For the Record, Op. 296: Augustin Hadelich; Joshua Bell; The Knights and Anna Clyne; Dallas String Quartet; Rachel Lee Priday

August 23, 2024, 11:57 AM · 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 Augustin Hadelich. Photo by Suxiao Yang.

American Road Trip
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Orion Weiss, piano

(Read our full interview with Augustin Hadelich about this album here.) Violinist Augustin Hadelich's American Road Trip travels the musical highways and byways of his adoptive homeland, with pianist Orion Weiss. The duo perform works by a melting pot of American composers, writing in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and drawing on a diversity of idioms, influences and inspirations … from European Romanticism to revivalist hymns; from blues and jazz to bluegrass; from the banjo and ukelele to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, and from a little Mexican star to exquisite Japanese carvings. Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and John Adams take their place beside Amy Beach, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Eddie South, Howdy Forrester, Manuel M. Ponce and – flying the flag for today’s composers along with Adams – Daniel Bernard Roumain and Stephen Hartke. BELOW: Augustin Hadelich, Orion Weiss play Banjo and Fiddle by William Kroll.

Thomas de Hartmann Rediscovered
Joshua Bell, violin
Matt Haimovitz, cello
MDR-Rundfunkorchester,
Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

This album brings the violin and cello Concertos of Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956), an important compositional voice in his own time, back into the limelight, with the secondary aim of bringing musicians together during a time of war. The Violin Concerto was recorded in Warsaw with Joshua Bell as soloist and Dalia Stasevska conducting the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra, with musicians managing to temporarily leave their besieged country. The Cello Concerto is performed by cellist Matt Haimovitz and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. The album was supported by the Thomas de Hartmann Project, which aims to reintroduce the composer's music. BELOW: Joshua Bell and conductor Dalia Stasevska talk about recording Thomas de Hartmann's Violin Concerto.

Shorthand
Avi Avital, mandolin
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Anna Clyne, composer
The Knights, Colin Jacobsen conducting

New York-based ensemble, The Knights, presents a collection of works by British composer Anna Clyne, including its title-track, Shorthand, for cello and string orchestra recorded with Yo-Yo Ma; "Three Sisters" performed by its dedicatee mandolinist Avi Avital, and Clyne’s double violin concerto "Prince of Clouds," featuring violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto. BELOW: Cline's mandolin concerto, Three Sisters: One, performed by Avi Avital.

Romani: The Untold Story
Dallas String Quartet
London Symphony Orchestra

While visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, Ion Zanca, founder of Dallas String Quartet and composer behind, "Romani: The Untold Story,” discovered a cruel chapter of his own heritage. Amidst the barbed wire and walls of the museum, he stumbled upon a section dedicated to the Romani people, his ancestors. Although raised in Romania, this was the moment Zanca learned of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Policy during World War II declaring all Romani, "lives unworthy of living." Men, women and children were sent to concentration camps throughout the Holocaust including Auschwitz, Chelmno, Belzec, Dachau and more. An estimated 80 percent of the Romani population, about 1.5 million, were killed with the intent of genocide by the Germans from 1933-1945. Commonly referred to by the derogatory name "Gypsies," their story remains relatively unknown. In collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra, the quartet tells this story in five chapters, five songs. BELOW: Introducing "Romani, the Untold Story."

Fluid Dynamics
Rachel Lee Priday, violin
David Kaplan, piano

Partnering with oceanographer Georgy Manucharyan and six visionary composers, violinist Rachel Lee Priday presents a project that blends classical music with the visual poetry of fluid dynamics experiments. The album features world premiere recordings of works commissioned specifically for this project by Gabriella Smith, Paul Wiancko, Cristina Spinei, Timo Andres, Leilehua Lanzilotti and Christopher Cerrone. The genesis of the project traces back to an unexpected encounter in 2019, when Priday, newly appointed to the University of Washington’s School of Music, crossed paths with Georgy Manucharyan of the School of Oceanography, who studies what he describes as "the physics of the ocean – how currents move, and what causes their motion." Fascinated by Manucharyan’s research on ocean currents and fluid dynamics, Priday recognized a unique opportunity to synergize their disciplines. Manucharyan’s experiments, captured in visually captivating videos available to the public this fall, became the canvas upon which the composers crafted evocative musical responses. BELOW: "Entangled On A Rotating Planet: by Gabriella Smith:

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. 296: Augustin Hadelich; Joshua Bell; The Knights and Anna Clyne; Dallas String Quartet; Rachel Lee Priday

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