Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Alban Berg
Performer: Isabelle Faust
Orchestra: Orchestra Mozart
Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: HMC902105
Release: 2012
Size: 675 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Berg: Violin Concerto ‘To the Memory of an Angel’ (1935)
01. I. Andante – Allegretto
02. II. Allegro – Adagio
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
03. I. Allegro ma non troppo – Adagio
04. II. Larghetto
05. III. Rondo allegro
“My first collaboration with Claudio Abbado – with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 2008 – opened my eyes to a new way of understanding and experiencing the Beethoven Violin Concerto. He then expressed the wish to perform Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, this time with the Orchestra Mozart. It seemed to him to be an obvious and natural continuation of the project to record these two works in further rehearsals and in concert and to produce a CD of them.
To place these two masterpieces in such close proximity was something quite new for me. The rehearsals in Bologna in 2010 involved working on the two pieces directly after each other: the result was an intense journey through sorrow and suffering in Alban Berg, by way of the cathartic Bach chorale, to Beethoven at his most radiant, apparently leaving all earthly cares far behind him, which utterly enchanted every one of us.
To make music with Claudio Abbado is an infinite joy, a genuine key to the magic of music. I would like to express here my sincerest thanks for his confidence and my boundless admiration for his artistry.” Isabelle Faust
Isabelle Faust’s recording career is exemplary. After her recordings devoted to Brahms, Beethoven and… André Jolivet, she offers us an exciting coupling, and the companionship of an already legendary conductor, Claudio Abbado, here at the head of his Mozart Orchestra! Everything in this album that Qobuz is proud to present in 24 bit Studio Master quality, is exceptional. The beauty of Isabelle Faust’s sound, the sumptuous orchestral carpet that Abbado weaves for her – and of course this rather rare confrontation of two works that are touchstones for all the great violinists is thrilling.