Various Composers - Violin Encores [Vengerov/Brown]A good selection of Violin & Piano pieces, some virtuosic, some lyrical, some long, some short, a good mix, and Vengerov has a certain way with the violin, an exuberance, maybe a showy style to some degree, he's quite a 'jester of the violin', i love these 'encore' albums, short pieces that fill a void, and it's so good to have a nice selection of different Composers with different ideas, it's like a musical buffet!, so many good things to choose from, last year i enjoyed another of these discs with Vengerov [28th June 2010], i like that one even more, a better selection of pieces.
Maxim Vengerov is Russian, lately he seems to have stepped out of the recording spotlight, maybe to concentrate on other things, he's now 37, still young for a superstar Violinist, he recorded this disc in 2004.
I guess i gravitate towards the shorter pieces on this disc, the longer pieces outstay their welcome to some degree, and i certainly enjoyed tracks 2-3 & 6-8, with track 2 the gorgeous Paganini Cantabile towering head and shoulders above everything else, Paganini certainly isn't a Composer that i shine to, i don't like his Violin Concertos, and his 24 Caprices are mere exercises to me, but this is a little gem tucked away in his oeuvre, it's short at under 4 minutes, it's a gorgeous tune, the piano is reduced to a true accompaniment, there's this gentle rolling of a hypnotic beat from the piano, but it's the violin that takes centre stage, Vengerov's violin yearns and serenades at the same time, there's a superb zenith of emotion reached fairly early on [1:17-1:26], with the penultimate high treble sweetly hitting the dizzying heights of ecstasy at [1:23], that really hits my soul, what a perfect moment, it even comes with a nice coda, which slows things down to a close [2:34+], and even a little cadenza at the end!, it's like a mini-Concerto!.
Here's Vengerov playing the Cantabile by Paganini on YouTube.
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