Karl Amadeus Hartmann - Concerto funebre; Sonatas & Suites for solo violin (Alina Ibragimova)

Information

Composer: Karl Amadeus Hartmann

• (01) Concerto funebre, for violin and string orchestra
• (05) Suite No. 1 for solo violin
• (10) Suite No. 2 for solo violin
• (14) Sonata No. 1 for solo violin
• (19) Sonata No. 2 for solo violin

Alina Ibragimova, violin
Britten Sinfonia (1-4)

Date: 2007
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67547

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Review

Hartmann's Concerto and complete solo violin music performed with panache

It is such an obvious idea to combine Hartmann’s Concerto funebre (1939, rev 1959) with the four unaccompanied works from 1927 that I am surprised no company has thought of it before now. The Suites and Sonatas are not well known, not even being performed until the mid-1980s, although Ingolf Turban’s Claves recording appeared in 1995. Hartmann composed them while still a student with his mature style some years away, yet their muscularity, contrapuntal and harmonic élan and the sense of self-belief they exude show them to be products of a formidable, free-thinking creator. Ibragimova proves an ideal exponent, her tempi freer and more elastic (and mostly quicker) than Turban’s. His more rigid approach gives him an occasional edge, for instance in the First Suite’s Canon or the opening Toccata of Sonata No 1, but Ibragimova’s greater fluency and flexibility pay greater dividends time and again, as in the First Suite’s central Rondo or concluding Ciaconna or the Second Suite’s second span, Fliessend. Hyperion’s natural sound-picture is also preferable to Claves’ rather close-miked recording.

Hard on the heels of Orfeo’s marvellous mid-price issue of Schneiderhan’s gripping performance of the Concerto funebre, Ibragimova’s fiercely clear-eyed account – alive to the music’s expressive demands as well as its dynamic markings (some of which Schneiderhan and Gertler are less scrupulous with) – faces stiff competition but need not fear comparison with any of the dozen or so rival accounts. Her technique is formidable to say the least and if I still marginally prefer Faust, Ibragimova is on her shoulder having surpassed Zehetmair, although Hyperion’s couplings and recording quality, to say nothing of the excellent Britten Sinfonia, deserve a share in the plaudits. Recommended.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/hartmann-5
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Nov07/Hartmann_CDA67547.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/sep/21/classicalmusicandopera.shopping2
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=4899
https://www.allmusic.com/album/hartmann-concerto-funebre-sonatas-suites-for-solo-violin-mw0001945522
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hartmann-Concerto-funebre-Suites-Sonatas/dp/B000T90Z7U

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Karl Amadeus Hartmann (2 August 1905 – 5 December 1963) was a German composer. Hartmann studied with Joseph Haas, a pupil of Max Reger, and later received encouragement from Hermann Scherchen. He voluntarily withdrew completely from musical life in Germany during the Nazi era and refused to allow his works to be played there. After the war, he became a vital figure in the rebuilding of (West) German musical life. Hartmann's music is a synthesis of many different idioms, including musical expressionism and jazz stylization, into organic symphonic forms in the tradition of Bruckner and Mahler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Amadeus_Hartmann

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Alina Ibragimova (born 28 September 1985 in Polevskoy, Russian SSR) is a Russian-British violinist. She studied under Valentina Korolkova at the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, then under Natasha Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London. Ibragimova was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme 2005-2007. She has been the recipient of a number of awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2010. She performs on a c.1775 Anselmo Bellosio provided by Georg von Opel, and has recorded several albums for Hyperion label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alina_Ibragimova
http://www.alinaibragimova.com/

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