wizardry carried off with disarming nonchalance, Accardo is most readily associated with Paganini – though technical wizardry for its own sake holds little fascination for him: "Of course for young violinists it is always a challenge to be able to play the 24 Caprices, but as I got older I understood that what was important in his music was its almost operatic qualities."

Mengla Huang / Xuefei Yang MILONGA DEL ANGEL

Mengla Huang is one of the most active violinists of our time. His brilliant technique and unique interpretations have fascinated audiences throughout Asia, Europe and North America. In 2002, he won the first prize at the prestigious Paganini International Violin Competition in Italy, where he was also awarded the Renato De Barbieri Memorial award for the best interpretation of Paganini's caprices and the Mario Ruminelli Memorial award.

Xuefei Yang is acclaimed as one of the world’s finest classical guitarists. Hailed as a musical pioneer - her fascinating journey began after the Cultural Revolution, a period where Western musical instruments & music were banned. Xuefei was the first-ever guitarist in China to enter a music school, & became the first internationally recognised Chinese guitarist on the world stage. Her first public appearance was at the age of ten and received such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a concert guitar. Her debut in Madrid at the age of 14 was attended by the composer Joaquín Rodrigo and, when John Williams heard her play, he gave two of his own instruments to Beijing’s Central Conservatoire especially for her and other advanced students. 

In Mo Yang PAGANINI 24 Caprices

“I have always wanted to play the 24 caprices by Paganini. I remember my aunt buying me the album when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I listened and thought that I would also play them someday. Instead of overwhelming me, they encouraged me to play the string instrument,” said Yang, Kumho Art Hall’s artist-in-residence for 2018. 

“I want to prove that the 24 caprices are worth presenting to the audience. They are physically taxing to play, but I wanted to perform this year, before it becomes too late for me to play,” Yang said, adding, “The fact that Paganini himself did not play the pieces intrigued me.”

Dana Zemtsov / Estonian National Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Raiskin ESSENTIA

One of the biggest dilemmas of our generation is where are we from, who are we, what is our identity? Globalization has made the whole world closer, bringing our cultures more and more together. I myself am a product of this mix, being born in Mexico to Russian parents with a Jewish background, having studied at a French school in Norway and grown up in Holland. Consequently I have often thought about these questions: which culture is closest to me? What am I? I could feel at home and relate to all these cultures and yet I am not really part of any of them.

The music on this album explores the opposite perspective; each piece is very strong influenced by the composer’s culture. One can immediately smell the Hungarian landscape in Bartok’s Viola Concerto, Italian roots in the Carnevale di Venezia, the Jewish soul in Bloch’s Nigun and Russian Orthodox chants in Kugel’s Preghiera. However, there is a deeper meaning to the title of this album, as the programme also touches the spiritual and carnal nature of the human being. During the process of compiling this programme I suddenly realized the strong religious connection between the second movement of the Bartok concerto and the two prayers that follow. This is followed by the contrasting ‘danse macabre’ in the third movement, which for me is very much associated with the carnal ritual of a carnival, when one is allowed to release one’s most primitive instincts. I believe each of these pieces explores the deepest roots of humankind, that core that will be there, no matter where we go or what we do.

I am eternally grateful, primarily to Jared Sacks, for the opportunity of going through this unforgettable experience. I could not be happier to have done so with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and one of the best musicians I could have wished to collaborate with, the conductor Daniel Raiskin. (Dana Zemtsov)

Download Booklet

Lisa Jacobs PAGANINi 24 Caprices

No violinist can escape them: Paganini’s Caprices. A beautiful, infamous cycle of 24 works for violin solo with an enormous arsenal of technical delights. 

With his 24 Caprices Niccolò Paganini set out to fascinate the audience and play the kind of music that people had never experienced before. As a young talent Niccolò had shocked and enraged the public by imitating animals using his violin and in the Caprices he elaborated on that earlier experimentation. Birdsong, hunting horns, laughter, donkeys – they were all brought to life through his instrument. When it comes to special techniques and almost impossible dexterity, his 24 Caprices go a step further than Locatellis. Above all Paganini’s caprices are full of drama. Calm and moving passages interchange without warning with fiery, almost violent passages. 

For Lisa Jacobs it is not the technical aspects of the music, but exactly that enormous variety in the musical characters, the extraordinary sound landscape, and the fantasy and lyricism that has amazed her all her life and has been an inspiration for this recording.

Dutch violinist Lisa Jacobs performs three of Locatteli’s concertos with bold characterization, and meets their formidable technical challenges with commendable athleticism and élan.
(The Strad, UK, 2017) 

Dutch violin virtuoso Lisa Jacobs is known for her passionate performances, interesting programs and communicative qualities on stage. She is equally at home on the concert stage with concertos, chamber music and solo works. Lisa Jacobs collaborated with amongst others the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Bremer Philharmoniker and respected conductors such as Riccardo Chaily, Neeme Järvi, Massimo Quarta, Otto Tausk, Jan Willem de Vriend and Carlos Miguel Prieto. 

Fabio Biondi / Giangiacomo Pinardi PAGANINI Sonatas for Violin and Guitar

Fabio Biondi has chosen a selection of delightful virtuoso chamber music pieces by Niccolò Paganini to mark his tenth album for Glossa. Together with his long-term colleague from Europa Galante, the plucked-string specialist Giangiacomo Pinardi (here playing an original romantic guitar from c1825), Biondi delivers one of the most special Glossa albums of recent times. The works, composed between 1804 and c1828, are mainly two-movement sonatas contained in the Centone di sonate collection, although the album also includes the popular Sonata concertata in A major.

Recorded in Valencia by the engineer and producer Fabio Framba (another well-known component of Biondi’s recording setups), the booklet of this album includes a highly original essay signed by Pierre Élie Mamou, in which he looks into the Devil/God dichotomy as applied to the figure of Paganini by his own contemporaries. The graphic design for the CD takes its inspiration from this idea, for another typically Glossa look, listen and read experience… (GLOSSA)

David Aaron Carpenter / Vladimir Ashkenazy / Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra BERLIOZ Harold in Italy PAGANINI Sonata per la Gran Viola e Orchestra

For his second CD release, 25-year-old New York-born violist David Aaron Carpenter is joined by Vladimir Ashkenazy who leads the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Together they perform the Symphony with Viola obbligato, Harold in Italy, which Berlioz originally wrote on a commission from Paganini. The present recording features, for the first time, a more virtuoso soloist part written for Paganini.

The coupling is a showpiece, which Nicolò Paganini wrote after rejecting his earlier Berlioz commission; "The Sonata per la Gran Viola displays the highest virtuosic writing for this instrument," says David Aaron Carpenter, who defines his mission as focusing attention on the viola as a great solo string instrument in its own right.

Also included is Berlioz's cheerful Overture to the opera Béatrice et Bénédict.

Recipient of the 2011 Leonard Bernstein Award (on August 27, 2011) and winner of the 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant, David has emerged as one of the world's most promising young artists. In 2006, he won the prestigious Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition and in 2007, he became protégé for The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, being the youngest in this mentorship programme's history. David Aaron Carpenter has been the protégé of several major international musical figures, such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yuri Bashmet and Christoph Eschenbach.

This release follows on the great success of David's debut recording, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, of the Elgar and Schnittke concertos (ODE 1153-2). (Ondine)

Irina Muresanu FOUR STRINGS AROUND THE WORLD

Irina Muresanu writes of this release: “It all started when I tackled Mark O’Connor’s “Cricket Dance.” It is a short, straightforward tune that requires the skills of an intermediate player, and yet it took me an absurdly long time to learn. To put things in context: I was capable of learning whole violin concertos in a matter of weeks, so why was the O’Connor piece so hard to get under my fingers? Could it have been because it was written in a musical style completely different than my classical training? And if so, how many more different languages were there outside of the traditional/standard repertoire? With this idea, I started my exploration of works reflecting the ways the violin (including its ancestors and relatives) is employed in musical settings worldwide. What resulted is Four Strings Around the World, a celebration of diverse cultures refracted through the unifying voice of solo violin, a project which immersed me in sounds and colors I didn’t even realize could be produced by my own instrument…” “irresistible…not just a virtuoso but an artist” (The Boston Globe) “Musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanu’s performance especially admirable” (LA Times)