Liza Ferschtman, Het Gelders Orkest, Kees Bakels – Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Op. 64 / String Octet, Op. 20 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352,8kHz]

Liza Ferschtman, Het Gelders Orkest, Kees Bakels – Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Op. 64 / String Octet, Op. 20 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 58:17 minutes | 2,98 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Records

Liza Ferschtman:….slowly, as my musical path kept unfolding, I got to the point where more and more I was able to let go of my preconceived notions about the Violin Concerto and more clearly start to see and hear my own voice in it. Over the years I got to know so much more music by Mendelssohn, from the inside out, and I felt the language become more fully my own. When working with Kees Bakels on it a couple of years ago things started to really fall into place, and last May when performing it with the Arnhem Philharmonic I really was all of a sudden struck by a distinct feeling that I can only describe as falling in love all over again with this magical piece. Certain details in the score seemed to appear completely new to me and the idea of approaching the work with the same collaborative energy as in chamber music made me experience it completely afresh. The combination of passion, grand emotions and at the same time lightness and elegance, such characteristic traits for Mendelssohn, fell completely into place. To feel this way about such a familiar piece was revelatory and I knew I wanted to share these discoveries, if you like, with many more people.

(more…)

Read more

Liza Ferschtman, Het Gelders Orkest, Kees Bakels – Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Op. 64 / String Octet, Op. 20 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Liza Ferschtman, Het Gelders Orkest, Kees Bakels – Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Op. 64 / String Octet, Op. 20 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 58:17 minutes | 1,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics

One of the leading Dutch violinists, Liza Ferschtman is especially known for her passionate performances, and here she pairs Mendelssohn’s famous masterpieces – the Violin Concerto and Octet for strings – in lively and highly communicative accounts.

(more…)

Read more

Liza Ferschtman, Dmitry Ferschtman – Kodaly, Ravel, Schulhoff – Duos for Violin & Violincello (2012) SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Liza Ferschtman, Dmitry Ferschtman – Kodaly, Ravel, Schulhoff – Duos for Violin & Violincello (2012)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 02:05:04 minutes | 4,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

The name of Zoltn Kodly will always be irrevocably bound up with that of fellow countryman and friend Bla Bartk, with whom he collected and investigated the sources of original Hungarian folk music. After studying German and Hungarian, he even devoted a thesis to the Hungarian folksong in 1906. Despite political troubles and despite being thwarted by the Hungarian regime with its Nazi sympathies, as a member of the opposition Kodly metamorphosed into the fundament of Hungarian cultural life. And in contrast to Bartk, he even managed to get works performed abroad, works such as Psalmus Hungaricus and parts of Hary Jans. Kodly had made it his object to create a tradition of true Hungarian artistic music on the basis of Hungarian folklore and tradition, as can be heard in his own works. He remained in Hungary even when his good friend Bartk was given political asylum in the United States. He received many honours and afterthe war he was an internationally famed composer and instructor. Kodly died in Budapest in 1967.

(more…)

Read more

Liza Ferschtman, Mario Venzago, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra – Dvorak: Violin Concerto; Gershwin: An American in Paris (2011) DSF DSD128

Liza Ferschtman, Mario Venzago, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra – Dvorak: Violin Concerto; Gershwin: An American in Paris (2011)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:44:28 minutes | 4,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover |  © Challenge Records

When Antonn Dvork first submitted a number of compositions in 1874 to qualify for a state stipendium, Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic, but also a member of the assessment committee, was pleasantly surprised. Dvorak was awarded the grant and could spend all his time on composing. In the next years he again applied for the grant, and it was again awarded. When he appliedin 1877, he even received a personal letter from Hanslick, advising the young composer to get in touch with Johannes Brahms, who had been a member of the committee for several years. Brahms held Dvor?k’s work in high regard and wanted to meet him.

They indeed met shortly afterwards and soon became good friends. Brahms brought Dvork in contact with other composers, publishers and famous musicians. One of them was the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, a good friend of Brahms for many years. Dvork was invited to the Joachim home in Berlin, where he was cordially received. The violinist even organised a home concert for the first performance of Dvork’s String Sextet and the Tenth String Quartet. The two men talked at great length, and Dvork spoke of the violin concerto which he had recently started to compose. Joachim, who had not long before played the premiere of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, responded with enthusiasm. Dvork spent the next few months labouring over the concerto and sent it to Joachim in the autumn of 1879.

(more…)

Read more

Liza Ferschtman – Biber, Bartok, Berio, Bach (2014) DSF DSD64

Liza Ferschtman – Biber, Bartok, Berio, Bach (2014)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:17:33 minutes | 3,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDMusic |  © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings

“This is an invitation: an invitation to join me in an adventure. It would normally take place in the concert hall, because the combination of pieces I’m presenting to you here is not a typical programme for a CD. It’s an overwhelming recital that demands a great deal not only from me as the musician, but also from you as the audience. When I play this recital in a concert setting, which I’ve done on many occasions, I always find it to be a battle, where I’m reaching for my own limits and for the audience’s limits. But this is a constructive battle. The battle is the pathway and at the end of it we’re in a better place. From the stage, I can take the audience by the hand as stunning beauty alternates with uncomfortable and what can even be almost ugly sounds.
These are exactly the pieces I wanted to record. This is a highly personal program. It’s a program of contradictions: the ostensible simplicity of Biber and Bach contrasting with the complexity of Bartók and Berio. It’s emotional but at the same time highly cerebral.

(more…)

Read more

Liza Ferschtman – J.S. Bach, Eugene Ysaye – Works for violin solo (2010) DSF DSD64

Liza Ferschtman – J.S. Bach, Eugene Ysaye – Works for violin solo (2010)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:05:10 minutes | 2,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDMusic |  © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings

There are two ages between the lives and work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Eugène Ysaÿe. Two ages of difference and of similarities.

Bach emerged as a phenomenal composer, a genius, in the first half of the 18th Century. He left an enormous repertoire. Ysaÿe was to be a famous violinist in the beginning of the 20th Century. He also composed, but produced not as much as his illustrious predecessor.

Ysaÿe, violinist to the backbone, took the Sonatas and Partitas of Bach as an inspiration for his Sonatas for Violinsolo (1924). Just like Bach he put the Sonata nr. 1 in the key of g minor. Also the dividing of the Sonata in four movements – alternating between slow and fast – he derived from Bach. This composer was, as becomes perfectly clear, his big example.

(more…)

Read more
%d bloggers like this: