Credits:

King's Singers

Description:

Baiba Sklide's eighth album on the Orfeo label is a collection of Bartók's works for violin and orchestra. For Bartók, the violin was an important instrument for the expression of folk elements, and numerous colorful works have been written for the violin. The Violin Concerto No. 2, considered Bartók's only violin concerto before the discovery of "No. 1" in 1956, is a vibrant piece of music with an exotic atmosphere that makes full use of pentatonic scales and twelve-tone scales. The two rhapsodies are even more unique in style, using a wealth of folk song material. The Rhapsody is in two movements, slow and fast, and is a difficult piece that incorporates a wide variety of techniques and pentatonic scales throughout. Sklide, who hails from Latvia, gave a very sympathetic performance of these three pieces. In the slow movement, he played with a sobbing tone, and in the fast movement, he played with a frenetic intensity. Norwegian conductor Ivin Audran, who backed Skryde, brought out a tenacious sound from the orchestra that complemented Skryde's playing. Naxos Japan