Naxos American
2006
Various Composers
John Adams: Violin Concerto; John Corigliano: Red Violin "Chaconne"
About This Album
This is an unusually sumptuous release for the Naxos label, with a fully designed sleeve bearing a sharp picture of young British soloist Chloë Hanslip placed over the usual Naxos template cover. The enhanced presentation is understandable, for the program is an unusually ambitious one -- it attempts to present an entirely fresh and crowd-pleasing group of American works for violin and orchestra, all composed in the twentieth century. And, as it turns out, the program is successful. Its outer works both make use of the chaconne principle, the repeating ground bass pattern that was one of the organizing devices of Baroque music. The Chaconne from The Red Violin by John Corigliano was abstracted by the composer from his score for that film in a novel way: he selected themes from the film and fit them to the ground bass. As such, the work presents a contrast between lush variety in its violin part (and other melodic parts) and its spare underpinning, way in the low background. The second movement of John Adams' Violin Concerto is also a chaconne, but of a more minimalist kind; Adams varies the pattern subtly, using bells and other percussion in what must be counted as one of his most alluring pieces.
Track List

John Corigliano The Red Violin, Chaconne For Violin & Orchestra
1.
George Enescu Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1, For Orchestra In A Major, Op. 11/1
2.
Franz Waxman Tristan Und Isolde Fantasie, For Piano, Violin & Orchestra
3.
John Adams Violin Concerto
4.
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