Holliger, Heinz-Violin Concerto / YsaA¿e, EugAne-Sonate op. 27, Nr. 3 Ballade

Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine Oct 2004

"A compelling account of Holliger's heart-felt response to violence and despair. Heinz Holliger is probably now as well-known for his own music as he is for playing the oboe works of others. His Violin Concerto, written for the 75th anniversary of the Suisse Romande Orchestra, takes the figures of Ysaÿe and the violinist-turned-painter Louis Soutter as its inspiration. Dedicated to and played by the remarkable Thomas Zehetmair, it comes across as a very powerful piece indeed." (Gramophone)


Recorded September and December 2002

Heinz Holliger's Violin Concerto, subtitled "Hommage à Louis Soutter", is a musical portrait of the innovative Swiss painter who began his artistic career as a violinist, studying with the great Eugène Ysaÿe . Arguing that his painterly activity was an extension of his playing, Holliger "translates" Soutter's agitated brushstrokes into pitches. Soutter's troubled relationship to Ysaÿe is one of the concerto's conceptual themes, as is the militant pacifism that found expression in his canvasses. In all, a fascinating, highly-detailed work, played with fiery intensity by Thomas Zehetmair, whose account of Ysaÿe's third sonata - astonishing in its own right - becomes here a highly effective 'foreword' to the Holliger composition, laying bare one of its inspirational sources.