Bartók: Works for Violin and Piano Volume 2

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Needless to say, the score [of the Solo Sonata] holds no terrors for Ehnes who delivers a magisterial performance...Ehnes and his excellent pianist, Andrew Armstrong, make the best possible case... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2013, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Jan 2013
Catalogue No: CHAN10752
Label: Chandos
Length: 77 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

March 2013

Chamber Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

This release includes a digital booklet

Chandos - Downloads at MP3 Prices

Special offer ends: 22/05/2024

Bartók: Sonata for Solo Violin, BB 124, Sz. 117

Work length25:42

$6.00

$7.80

$10.50

James Ehnes
Recorded: 2-4 June 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

I. Tempo di ciaccona

Track length9:05

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Fuga. Risoluto, non troppo vivo

Track length4:19

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Melodia. Adagio

Track length7:13

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

IV. Presto

Track length5:05

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Bartók: Violin Sonata in E minor, BB28

Work length30:03

$7.00

$9.05

$12.25

James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong
Recorded: 2-4 June 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

I. Allegro moderato (molto rubato)

Track length9:39

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Andante

Track length10:53

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

III. Vivace

Track length9:31

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Bartók: Magyar népdalok, BB 109, Sz. 29

Work length9:07

$9.00

$11.70

$15.75

James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong
Recorded: 2-4 June 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

Book II No. 34, Andante

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book II No. 36, Allegretto

Track length0:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 17, Lento, ma non troppo

Track length1:17

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book II No. 31, Allegro

Track length0:59

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 16, Lento, poco rubato

Track length1:35

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 14, Allegretto

Track length0:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 19, Allegretto scherzando

Track length0:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 8, Sostenuto

Track length1:19

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 21, Allegro robusto

Track length0:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Bartók: For Children, Sz42

Work length7:38

$7.00

$9.10

$12.25

James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong
Recorded: 2-4 June 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

Book II No. 28, Parlando (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length1:05

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 18, Andante non molto (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length0:55

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book II No. 42, Allegro vivace (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book II No. 33, Andante sostenuto (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length1:32

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 6, Allegro (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length0:41

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book I No. 13, Andante (Arr. for Violin and Piano by Joseph Szigeti)

Track length0:54

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Book II No. 38, Poco vivace

Track length0:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Bartók: Román népi táncok, BB 68, Sz. 56

Work length5:20

$6.00

$7.80

$10.50

James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong
Recorded: 2-4 June 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

I. Joc cu bâta

Track length1:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Brâul

Track length0:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Pe loc

Track length0:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Buciumeana

Track length1:18

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Poarga româneasca

Track length0:30

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

VI. Marunte

Track length0:55

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

About
Reviews
Explore

About

James Ehnes has previously explored Béla Bartók’s concertos for violin and for viola, to great acclaim. This disc is the second in his equally successful survey of Bartók’s chamber music for the violin. His accompanist, once more, is Andrew Armstrong, a pianist praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique.

The folk-inspired Sonata for Solo Violin was the last work that Bartók wrote for the instrument, not to mention the most challenging. In a departure from his usual practice, this work was written not for a fellow Hungarian, but rather for an artist born in New York where Bartók was now living: Yehudi Menuhin. Suitably impressed by a recital performance by Menuhin of his first Violin Sonata as well as Bach’s Sonata in C, he had no hesitation in accepting the violinist’s commission for a sonata that, like Bach’s, would be unaccompanied.

Almost half a century earlier, Bartók had written his Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor. It was included in a concert given by graduating students of the Liszt Academy in June 1903, when a critic, most likely not realising just how right he would prove, hailed Bartók as ‘a phenomenal young genius, whose name today is known only to a few, but who is destined to play a great and brilliant role in the history of Hungarian music’.

Additionally on this disc we have three groups of Bartók’s Romanian and Hungarian folk dances, folksongs, and folk tunes, arranged for violin variously by Zoltán Székely, Tivadar Országh, and Joseph Szigeti, often with direct involvement by the composer himself who helped fine-tune the new arrangements. James Ehnes also highlights the Romanian influences in Bartók’s Sonatina for piano, transcribed for violin by André Gertler, a student of Bartók’s.

Reviews

March 2013

Needless to say, the score [of the Solo Sonata] holds no terrors for Ehnes who delivers a magisterial performance...Ehnes and his excellent pianist, Andrew Armstrong, make the best possible case for reappraising the early Violin Sonata of 1903, dismissed by the composer as a mere apprentice work.

January 2013

Ehnes gives a stunning account of the Solo Sonata. The impression is that he's simply following all Bartok's meticulous direction...and adding nothing extra. If this seems boring, the effect is anything but: clarity of articulation, beauty of sound, the ease with which he surmounts the technical challenges, and deep understanding of the work's structure and character; all these combine to make a performance that's exciting and enthralling.

20th January 2013

Big toned yet poetic, Ehnes is a persuasive interpreter.

Offer,Bartók: Works for Violin and Piano Volume 2

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue