RELEASE DATE: 27 November 2020

Conten t s

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Martinů & Bartók

Item: BIS2457SACDEAN: 7318599924571TT: 74’40Dealer Price: £9.00

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin Bamberger Symphoniker, Jakub Hrůša

Bohuslav Martinů: Violin Concerto No. 1, H. 226Violin Concerto No. 2, H. 293

Béla Bartók: Sonata for Solo Violin, Sz. 117

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Martinů’s concertos and Bartók’s solo sonata in congenial performances

On the present disc, Frank Peter Zimmermann, one of today’s most highly regarded violinists, performs works by two Central European composers that also exemplify various currents in classical music during the period 1920-1950. Although it only received its first performance in 1973, Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 1 had been composed 40 years earlier in the neo-classical idiom championed by Stravinsky. In contrast, the composer’s Second Violin Concerto(1943) is written in a more lyrical vein, partly to suit the playing style of Mischa Elman, the violinist who commissioned it. In both works Zimmermann is partnered by Bamberger Symphoniker under the orchestra’s chief conductor Jakub Hrůša, one of the leading Martinů conductors of today.

The disc closes with a central work in the twentieth-century literature for solo violin, Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin. Composed in 1944, only a year before Bartók’s death, it is a deeply personal statement which fuses the overall layout of Bach’s solo violin sonatas with Hungarian folk tradition with results that are as fascinating to the listener as they are challenging to the performer.

About Frank Peter ZimmermannAbout Bamberger SymphonikerAbout Jakub Hrůša

Watch a video clip from the recording on YouTube

Listen to a sound clip:I. Tempo di ciaccona from Bartók: Solo Sonata (beginning)III. Melodia from Bartók: Solo Sonata (beginning)