Pauline Viardot, daughter of the famous tenor, composer, operatic impresario and teacher, Manuel García, and friend of Schumann and Chopin, was a mezzo-soprano and composer. Her Violin Sonatina in A minor reflects her operatic background with its long melodic lines. Her son Paul, the dedicatee of Fauré’s great A minor Sonata, wrote three beautifully crafted, expressively rich violin sonatas over an almost fifty-year period.

Violinist Reto Kuppel has starred for Naxos in other important examples of the nineteenth century virtuoso repertoire – see his Vieuxtemps disc (8573339) of which American Record Guide wrote: “This is some of the best music of its kind that I have heard … Reto Kuppel is an ideal interpreter with technique to burn, and the performances are very well recorded.”

Kuppel has performed throughout Europe and the United States including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Herkulessaal and Gasteig in Munich, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. His three world première recordings of works by Franz Schubert (8572322), Friedrich Hermann (8572066) and Ferdinand David (8573048) have been highly acclaimed.

His Ferdinand David disc was called “an hour of listening that is both entertaining and rewarding. Urgently recommended” by Fanfare.