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Bartok - Violin Concertos Nos 1 & 2

Label: Harmonia Mundi

Cat No: HMC902146

Barcode: 3149020214626

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 29th July 2013

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Works

Bartok, Bela

Violin Concerto no.1, Sz 36 BB48a
Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 BB117

Artists

Isabelle Faust (violin)
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Daniel Harding

Works

Bartok, Bela

Violin Concerto no.1, Sz 36 BB48a
Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 BB117

Artists

Isabelle Faust (violin)
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Daniel Harding

About

Isabelle Faust's first recording for harmonia mundi, Bartok Sonatas, won her a Gramophone Young Artist of the Year. Here she returns to Bartok, performing the two concertos, accompanied by Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Such is the fame of Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto (1937-38), that it has virtually eclipsed the First, written 30 years before. Yet this earlier work, rediscovered long after the composer’s death, has a fascinating story all of its own. True to form, Isabelle Faust has gone back to the multiple musical sources of this First Concerto, a work that came ‘straight from the heart’, as Bartók’s romance with a young violinist lay at the core of its creative process.

"Her sound has passion, grit and electricity but also a disarming warmth and sweetness that can unveil the music’s hidden strains of lyricism" - The New York Times

"I owe my enthusiasm for the music of Béla Bartók to the wonderful Hungarian violinist Dénes Zsigmondy, who was privileged to know the composer personally. At the age of eleven, I was lucky enough to study the Sonata for solo violin with him and thus to discover Bartók’s world in a very emotional and instinctive way. In the years since then, Dénes Zsigmondy, his conception of music, and especially his interpretation of Bartók have formed an important component of my artistic career. It seemed only logical to choose the Bartók sonatas for my debut CD.

I am now delighted to present the two violin concertos in this recording. It is intended as a musical expression of my admiration for the composer Béla Bartók and my gratitude for the continued inspiration and faithful friendship of Dénes Zsigmondy. My warm thanks go to László Somfai and László Vikárius of the Bartók Archives in Budapest and to Felix Meyer of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel for their generous support of this project.

Finally, I would like to express my profound appreciation of and indebtedness to Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra for their absolutely fantastic contribution to the recording sessions." - Isabelle Faust

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Violin Concerto no.1, Sz36 - I.Andante sostenuto
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Violin Concerto no.1, Sz36 - II.Allegro giocoso
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Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 - I.Allegro non troppo
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Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 - II.Andante tranquillo
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Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 - III.Allegro molto

Europadisc Review

Isabelle Faust clearly has a passion for the music of Bartók. Her debut album included the composer’s violin sonatas, and now, in her most recent recording, she turns her attention to his two violin concertos: the first a youthful work dating 1907–08 which had to wait until after the 1950s for its première, the second a mature composition from Bartók’s last period which Faust regards as ‘one of the most important musical works of the twentieth century’.

In her detailed and fastidiously researched booklet notes, Isabelle Faust reveals the amount of detailed preparation that has gone into these performances. For the First Concerto she has examined original materials, turning up a variety of detailed markings absent from the posthumously published score, as well as taking account of further markings from the first of Bartók’s Two Portraits op.5 which recycled the Concerto’s first movement. The Concerto itself was composed for Bartók’s early love, Stefi Geyer, the first movement presenting an idealised image of her, the second reflecting her playfully ironic side. Though Bartók’s love was eventually thwarted, this music encapsulates the emotions in music of great exuberance, and Isabelle Faust captures the variety of feelings and musical ideas with playing of phenomenal flexibility and variety of tone. The care over detail is constantly evident, yet never impedes the overall flow of the music.

The performance of the Second Concerto is every bit as accomplished. Here, Faust effortlessly negotiates the virtuosic demands of the solo part as well as the huge variety of musical and expressive ideas. This is, after all, a work which takes the concept of musical variation to extreme lengths: the middle movement is a wide-ranging set of variations on a breathtakingly tender theme, while the finale presents nothing less than a varied exploration of the themes from the first movement. One needn’t read Isabelle Faust’s notes to realise that she is well aware of all these myriad connections and cross-references, for her playing is so vivid, sensitive and alert. Yet the notes, like her playing itself, show a rare depth of understanding which helps to make this recording one of the most assured and insightful that this Concerto has ever received. Folk references, ironic humour, tender reflection and impassioned involvement are all synthesised here into a performance of rare cogency and commitment.

Throughout, Isabelle Faust is superbly supported by Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who are by turns sensitive, passionate and virtuosic. This does indeed seem to be an ideal meeting of musical minds. The balance achieved by the recording team and musicians in Stockholm’s Berwald Hall is well-nigh perfect, with a marvellously sense of detail, but the soloist is never overpowered. A magnificent and beautifully prepared disc.