For the Record, Op. 355: Hyeyoon Park, Adrian Butterfield, Zehetmair Quartet, JACK Quartet, Carpe Diem String Quartet, Erin James

October 16, 2025, 5:26 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! Click on the highlighted links to obtain each album or learn more about the artists.

Violinist Hyeyoon Park. Photo by Halina Jasinska.

Silenced
Hyeyoon Park, violin
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Gergely Madaras, conducting

Winner of the 2009 ARD International Music Competition, South Korean violinist Hyeyoon Park presents a program that showcases two composers who were at odds with their respective political environments. Dimitri Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto was banned for its "formalist distortions" and premiered in 1955, only after Stalin’s death. Refusing to join the Nazi-aligned Kultuurkamer, Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans saw her work banned as well. Her Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra, composed in grief, is introspective and bitter in tone. A youthful academic exercise by Shostakovich – Variations Op. 3 – brings the album to a close. BELOW: trailer for the album.

Jean-Marie Leclair: Violin Concertos, Volume 1
Adrian Butterfield, violin
London Handel Players

When Jean-Marie Leclair met an untimely death on 23 October, 1764 in a still-unsolved murder in Paris, he left behind a stellar reputation as the founder of the French violin school, along with a collection of works for violin that includes four volumes of solo violin sonatas and two volumes of violin concertos. Here, period-instrument violinist Adrian Butterfield performs four of those concertos with the London Handel Players, a group that he co-founded in 2000. BELOW: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor, Op. 7 No. 5: I. Vivace.

Johannes Brahms: String Quartets, Op. 51
Zehetmair Quartet
Thomas Zehetmair, violin
Jakub Jakowicz, violin
Ruth Killius, viola
Christian Elliott, violoncello

Together for 30 years, the Zehetmair Quartett turns to Johannes Brahms’s first two string quartets, Op. 51, Nos. 1 and 2 – for its latest album. On paper, the two quartets appear to be the very first ones Johannes Brahms ever wrote. In reality however, the composer had actually come up with roughly 20 quartets prior to these two, or so he confided to a close friend. Brahms ended up torching all initial drafts, making Op. 51 his first two of a total three published quartets – all works, which challenge the previously established compositional practices in the genre. In his liner essay, Wolfgang Stähr notes that "Brahms blurs the boundaries between movements by continually developing already familiar material… He does not think in terms of traditional, defined themes; rather, he reveals musical aspects such as the dotted rhythm, which takes on a life of its own...." BELOW: Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 No. 1: II. Romanze. Poco adagio

Fantasy Vignettes
Erin James, violin
Todd Yaniw, piano

Violinist Erin James traces the evolution of the violin fantasy form through a period spanning more than 400 years in a series of four vignettes. Each vignette is paired with a vibrant costume of the multidisciplinary artist’s own design, embodying the music’s character and symbolism. Rooted in the improvisatory spirit of the "fantasia" — where whimsy and free-flowing form take precedence over structure — she uses “patchwork” as a guiding metaphor, reflecting both the shifting nature of the fantasy and her composite identity as a textile artist, composer, and baroque and modern violinist. The album includes a newly commissioned work by Alberta-based composer Mari Alice Conrad. It includes fantasias by Étienne Nau, Nicola Matteis Jr., Georg Philipp Telemann, Robert Schumann, Florence Price and Arnold Schoenberg, as well as a newly commissioned work by Mari Alice Conrad, as well as the eponymous "Fantasy Vignettes" by James herself. BELOW: From Fantasy Vignettes, Improvisations: VI.

String Quartets by Travis Laplante
JACK Quartet
Christopher Otto, violin
Austin Wulliman, violin
John Pickford Richards, viola
Jay Campbell, cello

Composer and saxophonist Travis Laplante says of the two quartets featured on this album: "I kept looking for ways to integrate just intonation into a more complete musical landscape that also works closely with lyrical melodies and triadic harmony. I wanted all these things to feel like the tunings can make the music even more vivid, not necessarily as the centerpiece, but as something to be in harmony with the other components." Founded in 2005, JACK Quartet operates as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of 20th and 21st century string quartet music. BELOW: JACK Quartet performs String Quartet I by Travis Laplante, Live @ Roulette in Brooklyn.

Echoes of Unity
Carpe Diem String Quartet
Sam Weiser, violin
Marisa Ishikawa, violin
Korine Fujiwara, viola
Ariana Nelson, cello
Reza Vali, composer

Echoes of Unity features three string quartet works from Iranian composer Reza Vali’s "Calligraphy" series, each rooted in the traditional modes (dastgâhs) of Persian classical music. Vali was born in Ghazvin, Iran, in 1952 and began his studies at the Conservatory of Music in Tehran. In 1972, he continued at the Academy of Music in Vienna in Austria, then later moved to the United States, earning a Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985. Since 1988, Vali has been a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. BELOW: Reza Vali - Châhârgâh (Calligraphy No. 19) for string quartet.

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. 355: Hyeyoon Park, Adrian Butterfield, Zehetmair Quartet, JACK Quartet, Carpe Diem String Quartet, Erin James

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