Corigliano Red Violin Concerto. Violin Sonata

How the Red Violin grew and grew, and Bell delivers it with panache

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: John (Paul) Corigliano

Label: Sony BMG

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 60

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: 82876 88060-2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, 'Red Violin Concerto' John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Joshua Bell, Violin
Marin Alsop, Conductor
Sonata for Violin and Piano John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Jeremy Denk, Piano
John (Paul) Corigliano, Composer
Joshua Bell, Violin
Coming up to his 70th birthday next year and decorated with many awards, John Corigliano is one of the most prominent American composers of his generation. Thirty years ago his Clarinet Concerto made a strong initial impact (to confirm it there are now four recordings) and the Red Violin is his fifth Concerto, with a new one for percussion to follow.

Corigliano’s score for François Girard’s film The Red Violin (1997) was the starting-point for the latest concerto. Even before the film was finished the composer extracted a Chaconne for violin and orchestra, which eventually became the first movement of the concerto. He felt that a single movement would get lost compared with a full-scale concerto.

And this is exactly what he has delivered – a romantic, dramatic, lyrical four-movement work with luxuriant orchestral textures that benefited from starting life as a film. In his essay in the booklet Corigliano says this context encouraged him to write with fewer inhibitions; things flowed easily, but he has cunningly adapted the work to the concert hall. Even further the Red Violin Concerto is a resourceful vehicle for the eloquence and panache of Joshua Bell, who gave the premiere in 2003. The opening movement now seems long but the ghostly Scherzo is concise and throughout there is a special rapt atmosphere in pianissimo passages.

Bell and Jeremy Denk give a polished performance of the 1963 Violin Sonata that fuses neo-classical and American styles. Ideal performances well recorded.

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