For the Record, Op. 189: Cellist Matt Haimovitz; Sherban Lupu

February 24, 2022, 7:52 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!

Cellist Matt Haimovitz. Photo by Stephanie Mackinnon.

Primavera II: The Rabbits
Matt Haimovitz, cello

This album, which follows Primavera I: The Wind, features the next 13 of 81 new pieces written for cellist Matt Haimovitz, commissioned by The Primavera Project. The project asks composers to respond to Sandro Botticelli’s enigmatic painting, Primavera, and the prophetic large-scale triptych, Primavera 2020, by contemporary artist Charline von Heyl. Haimovitz recorded the album in May 2021 at von Heyl’s artist studio near downtown Marfa, Texas. Composers include David Balakrishnan, Nia Imani Franklin, Gordon Getty, Jennifer Jolley, Texu Kim, Sky Macklay, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Tomeka Reid, Juri Seo, Nina Shekhar, and Alex Weston. BELOW: Haimovitz’s new arrangement of Josquin de Prez’s Kyrie, for cello quartet:

Ysaÿe: Violin Discoveries
Sherban Lupu, violin
Henri Bonamy, piano
Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, Paul Mann conducting

This album is a heartfelt and affectionate tribute not just to the legendary Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaÿe, but to one of his most distinguished pupils, Joseph Gingold. Violinist Sherban Lupu studied with Gingold in the 1970s at Indiana University. Gingold, a beloved teacher and himself a distinguished violinist, studied with Ysaÿe in Belgium from 1927-30. Gingold told Lupu that “Ysaÿe often improvised and that his improvisations were far more interesting than the six sonatas he wrote." Lupu went looking for more music written by Ysaÿe, and at the Royal Conservatory of Liège he found a stack of Ysaÿe manuscripts "twelve feet long and three feet high." Those documents provided the source material for the pieces on this album. All receive their world premiere recordings, with the exception ofthe Petite fantaisie romantique (ca. 1901). BELOW: from the album - Ysaÿe's Elegie for Violin & Piano.

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our Thursday "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.

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For the Record, Op. 189: Cellist Matt Haimovitz; Sherban Lupu

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