Maurice Ravel; Guillaume Lekeu - Violin Sonatas (Alina Ibragimova; Cédric Tiberghien)

Information

Composer: Maurice Ravel; Guillaume Lekeu

• Lekeu - Violin Sonata in G major
• Ravel - Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major
• Ravel - Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
• Ravel - Tzigane 'Rapsodie de concert'
• Ravel - Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré

Alina Ibragimova, violin

Cédric Tiberghien, piano

Date: 2011

Label: Hyperion

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67820

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Review

A gently nostalgic view of Ravel’s fiddle sonatas and a French rarity

After their splendid Beethoven cycle, Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien turn here to a very different repertoire, demonstrating what a wide range of music they can illuminate with their intelligent, imaginative playing. Much of the ultra-romantic Lekeu Sonata proceeds in a state of elevated emotion, without clear formal signposts. Tiberghien and Ibragimova certainly don’t hold back from sweeping intensity but they still retain a measure of objectivity, finding places to relax and never pushing the expression beyond what sounds beautiful, capturing perfectly the deep tranquillity of the central Très lent, with its distinctive seven beats per bar.

The sound world of the 1897 Ravel Sonata – bright and cool – is evoked with equal conviction. Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley’s performance (Virgin, 4/02) has fuller tone and more of a romantic sweep but I find the Ibragimova/Tiberghien account more compelling in its care for expressive detail, hinting at moods of gentle nostalgia and emotional fragility. There’s a similar contrast between the two teams in the G major Sonata – Braley and Capuçon more robust, with more strongly projected sound, Ibragimova and Tiberghien more delicate and intimate. In the “Blues” movement, this produces startling results; the details are wonderfully idiomatic, yet the playing is initially so refined that when the music later breaks out of its shell, the contrast is extraordinary. It’s like a strange, distorted dream of a jazz performance. The effect of Tzigane is similar; precision in capturing the idiom, allied to vivid juxtapositions of power and delicacy. It all adds up to a must-hear recital.

-- Duncan Druce, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/ravel-complete-music-viola-and-piano/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/oct/13/ravel-violin-and-piano-review

https://www.ft.com/content/900f0aee-d76c-11e0-bc73-00144feabdc0

https://www.thestrad.com/ravel-violin-sonata-in-a-major-violin-sonata-in-g-major-tzigane-berceuse-sur-le-nom-de-gabriel-faure-lekeu-violin-sonata-in-g-major/4504.article

https://www.allmusic.com/album/ravel-violin-sonatas-nos-1-2-tzigane-berceuse-dur-le-nom-de-gabriel-faur%C3%A9-mw0002197993

https://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Complete-Music-Violin-Sonata/dp/B00570JXYC

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles. His best known works include Boléro (1928), Gaspard de la nuit (1908), Daphnis et Chloé (1912). Ravel was also an exceptionally skilled orchestrator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel

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Guillaume Lekeu (20 January 1870 – 21 January 1894) was a Belgian composer. He studied with César Franck and Vincent d'Indy, and won second prize in the 1891 Belgian Prix de Rome. Lekeu contracted typhoid fever in October 1893 and died in 1894. He composed about 50 works, and left a number of unfinished compositions at the time of his death. His style, prophetic of early-20th-century avant-garde French composers like Satie and Milhaud, was influenced by Franck, Wagner and Beethoven. In general, Lekeu is regarded as a highly talented composer whose death cut short a promising career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Lekeu

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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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Cédric Tiberghien (born 5 May 1975) is a French pianist. He studied piano with Michèle Perrier in Noyon, and with Frédéric Aguessy and Gérard Frémy at the Paris Conservatory, where he received the Premier Prix in 1992, at the age of 17. He won a number of international awards, such as 6th prize at the 1995 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv and Premier Grand Prix at the 1998 Marguerite-Long-Jacques-Thibaud Competition in Paris. From 2005 to 2007, Tiberghien is part of the New Generation Artists of the BBC. He recorded severals recordings for Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cédric_Tiberghien

https://www.cedrictiberghien.com/

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