In his early twenties Mikhail Simonyan has already achieved much attention as one of Russia’s most promising violinists.  From Novosibirsk in Russia he moved to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Music School under Victor Danchenko, a student of David Oistrakh.  So it is only fitting that Simonyan has recently released Prokofiev’s Sonatas for Violin and piano which were written for David Oistrakh.  Listen to exerpts from the cd or check out Mikhail Simonyan’s site for more info and audio of his music or watch the following documentary.

I took a chance and purchased a cd by Giora Schmidt a couple days ago.  I hadn’t heard of this violinist but I just love the cd!    It is Giora on violin with Rohan De Silva on piano with a selection of music including Vivaldi’s sonata in a major, Manuel De Falla Suite Populaire Espagnole, Philip Lasser’s Vocalise, Cesar Franck’s Sonata in A Major and Henryk Wienawski’s Polonaise Brillante3.   Looking for some info on Giora I see quites such as “Perlman in his Prime” and “one of the most commanding …

These Sonatas for Violin and piano are simply wonderful.  Both instruments share in the importance of the music, each trading leading roles in each piece.  Hahn and Zhu play beautifully, though perhaps not in a period purist style.  This is one of my favorite cds in my small but growing collection of violin music and it is a delight every time I turn it on.  Listen to excerpts after the break.

This two disk set of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin presents an wonderful interpretation of the music using a Baroque style instrument and gut strings.  John Holloway is a pioneer of the early music movement which seeks to reproduce early music in the manner it was originally intended and heard.  Holloway approaches Bach’s masterpiece from a perspective of the music that came before in contrast to many twentieth century violinists who approach these works with a perspective of what came after.
Check out the authentically Baroque Sonatas and Partitas …