Artist(s)

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. His live performances and his recording of Mieczyslaw 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 recording of Weinberg’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the recording of Weinberg´s Concertino with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn ( both were named „Editor´s Choice“ by the Gramophone Magazin) and the recording of the 3 Violin Solo Sonatas, making him the first violinist to have recorded Weinberg´s complete Violin repertoire . In 2015 Linus Roth founded the International Weinberg Society, an organisation whose mission is to bring more attention to the Œuvre of the Polish-Jewish composer, to help organise 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 has performed with the Radio Symphony Orchestras of the SWR and Berlin, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Orquesta de Cordoba, Orquesta de Navarra, Orchestra della Teatro San Carlo Napoli, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Berner Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra of the State Opera Stuttgart, Vienna Chamber Philharmonic, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn and the Munich Chamber Orchestra and 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.

A passionate chamber musician, he can be heard with Nicolas Altstaedt, Gautier Capucon, Kim Kashkashian, Albrecht Mayer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Andreas Ottensammerm Itamar Golan and Danjulo Ishizaka and regularly gives recitals with the Argentinian pianist José Gallardo throughout Europe.

Linus Roth plays the A. Stradivari “Dancla” 1703, kindly loaned to him by the “L-Bank, Staatsbank of Baden-Württemberg, Germany”.

Composer(s)

Press

Everything that makes a collector happy. Artistically and technically speaking, this is a very nice production. The vinyl version sounds great. Especially the Stradivarius 'Dancla' on which Roth plays is convincing.
Music Emotion, 20-7-2020

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

"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

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

‘’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

" [...] 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