All Article articles – Page 150
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ArticleBrahms: Complete Violin Sonatas
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Jack Liebeck (violin) Katya Apekisheva (piano)Composer: BrahmsIn this fine set Jack Liebeck approaches Brahms with true Romantic fervour. His tone is sweet and effortlessly expressive, his lyrical spans marked by many a tastefully judged portamento. The G major Sonata no.1 ...
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London Symphony Orchestra nets top violinists for 2010-11 season
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) seems to be taking over where this summer's BBC Proms leaves off when it comes to violin-heavy seasons. Proms artists James Ehnes, Julia Fischer and Leonidas Kavakos will be among the 14 violinists performing concertos with the LSO during 2010 and 2011. The orchestra ...
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Extreme cellists hike across Britain on 192-mile trek
Three cellists are hiking from the east coast of Britain to the west coast to raise money for charity. Clare Wallace, James Rees and Jeremy Dawson, who have been performing as the 'Extreme Cellists' since 2003, are carrying their cellos on the 192-mile route from St Bees in Cumbria to ...
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Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho wins in Buenos Aires contest
Jinjoo Cho has won the first prize at the inaugural Buenos Aires International Violin Competition. The 22-year-old from South Korea, who studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Paul Kantor, took home $15,000. Second place went to Nigel Armstrong from the US. Hyuk Joo Kwun from South Korea won ...
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1620 Maggini violin joins Peabody Institute collection
The Peabody Institute at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University has added another violin to its instrument collection. A 1620 Maggini violin has been donated by Karl Kostoff, a former orchestral musician and a longtime employee of the university's Applied Physics Laboratory. Kostoff, 85, bought the instrument 40 years ago for $9,000. ...
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Finzi Quartet to play on matched set of Vuillaume instruments
The Finzi Quartet will be able to use the 'Evangelists', a matched set of Vuillaume instruments, for two years after winning a competition at the Wigmore Hall. The instruments are owned by the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation, and were previously loaned to the Modigliani Quartet. Vuillaume made the set in ...
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US violinist Marié Rossano triumphs in Salt Lake City junior contest
American Marié Rossano has won the top prize at the Stradivarius International Violin Competition. The contest, for players aged 11 to 17, took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sixteen-year-old Rossano, who studies with Simon James and Brian Lewis, received $7,500 for her first prize. Andi Zhang of China won ...
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Restorer is robbed of two violins in central London
The thief who stole a double violin case in London's Carnaby Street last week might have had a shock when they examined their haul. Inside were two violins but both were being restored: one was in three pieces (with noticeable woodworm damage to the back), and the other was just ...
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Database of 115 years of BBC Proms performances goes online
The BBC Proms has launched an online archive of every performance in its 115-year history. The database features 7,168 concerts and users can search by composer, work, soloist, conductor, ensemble or date. The archive can be accessed at bbc.co.uk/proms/archive
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Order of Canada for violinist James Ehnes
Violinist James Ehnes has been named a Member of the Order of Canada. The honour is given to recognise outstanding achievement and service to the nation. Ehnes, who was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1976, now lives in Bradenton, Florida. His previous Canadian awards include the 1997 Virginia Parker Prize ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: String Quartets in D major op.44 no.1 & E flat major op.‘0’, Tema con variazioni op.81 no.1, Scherzo op.81 no.2
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: New Zealand Quartet Composer: MendelssohnIn their third and final volume of Mendelssohn’s music for string quartet, the New Zealand musicians continue their deeply considered and very serious approach, underlining the drama in the opening movement of the D major Quartet by ...
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ArticleBrahms: Viola Sonatas nos.1 & 2 op.120, Violin Sonata op.78 (transcr. Erdélyi)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Roberto Díaz (viola) Jeremy Denk (piano) Composer: BrahmsReaders will probably be most familiar with Roberto Díaz as the ex-principal of both the Philadelphia and National Symphony Orchestras and as a former member of the Boston Symphony. On the evidence of this immaculately ...
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ArticleSchulhoff: String Quartets nos.1 & 2, Five Pieces
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Aviv QuartetComposer: SchulhoffThe three works here all date from the mid-1920s and epitomise the quirky, engaging music of the Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), sometime Dadaist, Expressionist, neo-Classicist, late-Romantic... his labels were many, varied and self-contradictory. There are hints of Bartók and ...
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ArticleWieniawski: Violin Concertos no.1 in F sharp minor op.14 and no.2 in D minor op.22*
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Mariusz Patyra (violin) Sinfonia Varsovia/Johannes Wildner, Sinfonia Iuventus/Gabriel Chmura*Composer: WieniawskiWhile Wieniawski’s Second Violin Concerto of 1870 is justly known as a masterpiece, the First, composed in a hurry in 1853 when he was only 18, is less frequently heard. Nonetheless, it shows ...
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ArticleXenakis: Tetras, Ergma. Lachenmann: Gran torso. Kurtág: Aus der Ferne III. Janácek: Adagio – Con moto from String Quartet no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Danel QuartetComposer: Xenakis, Lachenmann, Kurtág, Janácek This laudable new release from the Brussels-based Danel Quartet features incisive performances of some pretty hardcore avant-garde repertoire in a live concert recording captured at the 2005 Milano Musica Festival. The two Xenakis ...
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ArticleHerzogenberg: String Quintet in C minor op.77, String Quartet no.1 in D minor op.18
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Minguet Quartet, Peter Langgartner (viola) Composer: HerzogenbergHeinrich von Herzogenberg (1943–1900) modelled most of his chamber works on those of his close friend, Brahms, absorbing virtues such as their symphonic breadth, formal clarity, powerful rhetoric and intense harmonic language. The members of the ...
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ArticleThe Versatile Viol vol.2. Leclair: Sonatas in A minor op.5 no.7, D major op.5 no.8, E minor op.9 no.2, F sharp minor op.9 no.10 & G major op.5 no.12
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tina Chancey (pardessus de viole) Susie Napper (basse de viole) Webb Wiggins (harpsichord)Composer: Leclair In this second disc in her series championing the range and versatility of the viol family Tina Chancey gives persuasive accounts of five of Leclair’s violin ...
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ArticleBach: Partitas no.2 in D minor BWV1004 & no.3 in E major BWV1006
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Marie Cantagrill (violin)Composer: Bach Even the most enlightened players do not always entirely succeed in throwing off the vestiges of the 19th-century virtuoso tradition in these endlessly challenging pieces. Enter Marie Cantagrill, former winner of the Vieuxtemps Competition, who plays ...
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ArticleBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & E major BWV1042, Concerto in D minor for Two Violins BWV1043*, Concerto in D minor for Oboe & Violin BWV1060a
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Rut Ingólfsdóttir, Unnar Maria Ingólfsdóttir* (violin) Daði Kolbeinsson (oboe) Reykjavik Chamber OrchestraComposer: Bach Rut Ingólfsdóttir plays all Bach’s concertos with an elegant, sweet tone, her vibrato, while understated, hanging in the air in this somewhat reverberant acoustic. There is a minimum ...
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ArticleSchumann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.129, Abendlied op.85 no.12 (two performances, arr. P. Bruns & arr. Casals). Volkmann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.33, Andante and Variations for three cellos, T
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Peter Bruns (cello) Annegret Kuttner (piano) Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig/Jürgen BrunsComposer: Schumann, VolkmannJuxtaposing a great composer with a neglected contemporary is seldom good for the latter. Here, fellow German Robert Volkmann’s phrasing and harmonies seem all the more predictable when compared with ...
