On this CD we get to listen to Gil Shaham perform the following concertos:
Bella Bartok:
- Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz 112, with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stéphane Denève conducting.
Prokofiev:
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63, with The Knights, Eric Jacobsen
Performed by Gil Shaham (violin)
This recording features the second instalment in Gil Shaham’s acclaimed 1930’s Violin Concertos project. Volume 2 draws on two pillars of the violin concerto repertoire, Bartók and Prokofiev’s second violin concertos.
These works offer some of the two composers’ most lyrical and luminous music. As Claire Delamarche offers in her insightful booklet annotations ‘these two concertos bear the mark of an idealism that could only have emerged from a world in crisis, like flowers blossoming on a battlefield.’
These two concertos have played a role in Gil’s life for over 30 years; he first played the Prokofiev publicly with the Israel Sinfonietta on a tour of the USA when he was just 13 years old, learning the concerto from an edition of the score containing David Oistrakh’s fingerings.
Gil Shaham adds, ‘‘I have really cherished the conversations I have had discussing these scores with legendary violinists Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin who recounted conversations they had with the Prokofiev and Bartók respectively’’.
Here is a performance by Gil Shaham of the second concerto by Sergei Prokofiev:
