For the Record, Op. 234: Daniel Lozakovich; Ragazze Quartet's works by Garth Knox; Danish String Quartet

April 16, 2023, 1:33 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!

Violinist Daniel Lozakovich. Photo by Lyodoh Kaneko, courtesy Deutsche Grammophon.

Spirits
Daniel Lozakovich, violin
Stanislav Soloviev, piano

What a gorgeous sense of musicality and beautiful vibrato - Daniel Lozakovich, 22, just keeps getting better, if that is possible. I've been watching this violinist ever since his stunningly mature performance as a 12-year-old in the 2014 Menuhin Competition. Now a recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon, this is his third album, following None But the Lonely Heart(2019) and Beethoven Violin Concerto (2020). For Lozakovich's newest album, "I’ve chosen a selection of very accessible miniatures, which I associate with different violinists," he said. Specifically: Ivry Gitlis, Josef Hassid, David Oistrakh, Christian Ferras, Jascha Heifetz, Leonid Kogan and Fritz Kreisler. "All these musicians had such strong, soulful spirits that it’s impossible to forget their sound." BELOW: Inspired by Jascha Heifetz's performance: Gluck's Melodie from "Orfeo ed Euridice," arr. Kreisler.

Open Spaces - Music by Garth Knox
Garth Knox, composer
Ragazze Quartet
Rosa Arnold, violin
Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren, violin
Annemijn Bergkotte, viola
Rebecca Wise, cello

Together with ground-breaking composer and violist Garth Knox, the Ragazze Quartet release two world premiere recordings of Knox’s work and five other recent works by this insatiably curious and innovative composer. Garth’s composition "Four Into Twenty," written specifically for the Ragazze Quartet, captures the resilient spirit of the 1920s and 2020s, and bears traces of Celtic folk music. "When they asked me to write a piece for them, they had a very specific idea in mind: a piece which would make parallels between the 1920s and the decade which was about to begin, the 2020s," Knox said. "We discussed issues like the emancipation of women, the arrival of jazz in American music, and new artistic possibilities to manipulate time thanks to recorded sound and films." BELOW: From the album, "Lockdown Blues":

Prism V: Bach/Beethoven/Webern
Danish String Quartet
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen: violin; Frederik Øland: violin; Asbjørn Nørgaard: viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin: violoncello

This is the fifth and final album in the Danish String Quartet's Prism Series, a project has been almost eight years in the making. "The music on these albums is delightfully complex and open-ended," reads a statement from the quartet. "A late quartet by Beethoven is an incredibly intricate piece of art. One can spend a lifetime zooming in on every inch of the score and still find new details. Each bar, each moment is a maze of possible interpretational paths." This volume includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Anton Webern. BELOW: The DSQ plays Beethoven Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135, III Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo:

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our "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. 234: Daniel Lozakovich; Ragazze Quartet's works by Garth Knox; Danish String Quartet

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