(2024) Pierre Wissmer: the violin concertos
Category(ies): Concerto Orchestra Rarities
Instrument(s): Violin
Main Composer: Pierre Wissmer
Orchestra: Sinfonia Varsovia
Conductor: Aleksandar Marković
CD set: 1
Catalog N°:
CD 3080
Release: 07.06.2024
EAN/UPC: 7619931308029
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VAT included for Switzerland & UE
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This album is now on repressing. Pre-order it at a special price now.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
This album has not been released yet.
Pre-order it at a special price now.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
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PIERRE WISSMER: THE VIOLIN CONCERTOS
PIERRE WISSMER - THE THREE VIOLIN CONCERTOS
As a composer who developed an original language, Pierre Wissmer travelled through the 20th century with total independence. He composed an abundant body of work covering all musical genres: nine symphonies, several concertos, ballets, music for radio programmes, chamber music and vocal pieces. The three violin concertos bear witness to the composer’s aesthetic evolution. From the modal anchoring of the first concerto, composed in 1942 in the wake of the first symphony and the first piano concerto, he moved on to a writing style that sometimes borrows from the twelve-tone language in his second concerto, composed in 1954. Finally, the tonal suspension of the third concerto (1987) reflects a spirit of great freedom characteristic of the composer’s last works. Despite their differences, the three violin concertos reveal a profound stylistic unity shaped by an extreme taste for formal construction, the art of counterpoint and the science of orchestration.
[read more in the booklet] [view other albums]
THE INSTRUMENT - THE CASPAR HAUSER
The violin described here, which was one of the few remaining unnamed violins by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù of Cremona, was recently given the enigmatic name Caspar Hauser. This choice reflects the instrument’s mysterious early life, making reference to the eponymous German youth who appeared in 1828 in Nuremberg as a poor young man who claimed to belong to a noble family. Recognition of the appropriate link with the instrument came in conversations between the luthier expert Michael Baumgartner and the private owner.
Very little is known about the history of this extraordinary violin from del Gesù’s early work. It has been kept in a private collection in Germany for more than eighty years and was only rarely used. In 2002, Charles Beare acquired a share in the violin and restored it to the highest standard. The violin exhibits a typical ‘del Gesù’ waist characteristic of the period – pronounced and small. The f-holes resemble the shapes of Stradivari but are executed more roughly; the scroll is large and boldly cut. The varnish is stunning; brilliantly glowing and of a light orange-brown colour on a lighter ground. The sound delivers both colour and power, as can be appreciated in the present recording. This is a hallmark of Giuseppe del Gesù’s instruments.
Michael A. Baumgartner, luthier expert
OLEG KASKIV
Oleg Kaskiv was born in 1978 in the small Ukrainian town of Kremenetz into a family of musicians. He began playing violin at the age of 7 under the guidance of his violinist parents and later entered the M. Lysenko National Academy of Music in Lviv. In 1996, Oleg won a scholarship to study in Switzerland at the famous “International Menuhin Music Academy”, which was founded by Lord Yehudi Menuhin in 1977. At the Academy, Oleg’s great mentor was Professor Alberto Lysy, who got his education directly from Lord Yehudi Menuhin and was his only pupil. Therefore, the tradition of the great romantic violin playing was passed on to Oleg. Today, Oleg Kaskiv is a soloist and main violin professor at the International Menuhin Academy. As a soloist, Oleg Kaskiv regularly performs with great success in his native country with the National Symphony of Ukraine, Odessa Philharmonic and Lviv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras and worldwide: with the Camerata Lysy, Camerata de Lausanne, Symphonisches Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden.
He is a laureate of many prestigious violin competitions such as Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Belgium); International Oistrakh Competition (Ukraine); International Kotorovych Violin Competition (Ukraine), International Spohr Competition (Germany); International Montreal Competition (Canada); International Premio Lipizer (Italy), International Niredgazi Violin Competition (Japan), International Dvarionas Violin Competition (Lithuania) and International Molinari Competition (Switzerland). He plays the “Caspar Hauser” violin by Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” (c. 1724) generously provided by a Swiss private sponsor.
SINFONIA VARSOVIA
Sinfonia Varsovia has been an ambassador of Polish musical culture since its inception. For over 40 years, the Orchestra has been a regular guest on foreign and domestic stages. Its foreign travels include thousands of meetings with conductors, composers, soloists, and finally – audiences. The ensemble continues the tradition of Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Polish Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1972, from which it emerged as a result of its enlargement. The impulse to expand the ensemble was provided in 1984 by the arrival of the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who soon took over as the first guest conductor at the invitation of directors Franciszek Wybrańczyk and Waldemar Dąbrowski. “Working with no other orchestra gave me as much satisfaction as my work, as soloist and conductor, with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra” – he said in interviews.
Over the years, Sinfonia Varsovia has played more than 4,000 concerts, performing in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Emmanuel Krivine, Witold Lutosławski, Lorin Maazel, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Krzysztof Penderecki (who in 1997 became the music director, and in June 2003 the artistic director of the ensemble), and alongside such soloists as Piotr Anderszewski, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer, Nikolai Lugansky, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Sinfonia Varsovia has made more than 300 records, including for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Sony, and Warner. The recorded repertoire includes works from the 18th century to the present day. A special place in the Orchestra’s concert program is occupied by the works of Polish composers; it has premiered numerous works by composers such as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Paweł Mykietyn and Krzysztof Penderecki. Sinfonia Varsovia has initiated a competition for the architectural design of a music center with the largest concert hall in Poland. The investment is being made with financial support of the capital city of Warsaw.
Janusz Marynowski has been the ensemble's director since 2004.
[sinfoniavarsovia.org] [view collection]
ALEKSANDAR MARKOVIĆ
Aleksandar Marković serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonia Varsovia for the 2023/24 season.
Born in Belgrade, and a graduate of Leopold Hager’s conducting class at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Aleksandar Marković also attended masterclasses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he was awarded a Diploma d’onore. He received a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation Berlin and won First Prize at the 7th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice, Poland.
He was Chief Conductor of the Tiroler Landestheater & Orchester in Innsbruck, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director of Opera North. At the start of the 2021/22 season, he became Chief Conductor of Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Aleksandar Marković made his US debut at Seattle Opera with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (2020) and conducted new productions of Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex/Apollon Musagète (2021) as well as Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (2022) at the Slovenian National Theatre.
His orchestral appearances include: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, DSO Berlin, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Dresden Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, National Orchestra of Belgium, Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Concertverein, and others.
(2024) Pierre Wissmer: the violin concertos - CD 3080
PIERRE WISSMER - THE THREE VIOLIN CONCERTOS
As a composer who developed an original language, Pierre Wissmer travelled through the 20th century with total independence. He composed an abundant body of work covering all musical genres: nine symphonies, several concertos, ballets, music for radio programmes, chamber music and vocal pieces. The three violin concertos bear witness to the composer’s aesthetic evolution. From the modal anchoring of the first concerto, composed in 1942 in the wake of the first symphony and the first piano concerto, he moved on to a writing style that sometimes borrows from the twelve-tone language in his second concerto, composed in 1954. Finally, the tonal suspension of the third concerto (1987) reflects a spirit of great freedom characteristic of the composer’s last works. Despite their differences, the three violin concertos reveal a profound stylistic unity shaped by an extreme taste for formal construction, the art of counterpoint and the science of orchestration.
[read more in the booklet] [view other albums]
THE INSTRUMENT - THE CASPAR HAUSER
The violin described here, which was one of the few remaining unnamed violins by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù of Cremona, was recently given the enigmatic name Caspar Hauser. This choice reflects the instrument’s mysterious early life, making reference to the eponymous German youth who appeared in 1828 in Nuremberg as a poor young man who claimed to belong to a noble family. Recognition of the appropriate link with the instrument came in conversations between the luthier expert Michael Baumgartner and the private owner.
Very little is known about the history of this extraordinary violin from del Gesù’s early work. It has been kept in a private collection in Germany for more than eighty years and was only rarely used. In 2002, Charles Beare acquired a share in the violin and restored it to the highest standard. The violin exhibits a typical ‘del Gesù’ waist characteristic of the period – pronounced and small. The f-holes resemble the shapes of Stradivari but are executed more roughly; the scroll is large and boldly cut. The varnish is stunning; brilliantly glowing and of a light orange-brown colour on a lighter ground. The sound delivers both colour and power, as can be appreciated in the present recording. This is a hallmark of Giuseppe del Gesù’s instruments.
Michael A. Baumgartner, luthier expert
OLEG KASKIV
Oleg Kaskiv was born in 1978 in the small Ukrainian town of Kremenetz into a family of musicians. He began playing violin at the age of 7 under the guidance of his violinist parents and later entered the M. Lysenko National Academy of Music in Lviv. In 1996, Oleg won a scholarship to study in Switzerland at the famous “International Menuhin Music Academy”, which was founded by Lord Yehudi Menuhin in 1977. At the Academy, Oleg’s great mentor was Professor Alberto Lysy, who got his education directly from Lord Yehudi Menuhin and was his only pupil. Therefore, the tradition of the great romantic violin playing was passed on to Oleg. Today, Oleg Kaskiv is a soloist and main violin professor at the International Menuhin Academy. As a soloist, Oleg Kaskiv regularly performs with great success in his native country with the National Symphony of Ukraine, Odessa Philharmonic and Lviv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras and worldwide: with the Camerata Lysy, Camerata de Lausanne, Symphonisches Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden.
He is a laureate of many prestigious violin competitions such as Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Belgium); International Oistrakh Competition (Ukraine); International Kotorovych Violin Competition (Ukraine), International Spohr Competition (Germany); International Montreal Competition (Canada); International Premio Lipizer (Italy), International Niredgazi Violin Competition (Japan), International Dvarionas Violin Competition (Lithuania) and International Molinari Competition (Switzerland). He plays the “Caspar Hauser” violin by Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” (c. 1724) generously provided by a Swiss private sponsor.
SINFONIA VARSOVIA
Sinfonia Varsovia has been an ambassador of Polish musical culture since its inception. For over 40 years, the Orchestra has been a regular guest on foreign and domestic stages. Its foreign travels include thousands of meetings with conductors, composers, soloists, and finally – audiences. The ensemble continues the tradition of Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Polish Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1972, from which it emerged as a result of its enlargement. The impulse to expand the ensemble was provided in 1984 by the arrival of the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who soon took over as the first guest conductor at the invitation of directors Franciszek Wybrańczyk and Waldemar Dąbrowski. “Working with no other orchestra gave me as much satisfaction as my work, as soloist and conductor, with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra” – he said in interviews.
Over the years, Sinfonia Varsovia has played more than 4,000 concerts, performing in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Emmanuel Krivine, Witold Lutosławski, Lorin Maazel, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Krzysztof Penderecki (who in 1997 became the music director, and in June 2003 the artistic director of the ensemble), and alongside such soloists as Piotr Anderszewski, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer, Nikolai Lugansky, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Sinfonia Varsovia has made more than 300 records, including for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Sony, and Warner. The recorded repertoire includes works from the 18th century to the present day. A special place in the Orchestra’s concert program is occupied by the works of Polish composers; it has premiered numerous works by composers such as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Paweł Mykietyn and Krzysztof Penderecki. Sinfonia Varsovia has initiated a competition for the architectural design of a music center with the largest concert hall in Poland. The investment is being made with financial support of the capital city of Warsaw.
Janusz Marynowski has been the ensemble's director since 2004.
[sinfoniavarsovia.org] [view collection]
ALEKSANDAR MARKOVIĆ
Aleksandar Marković serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonia Varsovia for the 2023/24 season.
Born in Belgrade, and a graduate of Leopold Hager’s conducting class at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Aleksandar Marković also attended masterclasses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he was awarded a Diploma d’onore. He received a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation Berlin and won First Prize at the 7th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice, Poland.
He was Chief Conductor of the Tiroler Landestheater & Orchester in Innsbruck, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director of Opera North. At the start of the 2021/22 season, he became Chief Conductor of Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Aleksandar Marković made his US debut at Seattle Opera with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (2020) and conducted new productions of Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex/Apollon Musagète (2021) as well as Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (2022) at the Slovenian National Theatre.
His orchestral appearances include: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, DSO Berlin, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Dresden Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, National Orchestra of Belgium, Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Concertverein, and others.
[aleksandar-markovic.com] [view other albums]
Return to the album | Read the booklet | Composer(s): Pierre Wissmer | Main Artist: Oleg Kaskiv
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