Composer: Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, Pablo de Sarasate, Francisco Tárrega
Performer: Augustin Hadelich
Orchestra: WDR Sinfonieorchester
Conductor: Cristian Măcelaru
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 9029631076
Release: 2022
Size: 1.33 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25
01. Introduction [Allegro moderato]
02. I. Moderato
03. II. Lento assai
04. III. Allegro moderato
05. IV. Moderato
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
06. I. Allegro moderato
07. II. Andante assai
08. III. Allegro, ben marcato
Britten: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 15
09. I. Moderato con moto – Agitato – Tempo primo
10. II. Vivace – Animando – Largamento
11. III. Passacaglia – Andante lento (un poco meno mosso)
12. Tárrega: Recuerdos de la Alhambra
A subtle and profound Spanish theme runs through Recuerdos – ‘Memories’. Violinist Augustin Hadelich has conceived an album that unites three works for violin and orchestra and a piece originally written for solo guitar. For Britten’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy he is joined by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and its Chief Conductor, Cristian Măcelaru; he remains alone for Ruggero Ricci’s arrangement of Tárrega’s shimmering Recuerdos de la Alhambra. “For years, I’ve been thinking about how to tell the story of the Britten violin concerto,” says Hadelich. Written in 1938, the work expresses the pacifist composer’s anguish at the Spanish Civil War, which broke out just months after Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 was premiered in Madrid.
The brilliant Italian-German-American violinist Augustin Hadelich had been searching for years for a musical environment in which to bring Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto to a wider audience. Composed in 1940 during the young British composer’s exile in the United States during World War II, it is dedicated to the victims of the terrible Spanish War. This serious work reflects the pacifist and anti-militaristic ideas that Britten would hold throughout his life.
The outbreak of the recent war in Ukraine was the starting point for Augustin Hadelich to imagine the program of his album Recuerdos (“Memories”) by surrounding Britten’s work with musical visions inspired by Spain, from Pablo de Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy after Georges Bizet’s opera to Francisco Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra, and Sergei Prokofiev (born in the Ukraine) who pays homage to Spain in the Finale of his Violin Concerto No. 2, premiered in Madrid in 1935 by its dedicatee, the French violinist Robert Soëtens
Himself cruelly injured by a terrible fire that kept him away from his instrument for more than a year, Augustin Hadelich wishes to bear witness through this recording to the suffering that surrounds us all in this world. Named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America magazine in 2018, this violinist is known for his vast repertoire encompassing the great classical works as well as contemporary works of which he is a passionate spokesperson.