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Second in the series of Beethoven violin sonatas by Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien

“Ferociously gifted young musicians” [The Times, May 2010] Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien return with the second in their series of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas, recorded live at Wigmore Hall in February 2010. Volume one in the cycle, released in March 2010, was received to resounding critical acclaim, with the FT stating “the partnership with Tiberghien sounds fresh and spontaneous - outstandingly so in the opening movement of the eighth sonata.” 

Now the second concert in the trilogy is being made available as a live recording, featuring the sonatas in F (“Spring” op.24), A (op.12 no.2) and G major (op.96). The recital itself received superlative reviews with performances deemed “brimful of life,” [Gramophone, Editor’s Choice] and BBC Music Magazine going on to say “This is very special. Alina Ibragimova...is a mature, intelligent, impassioned musician, technically and emotionally focused to a degree that would be exceptional in any violinist of her age...she has the kind of tone and expression that pins you to the back of your seat.”

It has been five years since the duo met on the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, where they immediately forged a dynamic rapport and the signs of an exciting new creative partnership began to emerge. They have gone on to collaborate and perform in leading concert halls around the world.  Now Wigmore Hall Live brings these fine, beautifully balanced recordings to audiences for the first time.

Angelika Kirchschlager and Roger Vignoles’s collection of Wolf and Strauss songs

“Since her full blooming on the operatic stage, Kirchschlager’s mezzo has grown enormously - and her performing character with it. She still knows how to hold a recital audience in the palm of her hand, but now there’s a newly expansive energy firing all she sings […..] Kirchschlager’s dark mezzo smouldered with sensuality,” so wrote the Times after Angelika Kirchschlager and Roger Vignoles’s February 2010 Wigmore Hall performance of the same collection of Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss songs.

Angelika Kirchschlager is regarded as one of the most distinguished mezzo-sopranos of her generation, and in particular is recognised internationally for her interpretations of Richard Strauss.  She gives regular solo recitals, balancing her operatic career with lieder performances. Eminent piano accompanist and leading authority on the song repertoire, Roger Vignoles, is her long-standing musical partner.

Now in this collection Kirchschlager and Vignoles collaborate to perform nine Strauss songs as well as Wolf’s lieder to texts by Eduard Mörike and Gottfried Keller. Wolf set 43 of Mörike’s poems to music during a period of intense creativity in which he developed a heady new musical language.  Kirchschlager delights in the opportunity to convey this with glorious colouring of phrases which are fittingly matched by the piano. “Certainly, the all-Wolf first half […] was a success on its own terms, with crystal clear diction and an idiomatic relish for the German texts that was a pleasure to hear in itself” (Opera Britannia). The recording provides encores of music from each composer, including Strauss’s triumphant ‘Nichts,’ a fitting end to a compelling programme.

Early 2011 also sees further key releases from the renowned live classical music label. Highlights include Handel’s “Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” from the Early Opera Company, the first in Christopher Maltman and Graham Johnson’s anticipated Schubert song cycle, and the third and final chapter in Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien’s celebrated Beethoven violin sonata series.