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Mendelssohn: Werke für Violine und Klavier

2022Berlin Classics0302045BC
Kammerorchester Basel (with Marc Bouchkov, violin) · Dirigent: Howard Griffiths

Werke von Felix Mendelssohn

'Mendelssohn is a challenge, because his music seems deceptively simple,' says pianist Claire Huangci. Together with violinist Marc Bouchkov she has recorded Mendelssohn's works for violin and piano — two Violin Sonatas in F (one major, one minor) and the Double Concerto in D minor — accompanied in the concerto by Howard Griffiths and the Kammerorchester Basel. The album explores the tension between surface brilliance and deeper emotional content. Huangci notes that the music demands both wit and technical mastery while concealing profound feelings of grief, compassion and nobility. Griffiths praises Huangci's exceptional ability to convey 'what happens between the notes; the non-obvious, hidden things.' Bouchkov describes his approach as emphasising tone quality and vocal-like singing, with vibrato arising authentically from emotional engagement with the score. The relative neglect of Mendelssohn's violin-and-piano repertoire allows both musicians to imprint their personal artistic vision on these 'fantastic works.'

Auszeichnungen

Pressestimmen

Bouchkov and Huangci demonstrate a lively virtuosity that leads both to the limits of manual possibility, which they nevertheless securely maintain. The hymnic Adagio has warmth and depth, the final movement positively sparkles with sheer joy of playing.

Andreas Friesenhagen, Fono Forum, 2022

Rare repertoire at the highest level. Marc Bouchkov and Claire Huangci prove themselves outstanding advocates of this charming, multi-faceted work. Howard Griffiths and the Kammerorchester Basel meet this level on equal footing.

LvG, WAZ / Westfälische Rundschau / Westfalenpost / NRZ, 2022

Everything fits here! Mark Bouchkov and Claire Huangci push to the limits of virtuoso playing — it is thrilling, exhilarating, sensational!

After Bach's Toccatas, Claire Huangci has now turned to Mendelssohn. Huangci offers playing full of youthful lightness, while Bouchkov enchants with his full tone and virtuoso passagework. Even before the reference recording by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, these musicians need not hide.

Mario-Felix Vogt, PIANIST magazine, 2022

Claire Huangci brings Mendelssohn rarities into their deserved light. An intense, wide-awake dialogue. Huangci's phenomenal technique here is only a means to a musical end; under her hands the lively, playful passagework of the final movement sparkles with tastefully shaped lightness.

Bouchkov and Huangci conquer the sonatas with youthful, fresh verve. Coupled with all the skills to play their instruments artfully, the result is more than appealing performances of these chamber works. The concerto gains intensity and liveliness.

The ravishingly poetic pianist Claire Huangci and the expressively powerful violinist Marc Bouchkov shape the middle movement, a Mozartian Adagio in the dominant key of A major, into a wonderful duet hovering above all earthly things.

Eleonore Büning, RONDO, 2022

An album sparkling with esprit, virtuosity and lyrical bloom, which also plays at the very top sonically and in recorded sound.

Journal Frankfurt, 2022

Bouchkov and Huangci interpret all of this with engagement and superbly, close to Mozart in tonal ideal, yet at the same time with a special feeling for the singular character of this composer.

Die Rheinpfalz / LEO, 2022

Highest virtuosity, brilliance and accuracy provide breathless, pure pleasure. Spotlessly clean, with delicate dynamics and tense agogics, both play absolutely flawlessly and hold the listener spellbound.

Johannes Vesper, Musenblätter, 2022

Tracklist

  1. 1
    Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor, MWV O4I. Allegro
    18:55
  2. 2
    Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor, MWV O4II. Adagio
    8:49
  3. 3
    Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor, MWV O4III. Allegro molto
    9:05
  4. 4
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4I. Adagio - Allegro moderato
    7:40
  5. 5
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4II. Poco adagio
    7:24
  6. 6
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F minor, Op. 4III. Allegro agitato
    4:51
  7. 7
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F major (1st version, 1838), MWV Q26I. Allegro vivace
    9:44
  8. 8
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F major (1st version, 1838), MWV Q26II. Adagio
    6:54
  9. 9
    Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F major (1st version, 1838), MWV Q26III. Assai vivace
    5:50