For the Record, Op. 328: Nicola Benedetti; Anne Akiko Meyers; Pacific Quartet Vienna

April 11, 2025, 5:36 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 Nicola Benedetti. Image courtesy Decca.

Beethoven Violin Concerto
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon conducting

Everyone - including orchestra and conductor - plays from memory in this recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Nicola Benedetti. "Many of us violinists grew up with such unhealthy reverence towards Beethoven, which soon turns into fear and an unnatural approach to his music," said Benedetti. "It can damage our ability to notice and embrace his humour, his wildness, and perhaps more importantly, the depth and power of his relationship to improvisation." Playing it from memory helped "approach this music with freshness of heart and mind." Aurora Orchestra conductor Nicholas Collon said that "since 2014, Aurora has pioneered the performance of major orchestral works from memory, but this is the first occasion on which we have undertaken the process for an instrumental concerto...Our recording sessions in Alexandra Palace Theatre came off the back of hugely joyful live performances, in which we felt we discovered a new sense of freedom." BELOW: Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: II. Larghetto

Blue Electra
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller conducting
Michael Daugherty, composer

This album of world premiere recordings of recent works by multiple Grammy award-winning composer Michael Daugherty is themed to the triumphs and tragedies of flight. Blue Electra - commissioned and performed by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who premiered the work in 2022 and is the featured soloist on the album – was inspired by the life and death of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Also included are Daugherty’s Last Dance at the Surf (2021) and To the New World (2019), the latter featuring soprano Elissa Johnston. Please see our interview with Anne Akiko Meyers about this album. BELOW: Blue Electra: IV. Last Flight (1937) - depicting Earhart's final flight before disappearing somewhere over the Pacific - the fall, the S.O.S., the silence.

Scenes Without Words
Pacific Quartet Vienna
Yuta Takase, violin
Simon Wiener, violin
Chin-Ting Huang, viola
Sarah Weilenmann, cello

Based in both Vienna and Zurich, the Pacific Quartet Vienna presents "Scenes Without Words," featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet in C Major, KV 465 "Dissonance Quartet"; Gaetano Donizetti's String Quartet No. 17 in D Major; and Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E Minor. BELOW: Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E Minor: IV. Scherzo fuga. Allegro assai mosso.

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. 328: Nicola Benedetti; Anne Akiko Meyers; Pacific Quartet Vienna

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