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New Releases
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NI 6115
Wihan Quartet - String Quartets Opp. 34 and 105
Antonin Dvorak
The Wihan Quartet, formed in 1985, are heirs to the great Czech musical tradition. The Quartet’s outstanding reputation for the interpretation of its native Czech heritage and of the many classical, romantic and modern masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire is widely acknowledged. They have developed an impressive international career, which includes visits to major festivals in Europe and the Far East. They visit the United States and Japan regularly and have had highly acclaimed tours of Australia and New Zealand. They are frequent visitors to the UK and can often be heard on BBC Radio 3 as well as in concert at many venues throughout the country.
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NI 6123
Glazunov & Shostakovich - Violin Concertos
Sasha Rozhdestvensky & Gennady Rozhdestvensky - State Symphony Orchestra Capella of Russia
Sasha Rozhdestvensky is considered one of Russia’s finest young violinists. Yehudi Menuhin pronounced him to be “one of the most talented and refined violinists of his generation”, while the legendary violinist Ivry Gitlis said of him: ‘He belongs to the great line of outstanding artists. His approach and relationship to music and the violin is intense, highly sensitive and intelligent.’ Sasha studied at the Central Music School in Moscow, the Moscow Conservatory, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music in London with Dr. Felix Andrievsky, Zinaida Gilels, Maya Glezarova and Gérard Poulet. He plays several violins, among which are a Guarneri del Gesù and a Stradivari loaned to him by the Stradivari Society. He recently became an ambassador for the Stradivari Society.
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, one of the greatest conductors of the day, was born in Moscow in 1931. He studied the piano with Lev Oborin and conducting with his father, Nikolaï Anosov, at the Moscow Conservatoire. At the unusually early age of 20, still a student at the Conservatoire, he was engaged at the Bolshoi Theatre where he made his début conducting Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty. His was to be a long term relationship with the Bolshoi: he became their principal conductor between 1964 and 1970, and in 2000 was appointed their General Music Director. At the Bolshoi he has conducted more than thirty operas and ballets, and gave the world premiere of Khatchaturian’s ballet Spartacus, and the Russian premiere of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. From 1956 on he toured regularly with the Bolshoi ballet in Europe, Asia and America.
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NI 6124
Constantin Silvestri
Conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Romanian-born Constantin Silvestri was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1961 until his death from cancer in 1969 aged 55, two years after being granted British citizenship.
It was certainly not material gain that tempted Silvestri to the seaside town of Bournemouth nor the kudos of association with an internationally famous orchestra. Inevitably the question was asked (and still is) why did someone who had already been the guest conductor of some of the world’s most renowned orchestras - the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Concertgebouw, five of Britain’s most prestigious and two in the US - each time attracting audience enthusiasm and mainly favourable reviews, why did he choose to become principal conductor of a provincial orchestra, however worthy its reputation, and in a country with whose language he was barely acquainted?
What can be gleaned of Silvestri’s motives from his answer when this question was put to him in a television interview? ‘I was a teacher in Romania for ten years and a conductor is also a teacher... The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has a national reputation, but I think in two or three years it will become internationally famous.’
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NI 6126
Vladimir Feltsman
Chopin Nocturnes
“...Quite Simply An Amazing Pianist!”
The New York Times
In Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes we encounter some of the most sublimely beautiful music ever written for piano. The Romantic idiom of these “night songs,” with their atmosphere of yearning nostalgia, was perfectly matched with Chopin’s talents and inclinations. The genre of the nocturne was first developed by the Irish composer John Field. Chopin knew Field’s nocturnes well and built upon his foundation. Another source of inspiration was Italian bel canto opera, exemplified by the works of Chopin’s friend Vincenzo Bellini. Whatever his sources of inspiration, however, Chopin’s nocturnes represent the highest realization of the form, despite the fine subsequent efforts of composers including Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Fauré, Scriabin, and Szymanowski.
Vladimir Feltsman
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NI 6128
Vladimir Feltsman
Chopin Ballades
“...Quite Simply An Amazing Pianist!”
The New York Times
Vladimir Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. He studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky, Moscow, and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories and went on to win the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris.
In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the official Soviet ideology and rigid governmental control of the arts, Feltsman applied for an exit visa from the Soviet Union. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public. After eight years of struggle and virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union.
Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Vladimir Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his very first concert in North America. That same year his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American scene.
Vladimir Feltsman
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