Copyright 2000 www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber All rights
reserved.
Sarah Chang and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under
the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch: Richard Strauss' Violin Concerto and
Sonata in E flat
The American violonist Sarah Chang was born in Philadelphia
as the daughter of Korean parents. She started playing the violin at the age
of four. In 1999 she won the prestigious Avery Fischer Prize. Together with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Wolgang Sawallisch,
she has recorded two rarely played works by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). The Violin
Concerto in d minor op. 8 is one of Strauss' earliest published works. He
composed it when he was just 17. He completed it for yours later in 1882 and
dedicated it to his cousin, violonist Benno Walter. It was first heard - with
Richard Strauss at the piano - in Vienna on December 5, 1882. His Violin
Sonata in E flat op. 18 was completed in 1887 and it foreshadowed Strauss'
mature style in microcosm: virtuosity, lavish chromaticism, brilliantly
deployed motivistic fragments, the prominence of the six-four chord and the
choice of key. Sarah Chang, Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Bavarian orchestra
bring the romanticism and heroism in these two early works of Strauss to life.
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