For the Record, Op. 347: Leonidas Kavakos, Telegraph Quartet, Robert Kerr Ensemble

August 22, 2025, 8:02 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.

Pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Beethoven for Three, Vol. 4
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma announce the fourth album in their Beethoven for Three series, featuring Symphony No. 1 (Op. 21) and the "Ghost" (Op. 70, No. 1) and "Gassenhauer" (Op. 11) piano trios. By performing the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, the artists said they aim to give audiences a rare look at Beethoven's compositional language at its most intimate and raw — all while conveying the power and immediacy of his orchestral works. "Beethoven for Three" has its origins in the 2021 Tanglewood Music Festival, where Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in trio format. “We all feel that being able to participate in a symphony is such a wonderful thing to do,” Ma said. "One of the things that is really important to do today is to actually go back to the first principles of music, the simple interaction between friends who want to do something together." BELOW: Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21: II. Andante cantabile con moto.

Edge of the Storm
Telegraph Quartet
Eric Chin, violin
Joseph Maile, violin
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello

"Edge of the Storm" follows the Telegraph Quartet's 2023 album Divergent Paths as the second volume in its 20th-Century
Vantage Points series. The first volume featured the quartets of Ravel and Schoenberg, exploring the century's opening decade of unbridled creativity. This new installment examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grazyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, "Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably influenced their equally unique quartet masterworks of the period": Britten's exile and displacement, Weinberg's direct confrontation with genocide and loss, and Bacewicz's emergence from underground resistance into post-war renewal. BELOW: Mieczyslaw Weinberg's String Quartet No. 6 in E Minor, Op. 35: III. Allegro con fuoco - Attacca.

Songs Beyond the Mirror: Music from the Disney Songbook
Robert Kerr Ensemble
Robert Kerr, violin
Sacha Phelps, violin
Michelle Jones, viola
Yamilet Trujillo, cello
Armen Ksajikian, cello

This album features quartet arrangements by violinist Robert Kerr of iconic Disney melodies, using a blend classical and contemporary styles. Drawing on selections Disney's animated features and other movies, it includes music from The Mandalorian,"Pirates of The Caribbean, The Greatest Showman, Encanto, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, The Nightmare Before Christmas, UP and Ratatouille. "His string quartet arrangements of favorite Disney songs are incredibly complicated, as they challenge the finest classically trained musicians," said violinist Michelle Jones. "It is this complexity of music intertwined with the beautiful, recognizable melodies that make the listener want to hear them again and again. Until this album, no one has been able to hear these arrangements outside of private events where Kerr
has performed." BELOW: "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from Disney's 2021 animated musical film "Encanto," with music and lyrics written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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. 347: Leonidas Kavakos, Telegraph Quartet, Robert Kerr Ensemble

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