Felix Mendelssohn - Works for Violin & Piano (Marc Bouchkov; Claire Huangci)

Information

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

• (01) Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D Minor
• (04) Violin Sonata in F Minor, Op. 4
• (07) Violin Sonata in F Major (1st version, 1838)

Marc Bouchkov, violin

Claire Huangci, piano

Basel Chamber Orchestra

Howard Griffiths, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Berlin Classics

https://www.berlin-classics-music.com/en/album/885472367-mendelssohn-works-for-violin-and-piano/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Just as the Academy founded at the beginning of this season in Luxembourg supports excellent young musicians on their way to professional life, the Orpheum Foundation in Switzerland does the same. Its support includes concert performances with renowned orchestras and CD recordings. This recording of all of Mendelssohn’s works for violin and piano is one such example.

Mendelssohn created only three completely surviving works for these instruments. These are two sonatas and the double concerto with strings. And with recording are presented at once two promoted interpreters who are no longer quite unknown. Violinist Marc Bouchkov was honored in 2021 by the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). On the piano, Claire Huangci offers her skills.

Created under pandemic conditions, this CD shows that the intense study of pieces away from the everyday demands is good for the interpretations. Bouchkov and Huangci play 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.

In the Double Concerto, always overshadowed by the E minor Violin Concerto, the Basel Chamber Orchestra joins in under the baton of Howard Griffiths, who is also artistic director of the Orpheum Foundation. If only to support the young soloists in their endeavors, they accompany attentively and with fresh fire. As a result, the concert gains intensity and liveliness.

-- Uwe Krusch, Pizzicato

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He was among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Like Mozart, he was recognized early as a musical prodigy. Mendelssohn enjoyed success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe, particularly in Britain, where he visited ten times. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn

***

Marc Bouchkov was born in 1991 in Montpellier, France. He studied with Claire Bernard and Boris Garlitzky, then with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy in a postgraduate course. Bouchkov’s artistic development has been marked by numerous international awards, such as 1st prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition, or 2nd prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Sanderling and Maxim Vengerov. Bouchkov teaches at the Conservatoire royal de Liège and the International Academy in Liechtenstein.

https://www.bouchkov.com/

***

Claire Huangci (born March 22, 1990 in Rochester, New York) is an American classical pianist. Having completed her study at The Curtis Institute of Music from 2003 to 2007, she continued her musical education at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover from 2007 to 2016. Huangci won the Second Prize at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition as its youngest participant, as well as the Concours Geza Anda in Zurich in 2018. She has appeared as a soloist performing with well-known orchestras in Europe, North America and China. Her solo debut recording was published in 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Huangci
https://clairehuangci.com/en/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!