Solo Sonatas for Violin nos. 1

Linus Roth

Solo Sonatas for Violin nos. 1 - 3

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917268829
Catnr: CC 72688
Release date: 06 May 2016
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917268829

Catalogue number
CC 72688

Release date
06 May 2016

"Linus Roth: athlete on the violin. Sound and interpretation: 9 out of 10! "

Crescendo, 07-2-2017

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Just a decade ago the name “Mieczysław Weinberg” drew a blank from music lovers. If you went into a record store you either didn’t find a dedicated index card with his name on it, or else five differently spelled ones. Weinberg’s music and its surge to a more general acknowledgment is the surest sign that there are still unearthed geniuses among composers out there, whose unearthing can enrich our musical diet and change our perception of the musical past. This disc continues Linus Roth’s discovery and exploration of Weinberg, which started with learning about, reading, playing and recording the Sonatas for Violin and Piano and has most recently led to his initiating the International Mieczysław Weinberg Society. He has since recorded Weinberg’s works for violin and orchestra; here he is back with chamber music: Weinberg’s three unaccompanied violin sonatas, whose dates of composition are 1964, 1967 and 1978. This last Third Sonata, op.123, is the most challenging and important: somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes long, it provides challenges all of its own. Apart from its share of technical challenges, its one-movement structure asks for continuous play. This sonata is dedicated to the memory of his father Shmil Weinberg, who was a composer and conductor at the Yiddish theater in Kishinev. Given that Weinberg knew, that his father had been murdered in the Holocaust, the sonata isn’t easy listening. It is a challenge for performers and listeners alike: it demands and deserves dedication on the part of the listener, whom it rewards eventually by revealing a surprising, raw tenderness behind the veneer of thorns.

Herontdekking van een genie in de vioolmuziek
Dit is het derde album dat Linus Roth opdraagt aan de vioolmuziek van Mieczyslav Weinberg. Het zijn drie viool sonates zonder begeleiding die prachtig worden vertolkt door Roth. Het is muziek van een tot nu toe onbekend genie, dat met dit album de erkenning krijgt die het verdient.

De drie vioolsonates zijn gecomponeerd in 1964, 1967 en 1978 en de laatste Derde Sonate, op. 123, is de meest uitdagende. Het is een erg complex en technisch stuk en duurt tussen de 20 en 30 minuten. De sonate is opgedragen aan Shmil Weinberg, de vader van Mieczyslaw. Hij was componist en dirigent bij het Yiddish theater in Kishinev en kwam om in de Holocaust. Het is een uitdaging voor zowel musici om het te uit te voeren en voor luisteraars om er naar te luisteren. De toewijding wordt echter beloond met de kwaliteit en complexiteit van het werk, wat zeer de moeite waard is om te beluisteren.

Linus Roth is een van de belangrijkste uitvoerders van Weinbergs muziek en is ook de oprichter van The International Mieczyslaw Weinberg Society. Hij is violist en heeft een passie voor kamermuziek. Met dit album laat Roth weer zijn enorme toewijding aan Weinberg zien die zo steeds meer bekendheid krijgt en wiens prachtige muziek op deze manier herontdekt wordt.

Vor nur einem Jahrzehnt löste der Name Mieczysław Weinberg bei Musikliebhabern wenig bis nichts aus. In Plattenläden fand man den Namen ebenfalls nicht und wenn, dann diversen verschiedenen Schreibweisen. Die steile Karriere der Weinbergschen Musik ist der beste Beweis dafür, dass es auch in der Vergangenheit noch immer Genies zu entdecken gibt, die unsere Wahrnehmung der Musikgeschichte verändern können.

Diese CD ist die vierte Einspielung, die Linus Roth Weinbergs Violinmusik bei Challenge Classics nach den Sonaten für Violine und Klavier, dem Violinkonzert und dem Concertino für Violine widmet. Damit setzt sie Roths Erforschung und Entdeckung der Musik Weinbergs fort, im Zuge derer er zuletzt die Internationale Mieczysław Weinberg Gesellschaft gründete. Unter anderem deshalb ist er aktuell der wichtigste Weinberg-Interpret.
Auf dieser Aufnahme meldet er sich mit Weinbergs Kammermusik zurück, den drei unbegleiteten Violinsonaten von 1964, 1967 und 1978. Sie sind einnehmende Stücke, die auf intime Weise aus Weinbergs Leben berichten, ein wenig wie Schostakowitschs Streichquartette: Sie sind kein Easy-Listening, doch belohnen den Hörer durch ihre Qualität und Komplexität.
Die letzte dieser drei, op.123, ist die zugleich herausforderndste und gewichtigste: zwischen 20 und 30 Minuten lang, stellt sie vor Herausforderungen, die ihresgleichen suchen. Abgesehen von diesen technischen Schwierigkeiten, erfordert ihre Einsätzigkeit ein besonders zusammenhängendes Spiel. Sie ist Weinbergs Vater Shmil Weinberg gewidmet, der Komponist und Dirigent am Jiddischen Theater Kishinev war. Weinberg wusste, dass sein Vater ein Opfer des Holocausts geworden war und entsprechend ist auch die Sonate keine leichte Kost, vielmehr Herausforderung für Hörer und Interpet zugleich. Sie verlangt und verdient eine gewisse Hingabe durch den Hörer, die sich mit einer überraschenden, blanken Zartheit hinter dem dornigen Schleier bezahlt macht.

Artist(s)

Linus Roth

José Gallardo

‘The virtuosity, exuberant temperament, burning passion, and perfection that Roth demonstrated here brought the audience to their feet.’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Since he won the Echo Klassik Award for his EMI debut album in 2006 Linus Roth has made a name for himself both as one of the most interesting violinists of his generation and as a champion of wrongly forgotten works and composers.

Linus Roth has performed with the Radio Symphony Orchestras of the SWR and Berlin, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Orquesta de Cordoba, the Orquesta de Navarra, the Orchestra della Teatro San Carlo Napoli, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the State Opera Stuttgart, the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has shared the stage with the conductors Gerd Albrecht, Herbert Blomstedt, Andrey Boreyko, Dennis Russell Davies, James Gaffigan, Hartmut Haenchen, Manfred Honeck, Mihkel Kütson, Antoni Wit, among others.

As passionate chamber musician, Linus Roth can be heard with Nicolas Altstaedt, Gautier Capuçon, Kim Kashkashian, Albrecht Mayer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Andreas Ottensamer, Itamar Golan and Danjulo Ishizaka. He gives regularly recitals with the Argentinian pianist José Gallardo.

With particular interest Linus Roth is dedicated to the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The recordings of Weinberg’s complete works for Violin and Piano for Challenge Classics have brought him both critical and public acclaim. Roth’s commitment to Weinberg is further documented in his recordings of Weinberg’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and of Weinberg´s Concertino with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn (both CDs were named „Editor´s Choice“ by the Gramophone Magazine). In 2015 Linus Roth founded the International Weinberg Society, an organization whose mission is to bring more attention to the Oeuvre of the Polish-Jewish composer, to help organize concerts, lectures, exhibitions, as well as support publications about his life and recordings of his compositions.

After joining Prof. Nicolas Chumachenco’s pre-college division at the Music Academy Freiburg, Linus Roth continued his studies with Prof. Zakhar Bron in Lübeck and with Prof. Ana Chumachenco at the Academies of Zurich and Munich. Salvatore Accardo, Miriam Fried and Josef Rissin all strongly influenced his development as a player as did Anne-Sophie Mutter, whose Foundation awarded him a scholarship for the duration of his studies. In 2012 he was appointed Professor for Violin at the “Leopold-Mozart-Centre” of the University of Augsburg/Germany.

Linus Roth plays the Stradivari “Dancla” 1703, a generous loan by the “L-Bank, Staatsbank of Baden-Württemberg/Germany”.

Composer(s)

Mieczysław Weinberg

Dmitri Shostakovich

Press

Linus Roth: athlete on the violin. Sound and interpretation: 9 out of 10!
Crescendo, 07-2-2017

Roth is an impressive interpreter of Weinberg’s music, but of the three solo works, I’d prefer Kilnits in No.1 and, clearly, Kremer in No.3 – although Roth’s tight focus is a collector’s wish and the SACD sound impressive.
Music Web International, 11-1-2017

The personal nature of Linus Roth’s approach to the music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg is evident as well, in a new Challenge Classics release featuring Weinberg’s three solo-violin sonatas interspersed with violin-and-piano versions of the Three Fantastic Dances by Weinberg’s friend, colleague and longtime supporter, Shostakovich.
Infodad.com, 09-1-2017

01/12/2016 - Péché de Classique
Péché de Classique, 01-12-2016

"That the mildness never becomes a weakness, is to be thankend to the violist by whom the toneforming and rythmic precision are always well balanced."
Luister, 01-11-2016

"On paper, this is far from easy music to assimilate, yet here it sounds radiantly compelling. An outstanding achievement."
The Strad, 23-9-2016

A very rich music, somtimes so intimate and personal that you can not escape it.
kulturradio.de, 31-8-2016

Whimsy, wistful melancholy and dry wit coexist. And, it’s beautifully held together by Roth, playing the work as if he’s delivering a series of soliloquies.
The Arts Desk, 23-8-2016

Given that Weinberg knew his father had been murdered in the Holocaust, the sonata isn’t easy listening but it’s hugely rewarding.
Platomania, 12-8-2016

N.A.
Polskie Radio, 05-8-2016

‘’Roth makes his violin sob and snarl'' (*****)
De Volkskrant, 27-7-2016

For both violinists and listeners, even those with special appreciation for Twentieth-Century music, Mieczysław Weinberg’s Sonatas for solo violin are not easy going. This is music in which unspeakable atrocities are confronted unflinchingly, music in which one man sought answers to questions that ravage all of mankind. Perhaps these are questions with which each man must contend on his own, but few men can contend with Weinberg’s music as authoritatively as Linus Roth does in his performances of the three Sonatas for solo violin. This is not solely music making: what Roth achieves on this disc is the recreation of a solitary voice, now made intelligible to every pair of ears willing to listen.
voix-des-arts.com, 19-7-2016

Roth did great by making this beautiful pieces of Weinberg unlock for the western world, he did this with a great powerfull play that touches the listener.
Nieuwe Noten, 13-7-2016

In all three his sense of the architecture his finely sustained, especially in the last sonata.
Planet Hugill, 08-7-2016

" [...] This disc provides us with further insight into a remarkable voice in 20th century music. [...] "
Planet Hugill, 08-7-2016

" [...] the poise and intensity of Roth’s performance; the Third Sonata, from 1978, unfolds in an unbroken, nearly half-hour stretch, and Roth’s achievement in maintaining its tension is considerable. [...] "
The Guardian, 07-7-2016

Linus Roth, a proven advocate of Weinberg’s music, invites the listener in the fascinating sound world of the composer, where he carefully mingles emotion and intellect, so that the three sonatas become every bit as rewarding as solo sonatas from much better known composers. The recorded sound is silky-smooth as well as clearly defined.
Pizzicato, 30-6-2016

"Impressive virtuosity"
SWR2 Cluster, 14-6-2016