CD ECM Records Carolin Widmann - Mendelssohn / Schumann

2016

Carolin Widmann - vioara
Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - Concerto For Violin And Orchestra Op. 64
Robert Schumann - Violin Concerto Op.23

Violinist Carolin Widmann brings together the last major orchestral works of two German composers: Felix Mendelssohn Batholdy’s Violin Concerto op 64, celebrated from the outset as a masterpiece, and Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto WoO 23, which had to wait for so many years to find due recognition as one of the greatest compositions of the Romantic era. Widmann leads the widely-acclaimed Chamber Orchestra of Europe in these inspired performances, recorded at Baden Baden’s Festspielhaus. Her earlier ECM recording, in 2007, of the Schumann violin sonatas received the highest international praise, including a Gramophone Award nomination and each of her releases since then – with music from Schubert to Morton Feldman, Xenakis and Tüür – has emphasized her resourcefulness. In 2013 she was named Artist of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards.

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Violinist Carolin Widmann, who also directs the COE, takes an admirably brisk approach to both works, emphasizing the cantabile nature of the slow movement of the Mendelssohn without any hint of sentimentality […] an elegant and expansive reading.
Stephen Pritchard, Observer

Certainly, the Concerto finds Schumann staring into the abyss, but its slow movement, in particular, has an otherworldly atmosphere that is profoundly affecting. Carolin Widmann and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe give a deeply-felt account of it, and are no less expressive in the beautiful second subject of the opening movement.
Misha Donat BBC Music Magazine

Violinist Carolin Widmann brings her formidable talents to bear on her two favourite works from the violin repertoire […] The youthful impetuosity and lyricism of Mendelssohn’s concerto is dispatched with effortless artistry, with a thrilling rendition of its third movement. The darkness and abrasiveness of Schumann’s Violin concerto in D is conveyed with aching sensibility. The stasis of the slow movement flows seamlessly to a swirling finale. Readings of searing insight that come highly recommended.
Gavin Engelbrecht, Northern Echo