Rozsa Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 Jennifer Pike, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & Rumon Gamba

• Miklós Rózsa (1907 - 1995): Violin Concerto, Op. 24:
• 1 Rózsa: Violin Concerto, Op. 24: I. Allegro non troppo ma passionato 13:14
• 2 Rózsa: Violin Concerto, Op. 24: II. Lento cantabile 09:40
• 3 Rózsa: Violin Concerto, Op. 24: III. Allegro vivace 08:38
• Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17:
• 4 Rózsa: Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17: I. Moderato, ma risoluto ed energico 08:39
• 5 Rózsa: Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17: II. Lento con gran espressione 07:21
• 6 Rózsa: Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17: III. Allegro giusto 08:03
• Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3:
• 7 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Theme. Andante rubato 00:36
• 8 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation I. Poco animato ed al rigore di tempo 01:30
• 9 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation II. Allegro scherzando 01:10
• 10 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation III. Un poco meno allegro ma sempre molto energico 01:13
• 11 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation IV. Moderato con gran espressione 03:37
• 12 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation V. Vivo con spirito 01:14
• 13 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation VI. Andante quasi pastorale 02:57
• 14 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation VII. Allegro molto agitato e tumultuoso 01:18
• 15 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Variation VIII. Moderato e molto giusto 01:32
• 16 Rózsa: Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 3: Finale. Vivace 04:16
• Total Runtime 01:14:58

Info zu Rozsa Orchestral Works, Vol. 3

This is Volume 3 in our series of orchestral works by Miklós Rózsa. The composer’s unique musical voice was highly influenced by his Hungarian roots, and his works often dazzle with virtuosity. The BBC Philharmonic and Rumon Gamba here pull out all the stops to play these works with the precision and passion they require. Jennifer Pike, an exclusive Chandos artist, joins them in the Violin Concerto.

The Theme, Variations and Finale was completed in Paris during 1933. The initial idea, a melancholy oboe theme, came to Rózsa as he was leaving Budapest to settle in Paris. He had made his farewells to his family – it was the last time he would ever see his father – and the somber occasion no doubt left its mark on this work. Premiered by Charles Munch in Duisburg in 1934, the work proved so successful that it was quickly taken up by Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, and Leonard Bernstein.

The Concerto for String Orchestra was composed in New York during 1943. Rózsa had just completed his score for Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book and felt the need to write something non-cinematic; this Concerto was the result. The underlying theme is muscular, brutal, and aggressive: no doubt a reflection of a world in the midst of war.

Every year Rózsa would take a three-month holiday from the film studios in order to compose music for the concert hall. The Violin Concerto was written in 1953, during one such break, for the violinist Jascha Heifetz, who collaborated with the composer on details of it. About seventeen years later, Rózsa adapted the work for his soundtrack to the film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

"... This generously filled release will be a must for all Rózsa enthusiasts. Others with a liking for well crafted and attractive music will also find much to enjoy here. I cannot wait too long for the forthcoming volumes." (Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International)

“... on this spacious new recording I was particularly impressed by the wide landscapes of the slow movement [Violin Concerto] and the dream-like episode in the middle of the finale. Comparing Jennifer Pike’s performance with the original Heifetz recording, hers appears cooler and more contemplative. Though she plays the brilliant passages extremely well, she lacks something of Heifetz’s manic energy and his ability to make of each movement a single passionate utterance. There’s much to be said for this calmer performance, highlighting the beauty of Rozsa’s intricate interplay between violin and orchestra.” (Duncan Druce, Gramophone)

Jennifer Pike, violin
Paul Watkins, cello
BBC Philharmonic
Rumon Gamba, conductor

Jennifer Pike
Renowned for her “dazzling interpretative flair and exemplary technique” (Classic FM), violinist Jennifer Pike has taken the musical world by storm with her unique artistry and compelling insight into music from the Baroque to the present day. In demand as soloist and recitalist all over the world, she is known as an artist of exceptional integrity and depth, whilst her ability to “hold an audience spellbound” (The Strad) and “luminous beauty of tone” (The Observer) have established her as one of the most exciting artists performing today.

Born to British and Polish parents in 1989 she first gained international recognition in 2002, when, aged 12, she became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the youngest major prizewinner in the Menuhin International Violin Competition. Aged 15 she made acclaimed débuts at the BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall, and her many subsequent Proms appearances have included the role of 2009 “featured artist”. She was invited to become a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-10), she won the inaugural International London Music Masters Award and became the only classical artist ever to win the South Bank Show/Times Breakthrough Award. Passionate about helping young people from all backgrounds enhance their lives through music, she was recently invited to become an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and Foundation for Children and the Arts, and patron of the Lord Mayor’s City Music Foundation.

Performing extensively as soloist with major orchestras worldwide and appearing frequently on radio and television, recent highlights include concertos with all the BBC orchestras, London Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Hallé, Rheinische Philharmonie, Tampere Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Singapore Symphony and Nagoya Philharmonic orchestras. She recently performed Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending live on BBC Two at a special service commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of WWI in Westminster Abbey, with the Philharmonia orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and at her Carnegie Hall debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York.

Highlights of the 2015/16 season include a tour to Mexico with the London Philharmonic (Saint-Saëns, Alondra de la Parra), Sibelius Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic and Jukka-Pekka Saraste as part of the Sibelius Festival 150th year celebrations, Prague Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven, Pietari Inkinen), Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (Tchaikovsky, Fedoseyev), Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia (Brahms, Ken-David Masur), and the BBC Philharmonic (Vivaldi) as director and soloist. Special appearances also include performing to an audience of 11,000 at the Atlas Arena in Łódź, Poland as part of the ‘Night of the Proms’ tour broadcast on Polish TV, a broadcast performance of Schindler’s List as part of BBC Two’s Holocaust Memorial Day tribute and a live broadcast on Classic FM at the Queen’s 90th Birthday celebration concert. Next season she will perform concertos by Dvorak, Elgar, Sibelius, Bruch, Tchaikovsky and Mozart with orchestras including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (Saraste), BBC Philharmonic (Juanjo Mena), BBC Concert Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and European Union Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with many eminent conductors including Andris Nelsons, Richard Hickox, Sir Mark Elder, Christopher Hogwood, Leif Segerstam, Tugan Sokhiev, Jiří Belohlávek, John Storgårds, Sir Roger Norrington, James Gaffigan and Martyn Brabbins. She has collaborated as soloist and chamber musician with artists including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nikolaj Znaider, Adrian Brendel, Nicolas Altstaedt, Maxim Rysanov, Igor Levit, Martin Roscoe, Tom Poster and Mahan Esfahani.

A sought-after recitalist, she recently appeared at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Musée d’Orsay, Musashino Foundation and LSO St Luke’s, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. In 2017 she curated an unprecedented event at the Wigmore Hall with three concerts in one day celebrating Polish music, in which she gave the UK premiere of Penderecki’s Capriccio for solo violin and a specially commissioned new work by Paulina Zalubska. An enthusiastic promoter of new music, she has had many works written for her, including Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Violin Concerto, which she premièred with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Bray’s Scenes from Wonderland which she premièred with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and Andrew Schultz’s Violin Concerto and Sonatina for solo violin, for which her recording was nominated for ‘Best Performance of an Australian Composition’ at the Australian Classical Music Awards.

Her prolific and widely-acclaimed discography on Chandos, Sony and ABC Classics includes the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, described as “superb” (The Times) and “violin genius” (Mail on Sunday), Miklós Rózsa Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic and Rumon Gamba, Bach with Sinfonietta Cracovia and Schultz with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. She recently recorded the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Edward Gardner on Chandos, acclaimed in the Observer for her “innate musicality and mercurial technique” and as “breathtakingly beautiful” by the Sunday Herald. Her recordings of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending with the Chamber Orchestra of New York on Naxos (The Strad Recommends, 2017) and David Bednall’s new works for violin and organ for Regent Records (Editor’s Choice, The Gramophone) were released recently.

In recognition of the impact she made in the performing arts, she was awarded a postgraduate scholarship by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the exceptional age of 16. She has studied with David Takeno and Robert Jacoby, and in 2012 she graduated with First Class Honours from Oxford University, where she was subsequently invited to take up the position of Artist-in-Residence. She plays a 1708 violin by Matteo Goffriller.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet