Daniel Röhn - Virtuoso Works for Violin & Piano

A virtuoso’s impressive calling card

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Manuel (Maria) Ponce, Nicolò Paganini, Franz Schubert, Franz Waxman, Moritz Moszkowski, Christian (August) Sinding, Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy, Stephen Collins Foster

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Claves

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 70

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: 502507

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Suite for Violin and Piano, 'im alten Stil' Christian (August) Sinding, Composer
Christian (August) Sinding, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Fantasie Franz Schubert, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Franz Schubert, Composer
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
(21) Hungarian Dances, Movement: No. 17 in F sharp minor Johannes Brahms, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Estrellita Manuel (Maria) Ponce, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Manuel (Maria) Ponce, Composer
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Jeanie with the light brown hair Stephen Collins Foster, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Stephen Collins Foster, Composer
Petite suite, Movement: Menuet Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Guitarre Moritz Moszkowski, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Moritz Moszkowski, Composer
Introduction and Variations on 'Nel cor più non mi sento' from Paisiello's 'La molinara' Nicolò Paganini, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Nicolò Paganini, Composer
Carmen Fantasia Franz Waxman, Composer
Daniel Röhn, Violin
Franz Waxman, Composer
Milana Chernyavska, Piano
Rather moving, as well as reassuring, to hear this gifted third-generation player, whose grandfather Erich Röhn led the BPO for Furtwängler while his father Andreas provided him with crucial early musical training. Moving, too, given the likely strictures imposed on Erich’s wartime listening, that on the evidence of this disc the profoundest influence on young Daniel’s playing is Jewish-Russian Jascha Heifetz.

You hear it initially in Sinding’s finger-twisting Suite in A, made famous by Heifetz on an unforgettable RCA recording. And while no one (not even Perlman) quite matches Heifetz’s high-tension pyrotechnics in the Presto, Röhn’s warmth, richness of tone and emotive shifts make as powerful a case for the Adagio and finale as you’re likely to hear.

Heifetz’s record of Schubert’s great Fantasy in C was made relatively late in life, by which time full-on intensity had been replaced by wistful sighing. Here Röhn’s Heifetzian cue seems musical rather than technical, with judicious timing, fragile soft playing, a light albeit spiky attack in faster passages and an acute responsiveness to musical modulation. His pianist, Milana Chernyavska, is excellent here, too. I’ll mention just one subtle detail – a slight suggestion of Chernyavska holding back for the little three-note figure at around 15’30”, making Schubert’s (and Röhn’s) subsequent play on that same figure particularly memorable.

The rest of the disc consists of what one might call ‘encore’ material. Röhn’s pert transcription of the ‘Menuet’ from Debussy’s Petite suite is a nice find, nicely played too. Though Príhoda’s arrangement of Paganini’s Nel cor più confirms a virtuoso’s credentials, I suspect from the evidence that Röhn is happier with Schubert. Listening to this CD has been a joy but now I want some bigger stuff from Röhn – Beethoven, of course, Brahms, Mozart or maybe the Schubert sonatinas. Claves please take note.

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