Leonidas Kavakos – Virtuoso (2016) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Leonidas Kavakos – Virtuoso (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:26:17 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | Booklet, Front Cover | © Decca
Recorded: May 2015, Megaron, Dmitri Mitropoulos Hall, Athens, Greece

Acclaimed Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos reunites with Italian pianist Enrico Pace, following their highly praised 2013 recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin. This album contains a more diverse representation of composers, including pieces by Tchaikovsky, de Falla and Dvorák in addition to Benjamin Britten and Sir Edward Elgar. Kavakos also delivers two solo works by Paganini.

Collections of encores are commonplace in the recording catalogs, but violinist Leonidas Kavakos comes up with something new here: a collection of showstoppers. With a couple of little Russian tunes from Stravinsky to ramp up, and Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of Dvorák’s Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101, No. 7, to wind things down, the rest is a nonstop cavalcade of extreme violin, with the various national traditions of the great virtuosos (Sarasate, Wieniawski) and composer showpieces (Richard Strauss and, unexpectedly, Benjamin Britten) providing variety. It all builds to Paganini’s Variations on God Save the King (track 14), which you can sample for a taste of the violin’s outer possibilities: it’s one of Paganini’s really over the top pieces and is for some reason less well-known than the others. Kavakos tosses off the whole thing with trademark nonchalance, and really this is a program that would have blown the minds of an audience a century ago and still amazes today. —AllMusic Review by James Manheim

Tracklist:

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)
1. Danse Russe 02:52
2. Chanson Russe 04:11

Pablo Martin De Sarasate (1844-1908)
3. Caprice Basque, Op.24 05:25
4. Romanza andaluza, Op. 22, No.1 05:04

Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909)
5. Recuerdos de la Alhambra 02:41

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
6. The Miller’s Dance 02:36

Niccolò Paganini (1792-1840)
7. Introduction And Variations On Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento 12:51

Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880)
8. Capriccio-Valse, Op.7 06:14

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
9. Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier 07:55

Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960)
10. Andante rubato, alla zingaresca 06:01

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
11. Reveille 05:14

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
12. La Capricieuse, Op. 17 04:05

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
13. Valse sentimentale, Op.51, No.6 03:00