Mozart: The Complete Violin Concertos

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The New York Times praised Kremer's 2006 Mostly Mozart performance of the complete Mozart violin concertos with the Kremerata Baltica for his "ability to make a work, however familiar, entirely his own.” On this two-disc set of the concertos, recorded at the Salzburg Festival two days later, Kremer "captures the restlessness" of the pieces, says the New Statesman, while the orchestra "plays with tight ensemble and gleamingly honed tone." The Scotsman gives it a perfect five stars and exclaims: "This double album is truly sensational."

Description

Following the Grammy Award–winning Latvian violinist’s performance of the complete Mozart violin concertos at Lincoln Center’s 2006 Mostly Mozart Festival, the New York Times declared: “Gidon Kremer's great interpretive strength has always been his ability to make a work, however familiar, entirely his own, dissimilar in most important details from the way other violinists play it, yet fully within both the spirit and letter of the score.”

This new two-disc set, with historical liner notes by critic and musicologist Michael Steinberg, presents Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, his touring ensemble of young musicians from the Baltic States, in a performance of Mozart’s five violin concertos, recorded at the Salzburg Festival in Austria two days after his Lincoln Center shows. Said Times critic Allan Koznin of the New York event, “Mr. Kremer's phrasing, in both his solo lines and his direction of the orchestra, avoided the predictable or the metronomic: phrases ebbed and flowed, with sharp accenting and dynamic contrast that kept the music fresh and, in its best moments, surprising. In all five works Mr. Kremer played the concise, stylish cadenzas by Robert Levin, which adhered to the conventions of Mozart's time.”

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “You can't ever expect a performance by violinist Gidon Kremer to be staid, or even ordinary. His fertile and original mind, married to phenomenal technique and great musicianship, makes every concert in which he appears a musical adventure.” In his Nonesuch career, the 62 year-old Kremer has perhaps most famously explored the repertoire of Astor Piazzolla; in 2003, he released a specially commissioned piece, Russian Seasons, by Ukrainian composer Leonid Desyatnikov, pairing it on disc with an interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s 12-part The Seasons. On his 2001 After Mozart, Kremer contrasted Mozart’s own work with Mozart-inspired pieces by contemporary Eastern European composers Alexander Raskatov, Valentin Silvestrov, and Alfred Schnittke.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded live in concert at the Salzburg Festival, Haus für Mozart, Salzburg, August 11, 2006
Recording Producer: Helmut Mühle
Balance Engineer and Tape Editor: Johannes Müller
Assistant Engineer: Lutz Wildner
Mastering Engineer: Christoph Stickel, msm-studios GmbH, Munich

All cadenzas written by Robert D. Levin

Design by Barbara deWilde
Illustrations by Jeffrey Decoster
Photographs by Damil Kalogjera

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

512789

Number of Discs in Set
2discs
Album Status
Artist Name
Gidon Kremer
Kremerata Baltica
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Gidon Kremer, solo violin and artistic director

Kremerata Baltica:
Violin I: Sandis Steinbergs, Dzeraldas Bidva, section leaders; Rasa Vosyliute-Mickuniene, Ruta Lipinaityte, Dainius Peseckas, Jana Ozolina, Sanita Zarina
Violin II: Andrei Valigura, Marija Nemanyte, section leaders; Migle Serapinaite, Agne Doveikaite, Anar Ibrahimov
Viola: Ula Ulijona Zebriunaite, Daniil Grishin, section leaders; Vidas Vekerotas, Zita Zemovica
Cello: Marta Sudraba, Eriks Kirsfelds, section leaders; Peteris Cirksis, Giedre Dirvanauskaite
Double Bass: Danielis Rubinas, Indrek Sarrap
Oboe: Peteris Endzelis, Egils Upatnieks
Horn: Juan Leopoldo Font Pavia, Maria del Carmen Rubio Navarro
Flute (7-9): Polina Peskina, Rahel Leuenberger

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597988635BUN
Label
MP3
Price
11.00
UPC
075597988628
  • 512789

News & Reviews

  • Congratulations to violinist Gidon Kremer, who has been named the 2016 Praemium Imperiale Laureate in Music. The award is presented by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo to honor artists who have contributed significantly to the development of international arts and culture. The 2016 laureates in other fields are Cindy Sherman, Annette Messager, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and Martin Scorsese. Past music laureates include Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Leonard Bernstein. Each laureate receives 15 million yen ($146,000); a medal will be presented by Prince Hitachi in a ceremony held in Tokyo on October 18, 2016.

  • The Royal Conservatory's Koerner Hall in Toronto has announced its 2014–15 concert season, the organization's sixth anniversary season, which will feature performances from several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, and Natalie Merchant, making their Koerner Hall debuts, and a return visit from Gidon Kremer. Tickets are on sale now.

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  • About This Album

    Following the Grammy Award–winning Latvian violinist’s performance of the complete Mozart violin concertos at Lincoln Center’s 2006 Mostly Mozart Festival, the New York Times declared: “Gidon Kremer's great interpretive strength has always been his ability to make a work, however familiar, entirely his own, dissimilar in most important details from the way other violinists play it, yet fully within both the spirit and letter of the score.”

    This new two-disc set, with historical liner notes by critic and musicologist Michael Steinberg, presents Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, his touring ensemble of young musicians from the Baltic States, in a performance of Mozart’s five violin concertos, recorded at the Salzburg Festival in Austria two days after his Lincoln Center shows. Said Times critic Allan Koznin of the New York event, “Mr. Kremer's phrasing, in both his solo lines and his direction of the orchestra, avoided the predictable or the metronomic: phrases ebbed and flowed, with sharp accenting and dynamic contrast that kept the music fresh and, in its best moments, surprising. In all five works Mr. Kremer played the concise, stylish cadenzas by Robert Levin, which adhered to the conventions of Mozart's time.”

    According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “You can't ever expect a performance by violinist Gidon Kremer to be staid, or even ordinary. His fertile and original mind, married to phenomenal technique and great musicianship, makes every concert in which he appears a musical adventure.” In his Nonesuch career, the 62 year-old Kremer has perhaps most famously explored the repertoire of Astor Piazzolla; in 2003, he released a specially commissioned piece, Russian Seasons, by Ukrainian composer Leonid Desyatnikov, pairing it on disc with an interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s 12-part The Seasons. On his 2001 After Mozart, Kremer contrasted Mozart’s own work with Mozart-inspired pieces by contemporary Eastern European composers Alexander Raskatov, Valentin Silvestrov, and Alfred Schnittke.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Gidon Kremer, solo violin and artistic director

    Kremerata Baltica:
    Violin I: Sandis Steinbergs, Dzeraldas Bidva, section leaders; Rasa Vosyliute-Mickuniene, Ruta Lipinaityte, Dainius Peseckas, Jana Ozolina, Sanita Zarina
    Violin II: Andrei Valigura, Marija Nemanyte, section leaders; Migle Serapinaite, Agne Doveikaite, Anar Ibrahimov
    Viola: Ula Ulijona Zebriunaite, Daniil Grishin, section leaders; Vidas Vekerotas, Zita Zemovica
    Cello: Marta Sudraba, Eriks Kirsfelds, section leaders; Peteris Cirksis, Giedre Dirvanauskaite
    Double Bass: Danielis Rubinas, Indrek Sarrap
    Oboe: Peteris Endzelis, Egils Upatnieks
    Horn: Juan Leopoldo Font Pavia, Maria del Carmen Rubio Navarro
    Flute (7-9): Polina Peskina, Rahel Leuenberger

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recorded live in concert at the Salzburg Festival, Haus für Mozart, Salzburg, August 11, 2006
    Recording Producer: Helmut Mühle
    Balance Engineer and Tape Editor: Johannes Müller
    Assistant Engineer: Lutz Wildner
    Mastering Engineer: Christoph Stickel, msm-studios GmbH, Munich

    All cadenzas written by Robert D. Levin

    Design by Barbara deWilde
    Illustrations by Jeffrey Decoster
    Photographs by Damil Kalogjera

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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